Ron Livingston Quotes

One of my favorite actors is Paul Newman. He could tell so much with a single look, whereas some actors would need an entire five page monologue to give off the feeling of what he could say with just a single look.

There is this miraculous thing I heard Hugh Grant talking about - the thing about screen acting is that you can read people's thoughts. You are trying to register something inside and usually the eyes in cinema are where you will register that.

When actors are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.

I think you can really tell a good actor if you can put a camera on them and they can just talk and emote and react and you don't have to keep cutting away from them, because they are the language and the behavior. It's all a tour-de-force performance.

When I watch an actress say a line, I watch how they deliver the lines with gestures.

Emotional power is maybe the most valuable thing that an actor can have.

Nobody is more truthful when he's acting than De Niro.

I spend a lot of my time trying to draw the attention of actors to the minute and subtle details of human behavior, which was the sort of thing I was looking at when I was a neurologist.

For me really good acting is about subtext.

I play guys who never smile, and I never stop smiling.

You have to do real acting, not just do a voice.

I guess I'm just good at playing repressed individuals. I'm lucky because those are often the roles that catch people's eyes.

Emotions often must be portrayed from an inner feeling, of course, but I had a double advantage because I was learning to direct my as-yet expressionless feelings as well as gaining an ability to express emotion by a very conscious manipulation of my muscles.

It's a fine line. If you withhold too much, you come across as wooden - as I've often been described in some movies. Fair enough. I believe that the best performances are the ones that an audience has to search for.

Acting is very physical, even when it doesn't appear to be. It's about the arc of your body's language through a film.

Bad actors try to cry, and good actors try not to. Bad actors try to laugh, and good actors try not to.

I was blown away watching Michael Keaton act because he was such a maniacal, evil person on set. He takes on a totally different life, and it was so amazing to watch him work.

The skill of a gifted actor, their ability to interpret and develop a character and truly bring her or him to life, is one that I admire enormously.

Feeling and reacting has more impact than just trying to emote what your character's saying.

I think personal growth has much to do with acting ability.

The better I am at observing moments in life, the better I'll be at showing them in my acting.

Some actors get by with behaving, not acting. You've got to sell the effect. I act more in the 'Nightmare' movies because it's not like me. I'm acting, not reacting.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

When you perform, you can convey emotions differently, and your look can reflect each of those emotions.

I'm not one of these actors who can make a bad script good. Some actors, a script can be terrible, and they can bring something to it and make it really special. I can't.