Mary Tyler Moore Quotes

It's a challenge, writing about actors, especially a good actor, because you can't always tell when they're being honest and when they're pretending - that is, when they're acting. The really good ones don't always seem to know themselves.

I feel that when it comes to acting, Shahid and I approach roles differently.

I'm not very actorish. I don't play actor 24 hours a day. When the job is done, I go on to be myself, whoever that is.

I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don't take on characteristics which are very alien to me.

I realise that certain actors project their own image onto the screen - those who are the same on as they are off. But I've never had the necessary statistics to be able to do that sort of thing, and so, anyway, I always wanted to be a character actor.

As an actor, you can't just imitate someone. You have to get under her skin.

I don't see a difference between the idea of what an actor does and what someone supposes a character actor is, really.

I think I'm sort of method in a sense, and I enjoy, you know, trying to find that reality in fake emotion.

As an actor, I don't want an image. I want people to see the character, not me.

I used to think the actor's job was immersing himself completely in another personality.

Basically, you're selling a world as an actor, right? I mean it's like any sales person: if you believe in your product, you know your product, you sell it a lot better.

The worst acting is about imitation.

All my characters are me. I'm not a good enough actor to become a character. I hear about actors who become the role and I think 'I wonder what that feels like.' Because for me, they're all me.

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.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.

I've always considered myself a character actor.

I play a lot of hard men and gangsters, and I'm not like that at all.

I've always felt that almost every part I've played has been a character part. I mean, I look at it that way. I can't help how I look or how I seem to people.

All I have to do is be me on stage. But acting, I have to be someone else, and walk how they would walk and blink how they would blink. I used to talk about it bad like, 'Aw man, that person made $10 million a movie?' But now I understand why they do. I get it now.

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

An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.

I feel like a character actress - it's where I'm comfortable.

Some actors play themselves, don't they?

Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.

Any good actor is a character actor.