Simon McBurney Quotes

It was actually my older brother who wanted to start acting. He would point at the TV as a kid and tell my mom he wanted to do it, and he would act his favorite scenes from 'Home Alone.'

I was 11 and watching soap operas with my mom, and I thought it would be cool to be an actor. I thought soap operas was going to be the dream at the time - it's obviously now not the dream, but I think soap operas are really cool. Maybe I'll go back to that.

I can never forget my first film - it was instrumental in me becoming an actor.

I ended up an actor, did my first professional union gig in 1974, and I've been doing it ever since.

I was already devouring literature and I was the ripe old age of 15 when I decided to be an actor. I just thought plays were the most fantastic way of expressing life. I thought I'd discovered Shakespeare - 'hey, there's a new guy in town, don't know if anyone's read him.' I was just excited about the whole thing, from day one.

I didn't start out to be a movie star. I started out to be an actor.

I had been doing all my school plays, elementary school, middle school, and high school, and then summer. I'd wanted to act for a long time, and I thought I was going to go to college and do theater, go that route. But 'Superbad' kind of fell on my lap. I was very, very lucky for that.

I spent so long studying really hard to become a fine actor, but threw it all away because I got the adulation and the fame so easily.

The first drama thing I really got stuck into was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' I played Puck. That's when I said, 'I want to be an actor.'

I don't have a story about an epiphany in which I suddenly realised I wanted to be an actor. It was much more a case of the idea dawning on me gradually.

I had done some commercial work in junior high and stuff - my mother would bring me into the city, and we'd go on these crazy castings. Acting was something I always dreamed of doing... it was my passion when I was young.

I've always been a huge fan of Charles Lawton's performance in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' so somewhere along the line, I've always wanted to play that character.

When I decided to go to university I didn't know what I wanted to do. When I had an opportunity to take an elective I took Drama by chance, even though I'd never taken a Drama course or even been in a play in high school. Two years later I was majoring in Drama and I knew I wanted to be an actor.

My grandparents met each other in amateur theatre. My uncle is an actor.

I knew I wanted to act since I was 10, but I didn't actually start acting until I was in high school. My favorite play was 'Lilies of the Field.'

'Jab We Met' is the reason why I have become an actress.

Can't remember a time when I didn't want to be an actor... though it felt like something I couldn't do until I grew up. I mean, I knew kids could be actors - I recall seeing them on my dad's shoots and getting jealous.

Subliminally, I had always wanted to act. Although I had only performed in a couple of plays, I was serious about it and was subsequently trained by people like Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan.

Before acting offers came by, I dabbled in theatre under the aegis of the late thespian Dinesh Thakur. He was instrumental in honing my acting skills.

Everyone's amazed by the question that how did I succeed as an actor in the industry, which has Kamal Haasan? It's because I grew as an actor watching Kamal's acting.

I always wanted to be in Bollywood and the first step towards that was by participating in school plays. I would get awards for my acting and that motivated me to get into Bollywood.

When I was twelve, I heard about the National Theater School, and I told my parents, 'That's what I want to do.' And that was it.

A lot of actors know they want to be actors a little bit earlier on. I didn't even really start studying until I was about 22.

I realised that if I wanted to act, I needed to join theatre where I could improve my acting skills first and also show my talent.

I think most actors don't start out wanting to be either a lead or a character actor. You just really want to work, whatever manifestation that takes.