Ansel Elgort Quotes

I do whatever I need to do to get into character. Sometimes it's being incredibly quiet, and sometimes it's being loose and goofy.

I don't think I've ever watched a movie to prepare for a role.

When you're acting, you do have to prepare yourself for doing that. You have to leave behind - or you try and leave behind - anything that's going on in your personal life.

It's part of the actor's job to show up with a head full of steam, to have their own take on this. So that way, you're not relying on, 'OK, tell me how to do it.'

As an actor, I know it is my job to shape myself for a role - any role.

It's more difficult for me to get into a character in the lead-up as opposed to leaving it.

A role needs a certain tone, so your own tone also changes. It's not like I lock myself up in a room to get into the zone. It is based on what I am feeling, because the minute you try too much, weird things happen. Of course, for an intense role you need some silence, and you need to do a lot of thinking.

So many actors get caught up in their technique, and to be honest, I see it really getting in the way. I see them forcing things. I definitely do my best work when I'm free of that. But I think as an actor, I work really hard in preparing the roles.

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

There are two schools of thought: There are those actors who explain to you that they know exactly how they're going to do the part... And then there is the other method, which is to have no method at all. This is mine.

I always tend to see, right after reading the script, the character and how I want to play it. I guess that's sort of most of the work, preparing for the role, but almost the creation of the character seems to go on as I read through the script.

I think it's incumbent on actresses to bring something else to the part which isn't in the script.

I love to take actors to a place where they open a vein. That's the job. The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein.

What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

As an actor, you wouldn't be able to play a character if you were worried about the reaction to what you're doing.

You hear stories of intense actors who can't shed their character and who don't know who they are for a week or two after. I'm not that guy, man.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

I'm not a method actor, but I'm a big research kind of actor.

As an actor, I like to get a bit of momentum going with a character and kind of work a bit quicker. I mean, not crazy-fast, but, you know, five or six pages a day is a nice pace.

In theater, you go in-depth with your character, so coming to the States, it was inevitable to dig into the pilots I liked. I knew what characters I was going to be reading for, so I would dissect them and really get involved with them.

Actors are always looking for actor-proof parts. A part so good you can't screw it up!

A different script calls for different things. It always takes me a long time to get to know the part, and know the logic behind the words. I have to be with the script for quite a long time before things start to fall into place, before they become part of the character.

Part of an actor's job is to draw up a back story.

It's interesting to play a role where you don't really have to preoccupy yourself with any need to convince yourself that you're not acting.