Patricia Clarkson Quotes

For any role, I pretty much always go to the script, first and foremost.

I didn't have to audition. That's common, but it had never happened to me before. Normally, I hate auditioning. I need to stew and think... let the character develop and grow inside me.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

A different script calls for different things. It always takes me a long time to get to know the part, and know the logic behind the words. I have to be with the script for quite a long time before things start to fall into place, before they become part of the character.

When I'm offered a role, I look at what I think I can do with it. I look to see if I can project myself into it.

It's a hard thing to do, to be given a script, and know that you've got to turn up on the first day of the shoot - generally without having had any rehearsal - and present a character. It's really baffling; it's incredibly hard to know how to begin, to approach it, other than just thinking about it.

Preparing for roles sounds so academic, doesn't it? It feels as if you are preparing for an examination! In a creative medium, the preparation is of an entirely different kind, and for me, the ideas flow from the script itself.

Ultimately, as an actor, it comes down to committing to the text in the script.

When I am rehearsing for a play, I try to read nothing that might distract my concentration from the work in progress.

For me, I've always been one that reads a script and has been ready, wiling and able to go out and fight for parts.

Part of the fun of acting is the research, finding out about other people.

This acting was very hard work.

I've never committed to a role without a script.

It's very good for me to remember what actors go through.

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.

I work a lot; I love to compose, ponder, and take notes when preparing for a role. I cut all the scenes, collate the images, form the character and shape its personality, then I make meticulous notes and transcribe each scene on my notebook.

And that's one thing that helps me is I learn it blandly, vanilla, then I don't try to act it too soon because you start to act it, and you kind of go away from what the next sentence is, what the next paragraph is. So get it down so it kind of can - it's in there so you can then, as I call it, dance on top of it.

The camera does not like acting. The camera is only interested in filming behaviour. So you damn well learn your lines until you know them inside out, while standing on your head!

When you shoot a film, you have very little time to waste, and I try to go into the character as soon as possible and stay there as much as I can.

I don't think I do that much to prepare for roles in general.

For me and for I'm sure any actor, each role is a different challenge to prepare for in a different way.

My process is I try to learn my lines so they're so solid I don't have to think about them or how I'm going to say them.

The rehearsal time is almost my favourite part of being an actress, particularly if you're working on a play that hasn't been done before.

I love to do very long and complicated scenes.