Taylor Hackford Quotes

As an actor, I had noticed very vividly that very few directors know how to direct actors because they haven't done it.

If you are a good actor, then all you have to do is give your best shot every time when you are in front of the camera regardless of who else is around you.

I've seen what a difference a good director can make to an actor's performance.

I would love to get great performances from actors as a director, because that's what I'm always looking for, a director that's going to help me go places I've never been before.

I don't think it's necessary to be an actor to get great performances out of an actor. But I do think it helps me as a director because I know what I like as an actor, and I try to get that to the actors who I'm working with.

I'm not going to get better as an actor working on bad stuff.

The secret of being a great actor is a love of food.

There's something about actors - not stars, but actors - if they have the character, and someone is pushing and shoving them to be the best they can be, they enjoy that.

Each actor, every single time you work with an actor, you have to come up with the language that's going to serve them. And that's what allows them to give the performance that you want to nurture inside of them and what you think they're capable of giving.

My modus operandi is to become a better actor.

The better the actor I am acting with, the better my performance gets.

I think with every part you do, you become a better actor. I've learned from my experiences on that.

It's wonderful when you happen across it as an actor, finding a young actor that is literally just starting out and you understand that to them the craft is the most important aspect of the job.

I didn't feel like going any further in this scene with the boy. He was not a professional actor, and if I had pushed the scene any further it would have destroyed the tone of the movie.

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.

Working with a great actor is really educational.

Good directors give short and specific instructions to their actors.

In order to be a good actor, I'm a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table.

My acting coach I've got here, Richard Lawson, he's been doing good, just telling me to calm down sometimes and just be me.

An actor matures with experiences, and the more the emotions he/she has been through, the greater the intensity of performances.

Everyone brings their own particular skill set to the job, and acting training can work for a lot of actors, and it can't. I've seen a lot of really good actors go into acting schools and then come out a little bit corrupted.

I'm not the best actor I can be, so I'm just working on it. I'm not the quickest reader in the world but when I get an acting book I can read it in two days.

You spend enough time on set as an actor and it's great when a director was at some point an actor or understands acting. They're able to finesse performances out of you that a lot directors can't get.

Good actors I've worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.

Any acting job that I ever got, I always treated it like I was a neophyte; I didn't know what I was doing, and I was going to work just as hard as I do on my stand-up.