Ian Holm Quotes

I learned the process of this kind of acting, how things run, how chaotic it can be, and what kind of different muscles you have to flex.

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'm certainly not one of those actors who remain in a dark place the entire time in order to be doing the scene. I sort of come in and out of it. It can be to the detriment of my performance sometimes!

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

I'm not a Method actor. I don't believe acting should be psychodrama. I look within myself and see what I can find to play the role with. If I'm playing a blind man, I don't go around blindfolded for days. A lot of good actors would, but I don't go in for that very much. I like to just make it up as I go along.

All good actors are unpredictable, and a little crazy in a good way, because they feel more secure playing other people than themselves.

Every actor has their own process. For me, I really need to stay in the pocket. So, if I'm on set and I'm in character, I'm not thinking like a producer. If I'm on set and I'm not in character, wardrobe and make-up, and I'm just coming on set for the moments that I'm not shooting, then I'm able to be the producer.

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.

It is hard sometimes to see how other actors are working when you are working with them.

As a young performer, I didn't know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it's not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the easier it is to let it go when it's done.

It's hard to get lost in a scene, to get into a character when everyone's standing around you on the set.

You know, I've never been much of a method actor. I feel like, with every project I go in extremely prepared and I like to have a good time.

What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.

I'm an emotional actor. When I'm doing a scene, I really believe it. I live the part as long as I'm in the scene.

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

I don't mind a little Sturm und Drang. When I was doing 'Riding in Cars With Boys,' I wouldn't smile at anybody, because my character, Bev, was angry at the world. I'm the opposite. Inside my head I'd be like, God, I'll explain to you at the end of shooting that I'm not this person.

I'm not what you'd call a Method actor.

I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.

I'm not a classically trained actor. I'm not a product of Stavlovski method or anything like that.

Whenever I am acting, it's everything, you know. If I'm researching a role, I'm completely consumed in that and, between action and cut, I live in this suspended time.

I think it's a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.

Between takes I find it difficult to switch off and then try and re-emerge myself in the part, so I try to stay in that frame of mine all day. It can be exhausting and you lose a sense of self, but it is the method that works best for me.

In acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.

The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.

People think memorizing lines is hard, when that's the last thing you worry about. You get that done, and then you've got to worry about the internal stuff, which is the challenging part.