Marion Cotillard Quotes

Actors are always looking for ways to build a character.

I think in every character there are aspects of yourself that you bring to it. But then it would be really boring to just play yourself.

For an actor, it's not like you have to go crazy to do an intense role.

I think a lot of that is what helped me develop my character. I wouldn't say it was Method, but it was definitely a little more in depth than I've done before in terms of acting. With the other kids, we all were such good friends by the time we started shooting. Because of that, it allowed us to trust each other more to push the dynamics of the relationship to places which you might not be able to had you not trusted that person.

I knew how to act and had studied acting and enjoyed it, but I'd never pushed myself to really perform as an actor, and create a role, and have the whole character's backstory.

What I like about theatre is the responsibility you have with your character.

I have always wanted to do a book about actors because I think that the death of a character is a tremendously emotional experience.

I don't really think it matters if you go into stage or TV as long as you do a bit of character work, really.

I think most great actors have their own life trajectory, the character motion doesn't have anything to do with their life motion.

Usually when you're playing a character, you think a lot about their backstory.

As an actor playing a character, you look for all of those avenues to see if there's any sense of vulnerability or love that you can bring to a character, and decide how that's portrayed and how that's going to be a struggle with the other characters. It's your job to take that on and challenge yourself, and meet that head on and see what happens with it.

My job is to try and present the most fully-rounded character that I can, and bring a performance that people believe in.

The idea of transformation - playing something I'm not - is the bit I enjoy most about acting.

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

I suppose I've got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable.

As an actor, I tend to enjoy going to the dark side.

A lot of actors and actresses pull from past experiences.

I can play the character better because of the roundness of my experience - because of the things I've been through. All those method guys - like that De Niro, Stallone, and what's his name, Pacino - they're all the same.

It was new to play a woman who plays with her sincerity, and who is a seductress, a manipulator and a liar! I was able to compose a character as opposed to being very natural, so it was very interesting for me. It was great to realise that I could be this kind of real woman!

[On being asked, 'Did you ever say that an actress needs to be able to laugh and to cry and that when you need to laugh you think of your sex life and when you need to cry you think of your sex life?':] No.

Because it's me playing the character, trying to find a way to make it believable and entertaining and interesting.

As an actor you bring some of your own experiences which can make things easier. You build off of it, but your imagination is always the best thing you have as far as creating things I think specifically for what that character is going through. But you're definitely drawing obviously upon things that you can connect to, and then you kind of mold the change that you're making into something that's right for the character.

I don't see any difference in the craft of acting, in film or television. It's absolutely the same. It's different storytelling, playing a character over multiple hours, as opposed to two.

As far as being an actor is concerned, you have to have passion. If you're not bringing the passion of the character into the room with you, you might as well not come into the room at all.

Sometimes an actor performs a character, but sometimes an actor just performs. With writing, I don't think it's performing a character, really, if the character you're performing is yourself. I don't see that as playing a role. It's just appearing in public.