Karen Allen Quotes

I want to keep an element of myself in every character I play. And maybe that's connected to finding something that you like in every character. Maybe they coincide.

It's easy to play a character, but playing yourself is difficult.

I felt more comfortable playing other people than being myself, when I was a kid. And then, the tables turned. Through my performances, I've become more comfortable with who I am, and then I just bring more of myself into the people that I play.

I think there are parts of myself in every character I play.

I do this acting thing mostly for myself. I like to make a connection and communicate with the audience to make myself feel less lonely. I also do it to develop my own character, so sometimes I do it to just be away in a certain area that I've never been to. But mostly, the story has to do something for me.

I think acting can bring you closer to yourself and help you understand other people.

Like, that was weird in 'Hamlet 2,' because I played myself there, fully myself, but then I realized, 'Oh, I'm not playing myself. I'm some weird version of myself.' So as an actress, you're always playing something, I don't even know who I am, how could I become me? I don't know what that is.

I couldn't be 'Johnny' in front of a camera in acting jobs and behind the camera I like to be 'Michael.' With directing, you can't do it by halves. There's a lot of reflection, and I have found that I, as 'Michael,' thrive on it. It's lovely coming home and feeling that stuff from a day's work as myself.

I wake up and play a different person every day. Playing all these different characters and trying to figure out who your true authentic self is at the core of that as you're playing all these different roles, and man, that self-awareness starts to come into effect. And you start to see who you really are.

I've done teaching and things like that because if you're acting, you're becoming other human beings, and you need to have time to find who you are as well.

I try to find what is closest to me in the character. There's many sides to personality, but it's a matter of, do you entertain those specific areas of your personality, or are you afraid to entertain them?

Usually I like playing other people. I like finding myself through other characters. But when you do cabaret, you are yourself. I think it's the most fun, and I tell you, if somebody had told me that, I would have done it fifteen years earlier than I did.

There's something safe about playing a character, but then it's like, 'Who am I underneath it all?'

The thing is, about a character, it's not about being right, it's about the truth. The truth comes from within, so you have to search as an artist for the truth.

The art of transformation is a very important thing to me, and I always believe I can say something more truthful through characters that are further away from me.

At first, I didn't realize it was gonna be a character. I just thought I was gonna be doing me.

I'm now learning how to distinguish when I'm acting and when I'm not acting - offstage as well as onstage.

You play to different parts of yourself when you take on various roles. Like, you are your confident self when you're playing this person, and you're your sad self when playing another person - but it's all a part of you somewhere.

The real road, to me, was within the actor, within myself, within my own personality. How much Jeffrey can I find, and how much of Jeffrey could I access? What parts of Jeffrey have I never used for Hank or for George or Oscar? - and that was a delight.

Acting is what I do with who I am.

I'm an actor, and the thing about an actor is that if you're fortunate enough and you have the ability, is you can access multiple parts of yourself. I want to grow and see how far can I stretch.

In real life I'm shy sometimes, sometimes I'm romantic, sometimes I can be funny, so it's great to be doing different kinds of parts that expose your personality.

Everything evolves naturally in life. It's not limited to beauty or music. The more experience you get, the more you find out about yourself. Everything becomes more and more an expression of the real you. I can play different characters. Sometimes I feel tomboy or glam or playful. When you perform, you can convey emotions differently, and your look can reflect each of those emotions.

Everyone always comes to one point in their life as an artist where you can either let your heart guide you or your ego.

So I always think it's important to allow someone to reveal themself. If you notice something about someone that you like, it could really tell you something about who they are during a time of trial. The truth will come out.