David Oyelowo Quotes

I always hated when the studios just kind of said that anybody can act. You look at people like Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda - and I'm just talking about the male actors - there aren't a lot who can act. It's a very special talent, and I wish it were recognized as a very special talent.

Listen, I like great actors. You can be a movie star without being a great actor - this has been proved several times - and I like my casts to have great actors. Acting is more important to me than being a star.

I consider those actors who amaze me are somehow less attractive to me than those actors who move me.

I really believe great actors, even with disease and age, can be great.

A lot of actors aren't particularly good directors. And they're not particularly good with other actors. That's kind of a fallacy.

Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary; I think he may be one of the best actors ever that we've worked with.

You can't be bad when you're working with a kid. They have the instincts that all great actors have.

When I see an emotion being enacted by a great actor, I always feel I can never do that.

I was blown away watching Michael Keaton act because he was such a maniacal, evil person on set. He takes on a totally different life, and it was so amazing to watch him work.

I call it 'new forms'. When you're starting out, they ask you to do four or five minute sets, but once you're a headliner, you do like 90 minutes. I try to think of different things to divvy up the show, like doing drawings, playing music... I gotta carry the show, that's the problem.

As an actor, I think most people have a tendency to want to demonstrate that they can act, they can emote.

I have absolutely no dance background at all. Nor a singing background. People, for some reason, think I can. And I don't know why that is. I sort intoned in Moulin Rouge, through facial hair and buck-teeth, but I don't really call it singing.

I have the greatest respect for Mr. Rishi Kapoor - he's simply amazing and also Sridevi. I personally think that is what acting IS about! If you have tapped into your talent, you should be trained enough to access it easily!

I think the secret of great acting is that you have to bring your imagination to the party. You have to have a great imagination and you have to bring it every day when you're working. Your imagination and your skills as an actor are what see you through, not what you're wearing or where you are.

I'm frequently surprised, sometimes bugged off, and sometimes happy, depending on the actor. It's a fact of life that just as often as not an actor can breathe life into a line as he can destroy it by misinterpretation, and I've been blessed frequently by having good actors.

I can stand at the back of the theater and watch an audience laugh, cry, and be moved by what I do. I can entertain people around the world. It's nice when you can give someone that gift.

I feel like doing theatre helps my on-camera work and my on-camera work kind of helps my theatre work. So I love to be able to bounce through the mediums.

I think acting is a mixture of instinct, imagination and inventiveness. All you can learn as an actor is basic technique.

I know of few actresses who have this incredible talent for communicating with a camera lens. She would try to seduce a camera as if it were a human being.

I truly have a great love for an audience, and I used to want to prove it to them by giving them blood.

I think audiences are a lot more intelligent than what we give them credit for and understand that an actor is playing a role and that doesn't mean he can't play different types of roles.

It turns out that good actors can make anything believable.

Ballet has really helped me in every acting role. You have to be very disciplined, you have to be able to control your nerves and perform under pressure, and all those things you have to use in acting when you're on film or going for an audition.

When I was younger, people used to say you only really prove yourself as an actor on stage. And I disagree with that. Some of the finest acting I've ever come across has been for film.

I think I have a pretty good ear. I mean, even just starting with, like, Austin Powers, where I did young Robert Wagner. People were, like, "How do you imitate Robert Wagner? What does he sound like? What does that even involve?".