Jennifer Yuh Nelson Quotes

With acting, you have to just tell the truth in each moment.

I don't like to intellectualize about my acting.

I don't think I would be a good actor! People enjoyed 'Dancing With the Stars' because I was myself, and every time they told me to say something, I would say my own words, so I don't think I could follow a script well!

I'm more interested in knowing my cues than my lines. If you know what your cues are, then you know what your reaction is going to be to them. Acting is about reacting, and if I can kind of purely react, that's easier for me.

You can't really plan with acting!

Acting has always been instinctive to me.

I tend not to have any references to anything. I just jump into the script in front of me. If you reference too much, you have no idea if the performances are right.

What you learn from studying acting is that you have to have the courage to just make strong choices.

Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn't do that. I just started doin' it in front of an audience and had to deliver.

I'd play the same character for ten years if the words and the moments that I'm playing are authentic.

I still don't really think about acting that much. I just do it.

Acting to me is always reacting.

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 hardly knew anything when I first arrived. I had to learn how to act as I went along. After about a year I got a grip on what acting was all about and it started coming straight from my heart; I wasn't just saying the words any longer.

If it seems like you're doing work when you're acting, then you're doing something wrong.

Stage acting is for me the basic form of acting. If you make films all the time, you have so few possibilities to rehearse. And it's important to rehearse, because it gives you the possibility to try things which are not good!

I like doing a lot of research, and then you get there, you're in wardrobe, and then you're just reacting to what the other person is doing. The other actor is reacting to what you're doing, and it's this great back and forth. Because you've done all this research, you can use some of it or throw a lot of it out. You can get lost in it.

For me, it's just acting. It's pretending. The best actors are children, and children don't do research. You never see a child going, 'I'm wondering about my motivation here. How can I do this toy? How can I do this train? I don't feel train.'

Acting is really about showing up that day and telling the writers what you feel like saying.

You get a sense of how the show works and then let your personality take over.

I find talking about acting very boring, having to come out with platitudes about how terribly nice everyone is. I would much rather just do it.

As an actor, the only thing you have is your instinct and your imagination.

For an actor, to be able to do something different and fun every week is an incredible treat.

I've never been to acting classes or anything like that. Everything I do is quite instinctual.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.