Cloris Leachman Quotes

The Anne you see on TV is me; I don't have an on-camera persona.

Who I am on stage is just an amped up version of who I am in real life.

When you're playing a romantic version of a real person, you're playing a version of the truth.

I'm not a big fan of just cultivating an image.

I don't pretend to be the character. I am the character.

Just because someone acts a certain way on TV, that doesn't mean he's like that in real life.

So I sat down with him and portrayed more the side of the character he needed to see. Which is what I do when I go in for an interview for a part I like. As much as you think you're dealing with creative people, they see you for what your image is out there.

I'm not really good at fun-to-know, human interest stuff. We're not 'celebrities', whose life itself is a performance. Good or bad or ugly, we are our words. They're what people meet.

I don't think that we necessarily lie. I mean, we make our living by pretending that we're someone else. I don't tell tall tales. I always tell the truth.

Actors play different characters in every project they do. Though it has nothing to do with my craft, the red carpet gives me the opportunity to show who I really am and be myself.

In my work, I want to convince people that I'm that character. If they know everything about Lesley Manville - private life, all of that stuff - it doesn't help. So the kind of anonymity I enjoy is key.

I really enjoy playing a sex symbol, but it's not something I feel in real life. I'm much more of a natural girl at home.

I'm not running for office. I just want people to come to my stuff and escape and see me as a character, not as anything else.

I find often in Hollywood there are many people who play themselves really beautifully. And certain parts are not that dissimilar from who you are as a person.

I try to keep my integrity. I don't want to be in 'Hello!' or on 'Celebrity Big Brother.'

When I'm onstage, I'm acting.

I want people to believe me when I play a part and they are less apt to if they know a lot about me and have associations about me.

If I acted like I did onstage in normal life, everyone would probably hate me.

Well, you create your own persona, don't you? And you have to live with that. But the people that I meet, they don't think that I'm a lunatic. And if they do, then that's OK, because it means that I'm playing the parts all right.

I've never really done any interviews as myself.

As an actor, you want to know if you're keeping a secret or telling the truth.

Every actor I know - any reasonable actor I know - is complicated. What you see and what they are, those are two very different things.

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.

I step into a character in my public life. People who don't make that distinction are dooooomed.

The most vital thing for an actor to deliver a great performance is to be honest to the role he or she is playing.