Olivia Colman Quotes

There's a specificity of language that's required in Shakespeare that most drama students in England deal with - a specificity of language that is somehow not as clear in a lot of American schools.

It was easier to do Shakespeare than a lot of modern movie scripts that are so poorly written.

Obviously we had to study Shakespeare at school, but to be honest, I was not a fan. I found the language very difficult, and I didn't enjoy watching it or studying it. I auditioned five times for the Royal Shakespeare Company early on in my career, and I didn't even get past the first rounds.

It's an intuitive exercise to do a Shakespeare play and to go through a Shakespeare play.

Doing Shakespeare certainly makes you a better actor.

I don't do Shakespeare. I don't talk in that kind of broken English.

I'm constantly intimidated by Shakespeare's work. Trying to decipher what he's saying and holding on to that thought - not just as an actor, but as a human being - is a rigour.

The way Shakespeare wrote Fallstaff is with a heightened language and everything.

I was encouraged to read aloud in class and vocalize.

People think that direct address was invented by Ferris Bueller, but in fact, it wasn't. It was invented by Shakespeare.

I took speech training. I took a few voice lessons in college.

Seeing Shakespeare in the Park, for me, it's just this side of feeling like you've witnessed some kind of magic. It's this spell that you're under, to be part of that!

You can't do Shakespeare with a Southern accent, honey.

I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare.

Shakespeare language is fantastic, and to be honest, you don't need to do anything to Shakespeare.

Actually, the language in Shakespeare is wonderfully musical. You need to hear the music to connect with the words.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue.

I like that kind of stuff. I like doing speeches. I've been lucky because I've had a lot of characters, over the years, who will have three or four page speeches.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounce it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.

In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses.

Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending - sit down.

The legal profession, politics and acting are very closely tied: the whole point is to have an idea and get it across to a listener, whether it is one person or five thousand in a hall.

Speech is my hammer bang the world into shape now let it fall - HUNGH

When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, 'Action, Action, Action.'

Stand-up is not something that you're good at right away. You have to do it a ton. But, I think I got to shave a year off because I didn't have to get over stage fright.