Steve Buscemi Quotes

When you start out on a project as an actor, you know, you approach the character from the standpoint of maybe writing a list - even if it's a mental list that you make - of the adjectives that the character has or that character possesses.

I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role.

I don't bring my life into a character at all.

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

I don't chart out the life histories of the people I play. If I did, I'd be in trouble. I work with my heart and my head, and naturally emotions follow.

One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, 'Don't judge the character.'

When I act, I try to understand the character, why she's behaving like that.

As an actor, you have to find reasons why your character made her decisions, and you have to empathise with her.

There are so many ways to approach a character. You have to figure out the similarities between you and the character, build on them, and at the same time, blur the dissimilarities. Since you do it day in and day out, it becomes a process and a part of you.

I never judge the characters I'm asked to play, and I don't need to feel that they are a part of me.

With every character that I've ever played, I felt like I just understood the way that she thought and how she was.

I know that my way of tackling a character is very different.

As an actor, I think it's always important to separate yourself from your characters because, when you include yourself in a character, you're taking a liberty that you don't really have unless you're life is that incredibly close to the character.

I wouldn't say I'm a method actor. I do research when I feel I don't have enough experience for the part I'm playing.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.

As an actor, you're sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character.

Actors usually respond to minor aspects of their own character or things that even feel disparate from themselves.

There are always practical decisions to be made about any character you're playing.

In every character that you play... I mean, I don't think I'll ever be the type of actor or performer per se who transforms, you know? Like Claire Danes transforms into Temple Grandin - I'm not gonna do that.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

Unless it's a specific accent, or something about physicality you have to change, I am generally not such a conscious actor.

I try to pick characters that I find interesting and complex and that I feel I can bring something of myself to.

I don't categorize characters into one syllable. These are fully-rounded characters that I don't judge; I just play them.

I do build my own backstory as an actor. It's important to know where your characters have come from in order to know where they're going - in order to exist in that state of being.