Lea Thompson Quotes

I don't steer towards anything. I steer towards character and truth. If it's funny then so be it. If it's dramatic, so be it. I just steer towards characters.

Acting is the art of being and existing, and not being fake.

I don't like to objectify the people I play. I always try to go for the truth in any part.

I'm the kind of person who if I was playing the role of someone who got shot, I'd probably want to get shot so I knew what it felt like.

Our job is to represent the truth of human nature, whether you're playing a tender love story that's set in a coffee shop or whether you're in 'The Avengers,' which is set in a Manhattan which is exploding.

I know what I like in other actors: truth. That's the best. It makes you say, 'OK, I'll go with you on this.'

Stripping away artifice - it's the constant standard I aim for in acting, to approximate life. People talk about being bigger than life - but there's nothing bigger than life.

The closer you stay to emotional authenticity and people, character authenticity, the less you can go wrong. That's how I feel now, no matter what you're doing.

That's the thing about acting - you can't fake it.

In drama you can either pretend everything is OK, or you can show the world as it really is in the hope that it gets better.

It's best to keep acting real.

Hopefully, any character I play has an anchor in reality.

Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, but if you walked into the building they'd probably throw you out. That's very hard.

Everyone is usually screwed up in some way and that is usually where the work comes in - figuring out how to make it believable and make it real to present someone's problems that you don't necessarily actually know anything about.

The more sincere I could be, the better it would be for the film.

I've always been taught to just play the truth of the situation. If comedy comes out of that, or drama, whatever comes out of it, at least I'm playing the truth of the moment-to-moment reality.

The reason I became an actress is because I wanted my acting to reflect life as it is. I want to put truth on the screen. I want real women to see real women on the screen.

Love scenes feel very mechanical. But our whole job is to make it look real.

After doing films like 'Krrish,' 'Bang Bang,' and 'Mohenjo Daro,' 'Kaabil' is one film where you can't lie at all. You can't be a hero. You have to be real. You have to be yourself. So that was a challenge.

When you're on film or TV, essentially you're in front of the camera. Unless it's a Tim Burton thing, the desire is to be real and grounded.

I would never play a character that wasn't true. It's not a moral thing; it's just that it's more convincing if it's a little bit like me.

You never want to just be outrageous for outrageous' sake 'cause then it doesn't work, and it's not believable. You want to be as true to whatever character you're playing.

Acting means nothing unless it's truth. And honesty.

There are certain roles - say, terrorist roles - that if I don't feel like it's something truthful, I'm not going to do it.

When I take up a film or role, I don't want to be fake; I don't want to wear a mask. I want to be myself.