Mads Mikkelsen Quotes

A stage actor has to be 10% aware of the audience as he's performing.

I feel like I'm more of a physical actor than a voice actor.

I'm sticking my tongue out in scenes to try to make that work in 3D. I'm thinking I'll try to get my tongue all the way out to the second row of the audience.

I like to use my hands. When I was in theatre in college, that was one of my biggest notes: 'You use your hands too much.'

The movements which I make I cannot possibly repress because, at the time, I am actually the idea I am interpreting, and naturally I picture my players and auditors as in accord with me. I know, of course, that my mannerisms have been widely discussed.

A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.

In theater, the primary tool for me was voice. On-screen, it's the eyes.

I know that one of my difficulties as an actor is to try to do too much, from all those years ago when my acting took place live on a stage. It was just my shiny face there, so you've gotta be super careful how much over-expressing you're doing with your eyes and nose and so on.

As an artist who performs on the stage, I try to express my feelings and convey my inner thoughts through the looks I give the audience. So, I tend to focus on making sure that my makeup highlights my eyes properly.

I use my hands a lot while acting.

When I watch an actress say a line, I watch how they deliver the lines with gestures.

You learn to control every aspect of your muscles, your face, your toes, your fingernails. And that is how you tell a story, through movement.

I am so used to being up on stage and talking to my fans that it's strange to be on stage and be someone else. I can't look at the audience during 'In the Heights' or I will start talking to them.

I know it might seem a little superficial, but every actor has their thing. Some people focus on the walk, but for me, it's all about the nails and the voice. Those are the two most important things.

Now, when I started my theater, the modus operandi was having the actors stare right into the audience.

As I told you, from the time I was fifteen, I thought the theater was too much involved with actors trying to make the audience love them, being over emotional.

Acting coaches in Hollywood were always telling me to use my hands and body more. But that was never me. I just breathe and sometimes it doesn't look as if I'm doing that.

When you perform, you can convey emotions differently, and your look can reflect each of those emotions.

Good actors, you always know what they're thinking. That's why they're good actors.

As actors, you do have to be aware of your audience. You can't act in a vacuum, even if that audience isn't exactly present with you.

Directors have a tendency to use their hands like orchestra conductors. They don't realize that the actor is looking at their faces, anyway.

There is this miraculous thing I heard Hugh Grant talking about - the thing about screen acting is that you can read people's thoughts. You are trying to register something inside and usually the eyes in cinema are where you will register that.

I found out was, by the rhythm of my chewing, how I chewed fast, slow or what have you, I could tell the audience what my character was thinking and feeling.

I play guys who never smile, and I never stop smiling.

I won't wear rings and jewelry on the stage because I don't want you looking at my hands. I want you hearing what I'm saying.