Frances McDormand Quotes

That's, to me, the ultimate goal - to disappear inside another character and bring them so fully to life that I've convinced other human beings that it's a real person.

You want to try and bring a character to life in an honest a way as you possibly can. It doesn't matter whether he's a doctor, an actor, a car salesman or a captain of a starship. If you can bring truth and honesty to that character, then your audience will believe you.

That's precisely what we do as actors: try to convince the audience we are somebody else. And if you can do that, you are really doing something.

I'm lucky that people believe me when I'm in character.

If I have anything to offer as an actor, it's only my ability to make the person real.

Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

It's very important to be able to distinguish the actors from the characters they play.

When I play a gay character, I want to be as believable as possible. And when I'm playing a straight character, I also want to be as believable as possible. So the less that people know about my personal life, the more believable I can be as a character.

Actors act... Their job is to become this character. And I have, in fact, seen Sam Heughan become Jamie and Caitriona Balfe become Claire right before my eyes. It was an astonishing transformation.

I started to view theatre like a spiritual experience. You're on stage saying somebody else's lines, but you're saying them with full commitment of being that person.

When you're portraying someone, whether they're real or fictional, you have to find some kind of hook where it feels real to you because if you don't believe it yourself, then no one else is going to believe it.

When I'm doing a role the one thing I ask is 'Is this believable? am I being truthful?'

I think that acting involves doing your job so well that you are able to help the viewer identify with the character.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

I've got to tell you, I've played real characters before and people always bring up this word 'impersonation,' and I'm never entirely sure what it means.

If you can walk into a set and feel the reality of it, then immediately you're not having to work to bring yourself into the character.

My job always is to play a person, not to judge her.

Acting has to do with saying it as if you meant it, so for me the words are always very important. It's very important for me to know my lines, know them so well that I don't have to think about them.

As actors, we get to hide. You can change your hair and your accent, and it's not you. You have tricks, these masks.

As an actor, you try to put a little bit of yourself in everything you do.

Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment.

To be unrecognizable in movies is the biggest compliment that anybody can give you.

The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.

I always enjoy impersonating my characters in the first-person singular.

I don't believe you can get into somebody's character but more that somebody comes in you. You just use yourself. In everything I play, I feel like it is me. I just say different things on different times and look different.