Jurnee Smollett Quotes

I was a stage-struck kid.

The great thing about stage is that you have a live audience.

Although I have been performing in all sorts of ways and roles since childhood, 'GoT' is my first proper venture onto the screen.

In the sixth grade, I auditioned for a play called 'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.' I got the lead, and I was terrified, but I went and did it.

I grew up in the theater. I began my career at 3. That was the first time I stepped onto a provisional stage.

I've been performing on stage since I was six years old.

That's kind of fuse for the show - those first 10-15 seconds you're onstage. The curtain drops and you see the crowd for the first time and they see you for the first time. The response and the energy that's going on right there - to me, that sets the tone for the rest of the night.

I was never any good in the school theatrical productions. I always got a role like the March Hare.

I performed in public for the first time at three years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was on a big stage. There were probably three or four hundred people in the audience. We were doing this dance, this Kermit the Frog routine, all of us in our little green leotards.

I used to perform all the time but I haven't performed in New York in a very long time.

I did my first Broadway play, 'The Vertical Hour,' in 2006, with Julianne Moore, who's always been one of my favorite actresses. My scene was with her, so it was nerve-racking.

If I could live a parallel life, I would be a sitcom star; being in front of a live audience would be great.

There's really nothing like a live audience right there. When you're in a bad show, you can hear the creaks in the chairs.

My mother became a casting director, and she cast me in a soap opera called 'One Life to Live.' I was, like, 8 years old, playing a kid who had hurt himself on a skateboard. I had, like, three lines. I did the lines, and everybody in the studio applauded - I was immediately hooked after that. I was like, 'This is the life for me.'

I love making movies, but there's nothing like performing live.

I think the first table read I ever did, my hand was vibrating the whole time.

It's such a high-pressure form of live entertainment that I found, once I got out there, being on a movie set isn't that different from being on 'Monday Night RAW.' It's all stuff that I was prepared for.

I did my first play when I was 7.

I was Jenny in 'Jenny and the School for Cats' when I was five years old. That was my first big break. Then I got to play the Artful Dodger in 'Oliver Twist,' and that was the most fun I've ever had.

I like the adrenaline of live performance, whatever that is, appearing in front of an audience of any kind, whether it's one or a hundred or a thousand. It gives you a buzz of adrenaline, its exciting. The thing about that is that you want to make those nerves work for you in terms of an energy that's appropriate for the part and the performance, and not to distract the people who are watching so that they become nervous for you.

Having a live audience makes a world of difference to the acting. It keeps your timing sharp. When something doesn't work, the actor can sense the reaction from the audience and quickly move on.

It's a pain in the ass, show business. And the only time that I really enjoy it is when I'm in front of an audience and they're reacting to me.

Having to stand in front of an audience and have it be your job to make them laugh, you can't really look to anyone but yourself. It's what you wrote, what you said and how you said it, so it's kind of terrifying, but I liked it. When it goes well, it's the best feeling in the world. When it doesn't go well, it's the worst feeling, but once you get into the rhythm of it, I think it's really fun.

Yes, I faced camera for the first time for '18th Cross.' It was a great experience for me to be part of a film after working in some television serials.

I started in theatre, and that took me into film and television.