Chiwetel Ejiofor Quotes

I like to disappear in the parts I play.

The biggest compliment I can ever get as an actor is to have someone say, 'We didn't recognize you.'

I'm always happier and a better actor when I can really lose myself in a character and become somebody else.

When you get a role, you completely lose yourself in it. That's one of the great things about acting - letting yourself go.

I once did a role which I couldn't rehearse in my street clothes, I had to have the character's costume on before I could rehearse it. I just couldn't think as the character unless I looked like him, or I knew that I looked like him.

Acting is a way to escape who you are for a short period of time. It doesn't happen all the time, but every now and then, the sensation of being 'other' is very profound. You get this moment where you are no longer yourself. You lose consciousness of the crew or the audience... it's a thrilling moment. And even quite spiritual.

You have to come in and be that character when you walk into the room. That's what one of my first acting teachers taught me. You know, don't go in there being Jennifer and then expect to flip and change, because they're not going to have that imagination.

All of the actors that have served to me as inspiration over the years have been those more associated with dramatic work who have, in turn, been able to embody their characters and lose themselves in those characters that they create.

I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.

It's easier to see in someone else, another actor, how they kind of disappear and then this other persona appears. A great actor is a thing of mystery.

I like to disappear into a role. I equate the success of it with a feeling of being chemically changed. That's the only way I can express it.

In terms of jumping into a character's skin, I try to immerse myself in the role as much as possible to bring me closer to them. All I do is what's required to achieve what I want to achieve.

Sometimes, as an actor, you're so deeply immersed in a part that you lose control of it. If you're really lucky, a few times in your life it'll take you somewhere you never expected to go. It really blows the top off your understanding of your craft.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.

I wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but there are times where a role will require you to live in their world.

I try to bring myself to every role. The last thing you want to seem like to other people is a talking head or an actor reading lines.

I never really absorbed myself in a role like some actors do.

My effort is to slip into any role that is offered to me. The minute you go into those costumes, those grand sets, and start prepping up for the role, you become the part or at least start feeling the part.

I look for roles that allow me to immerse in different worlds, immerse in worlds that are different from mine. Then, when you finish a film, you're a different person. I look for that. I look to be impacted, to be transformed, changed by my roles. That's why I do this.

In every movie, there's always some physical thing that triggers the character for me. In 'The Long Walk Home,' it was the girdle. Every time I'd put that girdle on, I'd feel my character wiggle to life.

I'm affected by the characters I play, and sometimes they're hard to live with.

I'm very much the type of actor that once I embody the character, I could stay in it from the beginning to the end.

As an actor, I think you should always disappear a little. I act in order to lose myself.

I feel like, when I play characters, I create a space in myself that feels like the character and that doesn't go away. Somehow, you carry that with you. You let it go, but a little piece of it remains.

What I love about acting is experiencing the absolute moments of - you know - of getting lost in the world you've created for yourself.