Joe Dante Quotes

I'm an actor. Whether I'm on stage, in front of a camera or a microphone, what I do is the same - although with videogames it requires a lot of imagination.

'End of Watch' was 98-percent written, and I work really hard to make it look like it's the first time I'm saying it.

Acting isn't really a creative profession. It's an interpretative one.

Acting is the ability to dream on cue.

Ever since I was younger, I would make table reads at home where I would give fake interviews.

Acting has always been something I've wanted to get into. I think the best models are actors; you're taking on a character. In that sense, I have been acting for a long time. It didn't seem like a crazy transition.

I've learned almost everything I know about acting from my dad.

It was really fun being in Tara's trailer, working on my lines. Tara is such an amazing actress. She's so good at what she does. I learned a lot from watching her.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

I didn't study acting.

Yeah, I do get to do some theater occasionally. I don't get to do it as much as I would like to.

Having done a lot of theater, I'm used to sustaining characters over long periods of time.

As an actor you have to have a strong vivid imagination as you're working and when the camera's rolling, but there's certainly a part of you that is aware of real life, that you're making a movie.

With any role, you're extending yourself and acting out things that never happened to you.

I was Aladdin, and then I was Captain Von Trapp from 'Sound Of Music' when I was 7 or 8, and then King Arthur. I was always the lead. I've always enjoyed being onstage, acting obnoxious, being someone that wasn't me, hiding behind a character.

I'd definitely like to widen my film range. I mean, I'd love to do some theater.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

My approach as an actor has always been the same, in that the greatest gift that you're ever going to have is your imagination because you're not going to have all life experiences. So you draw on things that are sort of close to it but you spend your time expanding on it or drawing something specific on whatever your situation is.

As for acting, I took drama lessons when I was in high school.

I like acting; I like being lost in the creative process.

In films you do a scene, you play around with it and unless you're doing a lot of reshooting, which no one has the luxury to do, you deal with the problem for a day and then you move on. On some level, it never allows you to go very deep into what performing is about.

For me, acting is play. It's just play and it's playing make believe really, really well.

I think theatre helped, only because it was acting experience. I got to work with a lot of directors.

My experiences and training back at drama school were very enlightening. I always believe in improving, be it kathak or my acting skills, and would want to experiment more when it comes to work.

I have played a few lay saints in my time.