Judi Dench Quotes

So you can't judge the character you're playing ever.

My school of thought with going into a character is that you have to understand where they come from, and you have to empathize with them.

When I'm playing a character like Jonathan in Ripley's Game I want to be in the moment when he's feeling pain; this very ordinary person who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances.

Keats himself spoke about how Shakespeare was capable of erasing himself completely from the characters he had created. As an actor, that is what I'm trying to do.

I think any role you need to play not so much transforms but I like to think of it as understanding the psychology of another character.

I always approach any character I do as being right.

When you're playing a character, I think it's always better not to judge that character.

Any decent actor knows you can't judge the character you're playing.

As an actor, you have to find reasons why your character made her decisions, and you have to empathise with her.

If I wasn't an actor, I never would have known who Debbie Gallagher was. I never would know how her feelings are or how her emotions are, or her family.

As an actor, it's very interesting to make the audience love you while you are doing horrendous things.

I never judge the characters I'm asked to play, and I don't need to feel that they are a part of me.

One of the many joys of being an actor is to understand the human psychology.

It was new to play a woman who plays with her sincerity, and who is a seductress, a manipulator and a liar! I was able to compose a character as opposed to being very natural, so it was very interesting for me. It was great to realise that I could be this kind of real woman!

I love playing confused, broken characters.

I think you've really got to cling to what makes sense to you. Obviously, I'm not a serial murderer in my real life, so that's where you have to delve into and do all the research. But, you have to find something likable in the character.

You obviously don't have to be a murderer to play a murderer or you don't have to be a dictator to play a dictator. So, you're an actor. You come up with whatever you come up with to play that part.

It's so funny, you go to acting school thinking you're going to learn how to be other people, but really it taught me how to be myself. Because it's in understanding yourself deeply that you can lend yourself to another person's circumstances and another person's experience.

When I do a character, I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had.

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

That's why I enjoy acting: getting in the mind of someone else.

You have to like the characters you play.

I'm the guy who plays human beings. I understand why the characters are doing what they're doing. When you play a villain, you don't play a villain: you play a human being doing what he thinks he needs to do to get what he wants.

Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.

The first thing I do when I read a part is see if I can identify emotionally with a character. If I make that connection, everything else is just working on knowing their life circumstances and manifesting those through practice and research.