Jovan Adepo Quotes

I knew that I wanted to be a film actress and I never watched TV. I was always too busy.

Growing up, I never imagined I would be an actor.

I'm interested in being a professional actress.

I never meant to be an actress.

I go to grad school at NYU, and I learn all these things about speech and voice and games. It's like camp for an actor, and I got a chance to immerse myself 12 to 14 hours a day in what I love.

I had no acting background in my family and no experience of theatre. I hadn't even been in a school play.

A lot of preparation was needed to play the character of Omar Sheikh in Omerta. I watched a lot of documentaries and hate speeches to cultivate anger in me.

I wanted to be an actor since I was just nine-years-old.

I come from theatre and there have been roles where my job was to stand in the corner, with a sword in my hands, for two hours. And I was happy doing that.

I knew that I wanted to be an actor; I just did not know when and where. I was open to experimenting.

There was a time in my life when I'd only sing. In my initial years, I didn't ever speak on stage, forget acting. Eventually, my confidence as a performing artiste grew.

When I was in college, it was on the recommendation of a friend of mine. He recommended that I take an acting class, and so I kind of did. I was very open to feedback and open to suggestions. I had a little bit of space in my schedule, and I guess, as the story goes, I went into an acting class, and I kind of got the bug for it.

Both 'Udaan' and 'Lootera' were largely rehearsed. With 'Trapped,' I left room for improvisation.

I believe that once you get into acting, you shouldn't limit yourself.

I'm a big fan of rehearsal. I'm famous for pulling the cast together, not so much to formally rehearse, but just to run the lines. My theory of acting is that it takes all your attention just to stay in the moment, and keep your attention on the other person, and get him to do what you want him to do.

The biggest challenge for me, as an actor, is to be informed, prepared and focused, at the same time. I had to just keep on working, prepping, reading and imagining, all the way through, but the biggest challenge is always to let go of all that and just be open to others. That's what we do, as actor. We play with each other and we stimulate each other, and we have to be prepared to be stimulated by the other. That's always my big challenge.

The only thing I know that makes me feel comfortable is to know as much as I can. Not like what the shots are going to be, but knowing enough about my character that I can forget those things. And more specifically, my lines. I have to know my lines. I have to know something really well, so I can forget it when we're doing it. And there is comfort in knowing, "Okay, there's not another stone that I could have overturned."

It's the same kind of preparation you do for something like this you do for anything. It doesn't matter if it's a drama or a comedy, the need to get the emotion and the character arc across is way harder in something like this so was more of a preparation.

I've been in front of the camera a million times as a musician, and even directed a few music videos. So, I know a lot about spacing, focus, blocking, etcetera. So, acting isn't totally new for me. Still, I find it fascinating, because you actually get to be another person.

When preparing for a role, a month is a luxury. Sometimes you've maybe got two weeks before you start on something. So you have to learn how to do it quickly. And the longer you have a role, that it lives in your imagination, the more you're going to be able to contribute when you get on set. Because it's really about your subconscious having time to sit with the part, so you're out doing something and then something occurs to you, you know?

The best thing for an actor to do is take your attention off of how you feel about it, and put it on striving to obtain a particular objective. The happy result is that it brings out all this unexpected stuff in yourself.

He [Wladimir Klitschko] likes silence when he fights because it gives him time and room to think. He doesn't like things to get chaotic or crazy.

I would love to be able to do a film. I would love to be able to focus on what excites me in watching actors.

For me as an actor, I use a lot of music. Music is a huge part of developing and getting into a certain mindset.

In the theater you rehearse for a minimum of five to six weeks. And then you get to play it. Which means you get to get better. That's the great thing about the theater.