Hugh Grant Quotes

'Funny People' is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it's a comedy and there are serious moments, I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn't feel like I was playing myself. Whether it's a comedy or drama, I just try to make it as realistic as possible.

The secret to acting is don't act. Be you, with add-ons.

A worldly actor is a better actor. It sounds pretentious, but I think having these experiences can translate back into your work.

I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It's about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.

If I have anything to offer as an actor, it's only my ability to make the person real.

My primary instinct as an actor is not the big transformation. It's thrilling if a performer can do that well, but that's not me. Often with actors, it's a case of witnessing a big party piece but wondering afterwards, where's the substance?

I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.

As an actor, you work to the script: that's our main priority. But you have to be aware and look around for things that help you bring that little bit extra, that touch of realism that rams the point home.

I like method actors who don't focus on the glamorous side, but on realistic acting.

There is no overacting, only untrue acting.

I guess you should approach the roles differently when they're actual people who have been, this is the difference. Getting the accent exact, or the hair exact is less important in a situation like this.

I had an acting teacher tell me once that if you're playing a car salesman, you don't want to be an OK car salesman, you want to play the best car salesman.

The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.

When you are developing a character you have to bring so much of yourself to the role.

All I'm writing is just what I feel, that's all. I just keep it almost naked. And probably the words are so bland.

When I'm on an adult set and I'm in a scene, I am myself. I'm not acting. I am playing to the camera, definitely, but I am myself.

'Serious acting' is the kind of acting that I don't ever respond to.

When people embrace character, there's latzie. It's the stuffing of a scene that's not written. It's not in the stage direction and it's not in the words. When people embrace character, it informs their living, breathing moments in a scene so well.

I think it's critical in any character you play that it really is about reacting instead of acting. You can always tell when a person is acting.

It's not what you see on-screen that makes a performance. It's the things you should never know about - it's the secrets.

Tone is so important because you can have a great script just be ruined with the wrong director - if they shtick it up or something. With 'Little Miss Sunshine,' I was so concerned they weren't going to play the pageant official realistically because you don't have to wink to play those kinds of characters.

A good actor is somebody who can be truthful and fascinating and interesting and enlightening.

It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

It's a fine line. If you withhold too much, you come across as wooden - as I've often been described in some movies. Fair enough. I believe that the best performances are the ones that an audience has to search for.