Lennie James Quotes

I'm obsessed with subtexts. I love that we often don't say what we feel. That gap between the two. I like it when actors reveal a lot without having to say it.

People don't always express their inner thoughts to one another; a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person really thinks or feels.

I enjoy playing someone who doesn't show up and say, 'This is what I am, and this is what I'm about,' but is someone who, four hours in, makes you go, 'Really? Is that what's going on?'

Often it is important to listen to what people aren't saying.

I enjoy playing characters where the silence is loud.

I think the human mind is fascinating. I love figuring out why people are doing what they do.

I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It's about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.

It made me alive to the fact that the most important thing sometimes is what isn't said - to prepare for moments of revelation that can be read entirely on actors' faces without dialogue.

In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.

It's a fine line. If you withhold too much, you come across as wooden - as I've often been described in some movies. Fair enough. I believe that the best performances are the ones that an audience has to search for.

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.

As much as movies are about the words that you're saying, they're also about what's not said, the silent moments.

Michael C. Hall is an incredibly detailed actor who can convey so much with just an eyebrow.

The greatest acting really is spoken without words, or at least I like to think that.

I don't want a performance to give me everything. You can look at Charlotte Rampling in '45 Years,' and you don't really know what she's thinking, but you know something interesting is happening.

If all that's going on in your scenes is what's going on in your scenes, think about it a long time.

You can't ever totally know what's inside of someone else, or see the kind of will someone like Magic has. You have to rely on your instincts to find people who hate losing and know how to win.

Good dialogue illuminates what people are not saying

Don't tell readers what to think. Let the action speak for itself.

Our nonverbals govern how other people think and feel about us.

The emoji still doesn't really speak to the complexity that actually - or the subtext that goes on between when people actually speak face-to-face.

If people don't want to listen to you, what makes you think they want to hear from your sweater?

I think people actually notice sometimes the content of what one is saying rather than the decibel level at which he says it. And a lot of times when people don't have a lot to say, they increase the volume.

When I write I like to just say everything that people think about but never express vocally. I just get deep into it; I'm a bit obsessive about music.

In a film, if you can capture what's going on underneath, you can begin to make a connection between the character and the people watching it.