Paul Giamatti Quotes

Rigidity is the enemy of acting. And I think that people who stay up all night focusing on every beat they're going to do the next day always end up getting screwed.

I'm sure favorite moments in movies are things that just happen accidentally when the camera is there. You have to do all the homework to get yourself into the period, the costumes, the style, the voice, the hairdo or whatever it is, but once you've done all that work, you have to kind of let it go and just be there. If you're always thinking about it, it just looks a bit over-thought.

I don't like a lot of rehearsing.

If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

If I am not confident that I can portray the character perfectly on screen, I won't even try.

I don't like rehearsing.

To try and sustain a performance is always a challenge. Anything you work on, to try and be real and show up and not look as if I'm playing pat to anything is always work.

As far as acting goes, you get to a certain point where, I think, everyone can do the job, and it comes down to a level of commitment. I think sometimes all you have to do is show up.

I like auditioning. I like working on material. I just love working. I like the chance to work on material. Sometimes it helps to not be going into a room cold and to know people. I've spent a lot of years getting to know people in the business, and that really helps. It depends. You can have some pretty terrible auditions.

Acting is like golf: analysis leads to paralysis.

Because I am of a generation and slightly old-fashioned, my bottom line belief is what you do is you rehearse and you work and you own it. Of course, you hone it during the first few performances but once you have it honed, not that you must ever assume it is perfect, part of the craft is being able to repeat that.

I'm so OCD about prep work and learning lines and stuff.

I had good and bad seasons for Essex. I was a real form player: if I got on a run, I was happy and confident, but if I had a bad trot, I was far too analytical of my game, worried about it too much and my form got worse.

You practice how you play. I still believe that.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist and sometimes need someone to tell me to stop.

There are days when you're in a good groove and the actor really understands the part and comes as prepared every day as you are and is so inside it. And then there's the day where, for whatever reason, it's just a harder slog. And I feel like those are the days where all the preparation and everything becomes more necessary because you have to find a third route there.

Everybody works the same, but the preparation very often may be different. You cannot work differently. You have to say the words that were written on the page, and you have to make your marks. That's the work.

As the actor, you can't be worried about the scene that you're going to playing two days from now. You think about what's going on, right now and in the moment. That's what you worry about. Everything is right then and there. In the end, all of the pieces come together, thanks to the editing and James Gunn.

I'm always repeating myself. You never just do a scene once, you do it an insane amount of times.

Sometimes you have to get out of your own way as an actor. Young actors tend to over prepare sometimes and over think it. And actually there is nothing wrong with walking on a set with an empty brain and then on action allowing your adrenaline and your trust in yourself to take over.

The truly great actors, like Charlize Theron, are just like, "I'm an actor. For hire. I show up, I do my job." There's no "I'm just waiting for the inspiration." They just do their jobs. They say, "Let's go over the scene a few times and get it."

I don't do all of this as an indulgence. I do it because I'm not a good enough actor to not do it.

I was frequently told at drama school that I was thinking too much.

A great deal of my battle, as an actor, is to widdle away the things that make me self-conscious and try to trick myself into not being self-conscious.

You think about acting kind of as an iceberg where you've got that 5% that you see... but in order to have that 5%... you have to have another 95%.