Sarah Shahi Quotes

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

When you see something that is well-written, the actors can get behind it.

If you know exactly what your character knows, it's a drama.

I can speak to actors in their terms. Knowing I was an actor, they relax. You can have the best shot in the world - but, at the center of it, you still need a good performance.

In the work that I normally do, you have a whole script, a whole arc, that you play. And I do believe a good actor will play every bit of information they're given.

Some film actors want to sit back and look at every scene and all that crap. No, you're an actor - tell the story, and when it's told, there's another one to tell.

Every actor turns everything round to their character.

You try, as an actor, to wear a mask; you're serving a story.

As an actor, you can have your opinions, but our responsibility is telling the point of view of this one character.

Every time when I start preparing my character for a movie, I always try to make up and create my own background story for the role in order to fill it with life.

I think, as a writer, you see the big picture, and as an actor, you're thinking of all the minutiae, all the very small details.

When you play guest parts, you play your story in a very urgent kind of way.

You have more creative freedom with writing, in certain ways, because you can create everything that happens. But, as an actor you also have creative freedom because you don't so much focus on what has to move the story along, and only on how your character is reacting to situations.

In 'There Will Be Blood,' my character was someone who was an actor himself almost. He had a rehearsed quality about him. He was a performance artist in a way.

Working with a great director is like getting a master class in acting.

As an actor, one's role is very much to respond and react to the situation within the context of the character and his world.

I find it easier to play someone who is so far from me because you create someone - you build this person based on the story and the script, with the director.

I think people who are regarded as better actors must have better instincts because, at the end of the day, once they say 'action,' it's you who has to do it right. You can do all the research and preparation or none at all, but it's your instincts that tell you, 'No, I'll do it like this.'

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

I usually don't find myself reacting to my characters. I just create them ... And let the audience decide whether they're empathetic or scared or compelled to cheer me on.

Actors are really working with bodies, with their minds, and with their emotions. Feelings, basically. That's what movies are about, going from one feeling to another.

Somebody said something really smart: It's like you end up being the defense attorney for your role. Your job is to defend their point of view. You're fighting for what they want. You learn that in acting school - it's Acting 1A: 'What do you want? What's in the way?'

I like character-driven stuff. It doesn't matter, the size of the part.

I don't really ever think about whether or not I like the characters I'm playing. I'm more into the minutiae of their behaviour or what they're doing in a certain scene.

It's very, very important to me, no matter who the person is, to play that person with the utmost degree of truth that I'm able to bring. But playing a character like Jack Sparrow or Willy Wonka, that requires nothing but a degree of responsibility to the intent of the story - responsibility to the film-maker to deliver the goods.