Matthew Perry Quotes

Performing was terrifying.

When I go in front of an audience, I'll admit I sometimes have a certain amount of fear in me, because maybe the people are not going to accept what I'm doing today. That's bad for any artist, especially if what you're doing is not in line with what's happening today.

I'd never experienced stress before I did stand-up, and it was a massive shock to my system, this thing of waking up, and the nerves of, 'You're on stage tonight.'

I was pleased when the picture was over I fit in all right and I spoke well enough as I said before, cause I was scared to death there for a minute. I mean, you're doing a scene with somebody like that or they're watching you or something, you'd better come up with something.

I love comedy and I did a few gigs here and there but it never really took off. It was too scary.

I think fear is one of the natural states of most actors, to be honest.

My greatest fear is speaking in public.

But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage.

I get nervous every time, for every single performance, before getting up on that stage.

Luckily, I'm not a stand-up comedian, so I don't get the fear of standing on stage in front of a dead audience: my humorous pieces have to make it past an editor before they get exposed to the public.

The first night you walk down to a comedy club, at least for me, I had my voice, and then I went on stage and I lost it.

When we first started 'The Big Bang Theory,' I would get incredibly nervous because it's such a big show and I was just out of graduate school. I'd come in and have this huge responsibility for the one line that everyone hopes will bring down the house.

I used to be afraid of looking at the audience.

Confronting a stadium audience, you can't see the whites of their eyes. It's just an amorphous mass of noise and, of course, you can't see the alleged billions watching at home either, so the degree to which you are intimidated is quite low.

Ninety percent of people's nightmares is standing in front of 1,000 people. Did you know that? And having to speak. You would have thought it would have been a madman tying you up and taking your eyes out.

I get nervous even guesting on other people's shows.

I nearly die of fear before I go on stage. Something wicked. I can't eat a thing the day before a gig.

I was probably more scared of my high school exams than I was of the Oscars. At the time you think it's everything and if you don't do well, your life's over. Opportunities are gone. So the more you do it, the less the fear is present.

But I also know in standup, there's nowhere to hide. You get on stage and you deliver, or you are eviscerated and you are thrown into a pile of bodies at the bottom of a mountain.

I could never do stand-up because it's that thing of having to get up on stage. And out of every 10 jokes you tell, nine of them have to get a really good response.

I'm scared of audiences.

I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.

I was never that comfortable in front of the camera, it always terrified me.

I am always scared before going on stage; this is the fear which makes me do well.

No, because I was always nervous about being onstage.