Michael McKean Quotes

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

You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does.

That's precisely what we do as actors: try to convince the audience we are somebody else. And if you can do that, you are really doing something.

It's absolutely true that it's almost impossible to play a character without having any affection for him.

I love to act because I love trying on other people's skin.

You know, the character of Isabelle in 'Love Crime' is the only character I feel the furthest from. I have nothing to share with her, so it was really difficult. Being an actor of composition is something, but you always base yourself on something you know about.

My job playing Sam Malone was to let the audience in, to love my bar full of people. And that informed my life.

You have to have sympathy for and an empathy with a character in order to play them.

I liken every character that I do to a relationship that you're in.

Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.

You have to like the characters you play.

In terms of the character itself, I can't really say that I find anything really difficult. I enjoy the character so much I don't perceive difficulty in trying to be him. It's just a matter of how do we get there.

For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.

Of course you can find something exciting and dynamic in any character you want to portray.

That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

I care about all the characters I play, and I get quite defensive about them.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.

I always try to find something I admire about every character I play.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

I don't have any training as an actor, but I guess I'm an intense pretender. When you read something over and over, it gets into you a little bit. You can't help but begin to feel it, even if you're a healthy person as I think I am.

To act, no matter how the character is, you have to love and have compassion for the character you're playing.

We are talking about someone who has lived. It must be honored in every respect. The fictional can take any kind of channel - according to the actor's marriage to the character.

I always try to make each character my own.

In my acting, I have tried to do this - to present to audiences a living creature in whom they can recognise themselves or someone they know.