Eddie Murphy Quotes

I've always been a people-watcher, and as an actor, later, I just mined all those little details.

I see tendencies, I see body language.

I love doing impressions and I love doing accents.

When you perform, you can convey emotions differently, and your look can reflect each of those emotions.

It was interesting doing impressions as somebody else doing impressions. Normally, I'll do a voice, and it's me doing the voice. To have to be Robin Williams doing the voice was an interesting sort of study in getting into somebody's head.

I could do John Wayne, Jack Benny, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and entertain my friends. But I never seriously considered it as a career choice.

The thing that got me closest to doing Kermit was remembering what Jim did when he was doing Kermit. When he would do Kermit, there were certain faces that he made. There was a certain way he stood, a certain kind of body language that he had.

What makes characters so interesting when you're an actor or a dancer is to watch and observe how people walk and move and speak. Are they cat-like? Are they walrus-like? Why does that person bother me, and why do I think they are the way they are?

A really good impressionist, even if they don't look at all like the person they're impersonating, it's a weird thing where they start to look like that person. It's kind of odd.

I use my hands a lot while acting.

There are times when I consciously give the character something physical - a walk, the way he sits, how he talks, or his lack of physicality, which is like a physicality.

I'm a world-class people watcher. I like to watch people's body movements, their expressions. It says so much about them.

An actress spends a lifetime observing people. You build up a mental library. No, not a library. Make that a repository.

I'll see a photograph of a character and try to copy them on to my face. I think I'm really observant, and thinking how a person is put together, seeing them on the street and noticing subtle things about them that make them who they are.

I know acting is not impersonating, but I'm good with impressions. I can do impressions of people I know, and people I've been, and roles that I've acted before.

I just love to impersonate people, and I impersonate people because I find them fascinating.

I always play these rodent type characters - skittish and hyper like a chipmunk. It's a complete act though. I'm a very normal person.

There's something about studying body language and non-spoken emotion - I know the innate response. But to really study it like a science would be fun.

I think the main thing was that the character couldn't speak in regular language, so he had to be mimed.

Modeling is really silent acting.

In a costume, you need very exaggerated body language - as you say, sort of mime-type skills.

I'm not a reality TV star. I pride myself on witnessing, watching people, studying people, and being able to recreate that and create a human being.

I'm pretty much of a physical actor.

It's interesting - a lot of good actors are good mimes. But I'm terrible. If I tried to do an impression, nobody would know what I was doing.

When you are in a live-action movie, you have so many more options to express yourself. You can use your body and your gestures and facial expressions. When you are doing an animated movie, you really only have your voice.