Mammootty Quotes

I am not one of those actors who believes he has to live the part he is playing. I can turn it on and off.

I don't bring my life into a character at all.

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

The way that actors talk about acting is generally quite punishing, and I think actors want to put forward the idea that they do all of this work because, you know, it's a post-De Niro world, when, largely, in fact, it's almost never true.

I think there's a lot of mythos about what's required in acting. The way that actors talk about acting is generally quite punishing, and I think actors want to put forward the idea that they do all of this work because, you know, it's a post-De Niro world, when, largely, in fact, it's almost never true.

In terms of likeability, that's something that I don't think about as an actor when I approach a role.

Actors who say they can dive inside a character are either schizophrenic or lying.

I am not of the vein of actors - and I will not pretend to be one - that takes my character home with me. I don't.

My job as a character actor is to make me fit the character, to serve the character. To present this human being who turns up in a piece of film or entertainment that's going, you know, exist as if it might exist after the film is finished and it existed before the film has started.

One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, 'Don't judge the character.'

I'd love to be one of those guys who could be like, 'Yeah, it's really exhausting,' but the truth is I'm not method. I don't take roles home.

A lot of acting, as I grew up wanting to do, is kind of like magic... I'm not comparing myself to him in the least bit, but if you knew what Daniel Day-Lewis was doing every step of the way and what he was eating, I don't think when he popped up as Lincoln we would quite believe it.

I think that's how any actor would make their performance convincing: by bringing an element of themselves into the character.

Because I came to acting quite late, I kind of think one of the few attributes that I do have is that I try to be honest with the character, with the writing. I'm not a tricksy actor; I'm not exactly a scenery-chewing kind of actor.

With acting, a lot of it has to come from that real, honest place.

What you're trying to do as an actor is somehow trick yourself into believing that these words have never been said, and so you've got to discover them for the first time.

None of the characters I've played are really like me. That would be boring. That wouldn't be acting.

For actors, you've gotta sometimes fill in your backstory.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role.

As an actor, you always want to find a piece of who you are in every role you take on.

When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'

I don't feel like I've ever kissed any of the people I have done for acting. That moment didn't exist for you; it existed for that person.

I definitely think it exercises an interesting muscle, auditioning for bad parts and trying to figure out how to make it real. I don't know what I'm talking about now.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.