Teri Garr Quotes

Acting has always been something I've wanted to get into. I think the best models are actors; you're taking on a character. In that sense, I have been acting for a long time. It didn't seem like a crazy transition.

I did Shakespeare in college and the nerves I got doing Shakespeare are the same nerves I get doing 'Mad Men.'

I've never got a part in the same way twice. I've never prepared the same way. I've never experienced the filming the process the same way.

I want to be uncomfortable - acting is uncomfortable.

I like auditioning! A lot of people hate it, but I like it.

After doing the first couple scenes and I got used to being in front of a few people it got easier and easier. In Chasing Amy, I wasn't nervous at all. And in Dogma, the same.

I learned the process of this kind of acting, how things run, how chaotic it can be, and what kind of different muscles you have to flex.

Often, when I am playing difficult roles, I have a problem sleeping because I can't leave the character behind.

Doing 'Mamma Mia' was scary full stop, so playing a young Colin Firth was even more intimidating. I just had to keep reminding myself that I was playing Harry and not Colin Firth, which psychologically felt better.

I actually think it's helped me as a writer to have to act. It's only when you actually start putting yourself out that you appreciate the anxiety that comes with having to try to sell a line, or with trying to own a character.

Acting isn't really a creative profession. It's an interpretative one.

I don't use any techniques; I'm not trained to be an actor. I just enjoy working in films.

An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God - that'd be a boring career. When you take on different roles and become a different person, that's called acting... It's a challenge.

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

Every actor has their own process. For me, I really need to stay in the pocket. So, if I'm on set and I'm in character, I'm not thinking like a producer. If I'm on set and I'm not in character, wardrobe and make-up, and I'm just coming on set for the moments that I'm not shooting, then I'm able to be the producer.

The first time I played a killer, in the 1997 film 'Mojo,' I went to my local video shop and got out a video of real executions and a history of the Third Reich. The guy in the shop was giving me a look. I thought this would help, but I don't think it made any difference, and I don't want to see any more executions.

Within a few weeks of coming back from filming 'Lemonade Mouth,' I got these scripts, and 'Terra Nova' was the one that stuck out. I was like, 'Oh my gosh'.

I love shooting, when the character is interesting and the script is interesting, but the research beforehand is really fun. The whole process makes me anxious and restless, and I have trouble sleeping, just trying to figure out the character.

As a young performer, I didn't know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it's not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the easier it is to let it go when it's done.

In my fantasies, I always wanted to play the ingenue, but in reality, in my bones, I am so used to playing the grandmother that I don't feel safe or even sure that I can do it.

I definitely think it exercises an interesting muscle, auditioning for bad parts and trying to figure out how to make it real. I don't know what I'm talking about now.

The trick to acting is not to show off; it's to think the thoughts of the character. I was lucky because when I started acting, it was doing jobs above pubs. I learned to act in anonymity, so by the time people saw me, I knew what I was doing. I was crap for years, but no one saw me being crap. It's a trade you learn.

Sometimes a scene works and acting is the easiest thing in the world and you don't have to do much of anything - just enjoy yourself and listen to the other actor. When it doesn't work, then every actor has different ways of dealing with the impasse. Sometimes you use memories from the past. Whatever. It depends from job to job.

I love getting ready to do a scene, and thinking about it, and talking about it. But the rest of the time, I'm so nervous and obsessed. I'm just tearing my hair out in the trailer. The whole time I'm really tense.

In my career, there have been three things that were challenging: playing gay; playing a Jewish woman; and playing Chekhov. The scariest part was playing Chekhov!