Kevin Costner Quotes

I had to work with Ben Mendelsohn who's one of the great actors of our time. I had a lot of scenes with him and I was thrilled to be on the set with him; I just wanted to see how we were going to play it.

Actors shouldn't be scared. Don't get scared on film.

I have had some great co-actors to work with like Richa Chadha, Taapsee Pannu and Alia Bhatt. I really value these big co-stars because if they are in sync with you, it makes you a better actor.

I really feel like indie films are where I learn to be a better actor, especially because they always give you a bit more freedom to collaborate.

There was definitely a learning curve in terms of being on film, but being on a set was all good.

I'd love to perform with other actors and act with actors, true actors. I would like to be in a movie and have full room for acting.

You work with each individual actor as you perceive their needs to be. It's something that you've figured out in the weeks of pre-production.

I was always wanting to learn and be one of those actresses who can actually hold a conversation as opposed to standing there looking pretty.

I've done movies where I've had to cast actors and teach them to rap, and cast rappers and teach them to act.

Acting of some actors seems natural, because they have no talent.

Theater is a really exciting place to return to all the time because it's incredible training for an actor.

Your face needs to have character if you're an actor - otherwise you're just a face.

As an actor you really want to push yourself, and there's no better way than to do an intense drama.

[Reanu Reeves] is a very imaginative actor. He can have this wonderful balance of humor and fear. He's got these skills to be entertaining but also quite terrifying.

There's no such thing as a small part. There are just small actors.

I was trained to be an actor, not a star.

Having been an actor, I always want to leave room for the actors to find their comfort zone, so I don't like to be too rigid in how I plan my shots. It's different if you have weeks to rehearse and you can rehearse on your sets or in your locations and you can plan that out with your actors, but in modern independent filmmaking, you don't really have that time. You have to have a certain level of improvisation.

An actor can spew out thoughts, but they're not all gold.

While you're making the film and working with the actors, if you want to have a little room to breathe and experiment and play, it grows, and you want that to happen. It's not enough to just shoot the script. You've gotta come up with new inspiration, as you shoot it. There's gotta be room for that and time for that, so it grows.

I'm just looking to be in the best movies possible and do the best work possible and try to become a better actor and make better movies.

I did short film with Damian Lewis from Homeland, that was a really incredible experience. He's one of the best actors I've ever worked with. Even though that's a short film for Jaguar that's really, in essence, a commercial, it didn't feel like it, at all.

Actors are as good as they allow themselves to be, and to portray life, you have to have as broad an experience of it as you possibly can, so everything's worth it.

It's really easy to finish a movie and sort of immediately dive into the next one, because I love working with actors so much and being on set, my inclination is to try to get back to that as soon as possible. There's just never much of a gap.

My Mother's an actress, and she's always told me, "Boy, you're an actor." I would look forward to seeing if I'm any good. I want to be good at it, that's the only thing.

We tried to do a show once every three weeks to a month. We'd always do a new show. It was not successful. It did not become the Matt & Ben show, but it taught me what I like to do as an actor and what I like to do comedically.