Xavier Dolan Quotes

I never wanted to be a brand director. I didn't want that kind of stamp. I wanted to be more like Pacino or Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep or De Niro - you know, a chameleon as a storyteller - because I love all kinds of movies.

The worst acting is about imitation.

You've got to be honest with yourself aesthetically about who could you play. You want to artistically be true to that character.

Acting is the business of truth, so that we can see ourselves reflected back and learn.

I want to keep doing different things. I'd like to do a more personal, dramatic movie next, I think. But as long as it's about characters and good writing and good parts for actors, that's what's important.

With every character, I just bring something that I can make my own.

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.

What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real.

I look at scripts really for whether they can be moving or penetrate some kind of truth. You are constantly chasing that feeling as an actor when every part of a production comes together.

Acting has always been a way for me to express myself, and show all my vulnerabilities and flaws through my characters.

I need to make sure that I'm taking roles that I feel like I can communicate through.

The only people who have doubts about the sincerity of my music are people who come to it relatively late, off the back of having seen me in a film. Acting is about being other people, and music is about being myself.

I would have preferred to have been in a film where I could've been more authentic or more human, where the dialogue and my approach to the part could have been more real.

My job is to focus on bringing characters to life in an honest and personal way.

I want to play roles that I'm proud of, that I feel a certain integrity about, and I want to continue to be truthful in the work that I do.

The audience may not have felt it was right, and the author may have felt a little upset, but every part I've played I've twisted around in my mind until I've made it into something of my own. Looking back over it, I didn't deliberately sit down and plan like that, but it does read like it.

Each role demands the right actor. To play an artist, one must be an artist.

You know what, if you compromise and do stuff that's not becoming to you as an artist, that's your fault.

I think it's so important when you're playing a character that you can't judge the person you're playing at all. It's a judgment-free zone. You have to just go for it.

I've been offered starring roles in horrible movies, but I just didn't want to do it. I don't see why you would.

I don't like to objectify the people I play. I always try to go for the truth in any part.

I enjoy taking on complex, difficult characters and have always striven to capture the truth of those people, whether or not it's popular.

I love Michael Bay movies. I don't think I'd be selling out if I did one. I happen to like his movies. I think selling out is doing something you don't believe in, and you're doing it for a selfish purpose.

If you get too deep into the history, what often happens to a lot of us actors is that we become stilted. We forget that we're reading about something that happened a hundred years ago. If we don't put the human emotion that would naturally be in there, we end up being stilted instead of being human beings.

I don't believe you just create a character out of thin air, there's always something of yourself you bring.