Allison Janney Quotes

That's precisely what we do as actors: try to convince the audience we are somebody else. And if you can do that, you are really doing something.

I think if you're good and you can persuade people you're going to be able to do that role and ultimately the audience buys it, then it doesn't matter whether you were really a chimpanzee in disguise! You've done it.

Trust the acting.

Actors always want you to believe something else even though that's the truth and to do that well it's almost a dying art.

My dad being a salesman taught me you can sell anybody anything if you've got the ability to believe.

It is not whether you really cry. It's whether the audience thinks you are crying.

I'm an actor, but I am an awful liar.

Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I'm paid to tell elaborate lies.

If you're saying the same line 10 times and making it look like you just came up with it, that's acting.

For me, the facts in anything are always secondary. You don't lie convincingly with the truth. You lie convincingly with being a good liar.

But then acting is all about faking. We're all very good at faking things that we have no competence with.

A story never looks as good as when the other fellow buys it.

In my opinion, there's nothing new in the theatre, ever. Theatre-makers are thieves, in the honourable tradition of charlatans. They fake it very, very well indeed for the entertainment of everybody else.

Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, but if you walked into the building they'd probably throw you out. That's very hard.

I've always had a niche for entertaining since I was a little girl.

I love acting. It's an interesting challenge to make something that doesn't exist appear like it's happening, and to do it in a real way.

You can make an audience see nearly anything, if you yourself believe in it.

I love performing and pretending - it's very easy for me.

A successful swindler has to be a great salesman even more than a great actor.

I spent the majority of my adult life in a business where the object is to make people believe that you believe what you say. I was good at that, right?

I knew how to upset the people, and I did it in such a way that it was believable. That's how I made a living at it for 20 years. I don't regret a thing I done or said in wrestling. Nothing.

I think finding a way to relate material to yourself can be useful to some people but acting for me is just being really good at make-pretend and lying. I've always been a great liar.

Wrestling isn't real. The falls hurt, sometimes you get punches in the face, but it's not real. It's propaganda. Propaganda makes you the giant and me the small guy. Propaganda makes me the champion and makes you unworthy of a title shot.

Politics and acting are very closely tied. The job is to convince.

The difference between Martin Sheen and George W. Bush is Martin Sheen is actually convincing when he acts like he's president.