Betsy Brandt Quotes

When I was a younger actor, I would try to keep it serious all day. But I have found, later on, that the lighter I am about things when I'm going to do a big scene that's dramatic and takes a lot out of you, the better off I am when I come to it.

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 not the kind of actor that can go completely cold into an emotional scene. I have to transport myself emotionally by whatever means possible, and that basically means you carry the situation with you all week, all episode or all day beforehand.

Any director who's also acted understands the fact that every person has a different process and has to be approached differently.

When you're acting, you do have to prepare yourself for doing that. You have to leave behind - or you try and leave behind - anything that's going on in your personal life.

A role needs a certain tone, so your own tone also changes. It's not like I lock myself up in a room to get into the zone. It is based on what I am feeling, because the minute you try too much, weird things happen. Of course, for an intense role you need some silence, and you need to do a lot of thinking.

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 didn't have to audition. That's common, but it had never happened to me before. Normally, I hate auditioning. I need to stew and think... let the character develop and grow inside me.

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 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.

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.

I'm not an instinctive actor.

Mostly I work really unconsciously, and I think if the scenes are really well written, which they are, and if I just throw myself into it, I don't really think about it.

I know there are different kinds of actors, but I tend to have less effective relationships with actors who have a very private process - who really need to do lots of internal work, so that I become merely a witness until they're ready to share.

Some actors need to be rattled and some need to be focused.

Performing, for me, has always been a very inner process.

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.

Music is a very big part of my preparation as an actor.

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.

If you're getting ready to do a really emotional scene then, right before it, you're probably not going to be outside playing basketball.

What happens with every role, you have to trick yourself, you have to creatively find ways to explore the mental state of your character.

I really don't feel it's necessary, as an actor, to make people feel uncomfortable, just because you need to be in a certain headspace. So, I do take myself away and do my own work and hunker down.

Emotionally, I think you're going on a journey with the character, so you have to be present for each and every scene, and for me, one thing I like to do is step away between takes, away from everyone else, listen to some music, and just get into that place to help me perform.

As an actor, it's hard to approach any character with negatives.

I sometimes have to turn off the fan part of my brain when I'm acting; otherwise, it would be terrible.