Soni Razdan Quotes

My strength lies in prepping. I'm not someone who can just walk onto the set and perform.

I've always had a process that I do before I even get to set or go to the location. I work privately, and it almost feels like therapy between me and who I'm playing. So I have this inner life that's there and it gives me a confidence, too, that when I'm playing the role I know every question.

I don't ever recall being nervous before performing because I've already stepped into the shoes and the clothes of the character.

Once you really understand your role... that's why I think actors get lost in a series. Everybody wants to be the quarterback or the game-winning wide receiver. I've been around long enough and done enough stuff to where I don't feel that way. I just want to do what I do as well as possible.

As an actor, you're lucky if you get a month before a project starts. There are times when you get a day before a project starts. So to be able to really sit and inhabit that mind and the story is really beneficial, and it really helps for me to be able to then compartmentalize as we're shooting and detach and go somewhere else.

I learn the whole script before I show up.

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.

There are a lot of things that make up a performance, a lot of technical things. It isn't always just about pulling it up from the darkest recesses of your mind or your heart. It's your experience and your observation.

When you prepare for something, you can then play around; you're not as worried about remembering your lines because you already know them so well. That's where you can find the freedom. So I'm all about prep work.

I never don't know my lines. I never take the audition pages into the room. I end up relying on them or looking at them too much, and it makes me feel unprepared, so I always learn my lines without fail.

I find it difficult to work if I don't know the lines, you know, and not just knowing - they're second nature to me. Then, whatever happens in the performance when you're actually doing it, you're not going to go off. You're going to retain all of that. So I like to have my lines.

As soon as I have the script in my hand, I'll be up in my apartment room pacing up and down learning it because it's just such a lovely thing to do.

You can't go out and press. That's when you're going to make mistakes. Just act like you've done it before.

All that acting and all that stuff and emoting and crap will come after you know what you're doing. So when you get - when I get on stage, I don't have to think about it.

The more prepared I am, the more I'll be in control, less nervous, less stressed and more focused.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

I just don't believe you're capable of being an actor unless you have a desire to experience your emotions in a public way.

When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'

It's very good for me to remember what actors go through.

All the things you can do to prepare for a role that free you, in the moment, are great. You have this muscle memory for things. You don't have to act it as much, once you've done it enough.

I become a better actor after I step on a stage in front of, like, 500 people when it's just me, a microphone and my guitar. You don't get as nervous walking into a room in front of 3 or 4 people and to do a scene or to walk on a set. You gain confidence.

Every audition is different, but I get incredibly nervous and insecure and worked up for however long I have to prep - that's when I get to spin. But you're not allowed to spin once you enter the room. Doubt really can't enter the room when you're auditioning - unless it's part of the character.

'Olive Kitteridge' is the only thing that I've done on camera where we had a day of rehearsal before we shot, and I'm so glad that that happened, because I was so nervous.

I played a lawyer once, and I had about three or four weeks before we shot, so I was able to go to court and watch lawyers at work. Some were good lawyers and some were bad lawyers, but it was essential. The more time you have to prepare, the better. Always.

I've always been fairly confident in my acting.