Gene Hackman Quotes

I realized that I was a really, really terrible actor. I was like, "I'd better be myself."

I like to think of myself as an actress, I think of going through all of the films as my kind of film academy, the way that I've learnt.

[On being an actor] .nothing more than a worker in a service occupation . It's like being a waiter or a gas station attendant, but I'm waiting on 6 million people in a week if I'm lucky.

My husband acts and I have such respect for those that do it well, that I wouldn't even try to pretend I can act.

You'd be surprised how much being a good actor pays off.

There are parts that you can do them all your life, and no one knows you're even acting, and there are other parts which somehow - I think they say they 'pop' - people notice that you're in and you become an actor from the movies and people take you in a whole different way. Whether or not I can keep that ball rolling is another matter.

An actor basically likes to be asked to do something, no matter what position he's in. It feels more natural. Sitting and waiting is more gratifying.

Being an actor is really odd. So, don't take that as your reality - take your family, take your friends, take your relationships - that's your reality. And hang on to them.

There's nothing wrong with being an actor, if that's what a man wants. But there's everything wrong with achieving an exalted status simply because one photographs well and is able to handle dialogue".

I've never thought of myself as an actor, so somebody recognizing me for that would be a real shock.

I've always wanted to be an actor. I didn't get into this game to be the best improviser in the world. I didn't choose improv as a stepping stone, it just happened to become one.

I've never been trained as an actor. I'm no Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Johnny Depp.

My Mother's an actress, and she's always told me, "Boy, you're an actor." I would look forward to seeing if I'm any good. I want to be good at it, that's the only thing.

All actors are whores. They want only one thing: to seduce you.

Central to being an actor is pretending, and the adventure of it all. That's why you become a junkie for different kinds of situations.

Uta Hagen is our greatest living actor; she is, moreover, interested and mystified by the presence of talent and its workings; her third gift is a passion to communicate the mysteries of the craft to which she has given her life. There are almost no American actors uninfluenced by her.

If you catch me saying 'I am a serious actor', I beg you to slap me.

Acting is the only medium were people think they can just stand up and do it because they can say lines, but that is not so much the case. You have to study styles and techniques.

All actors may not be stars, but all stars are actors, and I can vouch for that.

Actresses cannot have any inhibitions while portraying bold characters. It is something that we learn on the first page of the book on acting.

I was never an actress -- none of us kids at Metro were. We were just good to look at.

When we think of an actor, we think of a tanned, frosted-tipped, model-looking guy. We don't think of a plumber.

I am forever grateful that I got some training in the theater - it reduces performance anxiety.

I wasn't working much. So I focused on studying, and I really learned what it means to be an actor. And here I was on Jonny Quest,working with all these great people from back in the golden age of Hollywood, who came up doing radio. These were journeymen, working actors. It made me proud, and gave me some insight into what acting was really about if you weren't a star.

Denzel [Washington] just knows the actor. He knows the process, and you don't often get that.