Michael Gambon Quotes

From the time I was five years old, theater was all I knew. I did community theater; I went to theater school. It's like going to the gym as an actor: every single night, you have to recreate the illusion of the first time, so you really have to listen and connect and stay in the moment for an hour and a half - with no breaks.

With a theatre audience there's always the additional sense of a sustained challenge of which I'm acutely aware and for which you need to have the tools ready - your voice, physicality, brain.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

When you get to the point where you know the material so well and you know the character so well that you can just sort of play off of whoever your reader is - that's the best feeling at an audition.

In theater, the show must go on, so you train yourself to be able to nail it every single time because that's what the audience deserves, and that's the magic of live theater.

People prefer doing films. That is not the case with me. I don't do theatre because I have to but because it makes me feel alive. I enjoy the whole process of rehearsing, though repetition can make it tedious.

In theater, you've got to be aware of your whole body because it involves stamina. It involves two-and-a-half hours and a sustained release of energy, maybe for six months.

I would rather do a play because it's instantaneous. You go on the stage, and you know whether it's happening or not. Somebody asked me 'What is acting?' And I said, 'Acting is listening.' And if you ain't listening, nobody's listening.

When you're doing a play you get to go full speed ahead, all night, in front of an audience. It's a roller-coaster ride, responding to other actors, it feeds you.

I have, I think to do a play a year is very good if you can afford the time and the energy because it's difficult to do, it's really the actors medium of course, because you're really out there and nobody's yelling cut so, yeah I have.

On stage, you've got dialogue you've learned. You've got a paying audience. It couldn't be better, you know?

As an actor, you need to smile all the time, which is not easy.

Acting is about being in the moment and audiences are smart to know what is authentic and what is not.

People assume that acting is an easy job. When you actually do it, you know how hard that is.

I'm able to look the person acting across from me and respond to that. There are times when it becomes so lonely and painful, but I think I'm able to overcome them because I realize that the more fiercely you prepare for a role, the more the audience can feel it.

When I'm doing a play like 'Betrayal,' I have to be careful not to get stimulation overload.

In theater acting, you leave that night and what it was is what it was.

Ultimately, as an actor, it comes down to committing to the text in the script.

I talked to friends who are actors and who do Shakespeare loads, and they all said 'learn it so that your family wants to clobber you, they're so bored.' You can never relax, that's the problem, because when you do, a bit of Shakespeare comes up to bite your cheeky behind. It just does, if you're not really focused on it.

What I love about the theater is that you know who you're acting for: your audience. And the thing I find really hard in film is, you don't. The audience is invisible. And we're sitting there, hoping there's other people out there.

I think that acting involves doing your job so well that you are able to help the viewer identify with the character.

Theatre demands different muscles and different aspects of one's personality.

Dancing came easy for me. Acting came hard.

My schedule is completely different doing a play than it is doing a movie, and I actually think it's a much harder schedule because you've got to do it eight times a week and you've got to do it good eight times a week and with different kinds of audiences who are cold or drunk or tired, whatever it is.

I enjoy making films, but my heart is in the stage. Every night you have to be on. There's no second take.