Miguel Ferrer Quotes

I've approached every character I've ever played with a poem, first and foremost.

When you start out on a project as an actor, you know, you approach the character from the standpoint of maybe writing a list - even if it's a mental list that you make - of the adjectives that the character has or that character possesses.

I find it easier to play someone who is so far from me because you create someone - you build this person based on the story and the script, with the director.

I think it's important as an actor to stay really ignorant.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

Actors make choices for different reasons.

With any actor, if you know your character well enough, you'll know pretty much what he would say under any circumstance, or whatever situation might rear its head.

The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.

Well, I've always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys. So it never surprises me. And if it's good writing, you can find your way into the part well enough.

In every film, whether it's a fictional character or not, you create an idea of the character and for me I always do a bad impersonation to start with.

I've always been one to want to memorize everything and just be confident that I know all of the lines, but that changed. After college, I realized it's not as much about being off-book as it is about completely understanding the character and, more so, getting into the mind of your character.

I'm just thinking I'm just like a normal actor who gets scripts, and I read them, and... if I enjoy reading them, then that's what's exciting, then I get excited about the audition or the project itself.

Love every role to be new, and I always like to bring a freshness to every character I play, but that comes down to the script. So, it's important that it's a good script with good, truthful characters and truthful subjects.

As an actor, I know it is my job to shape myself for a role - any role.

Sometimes you get the luxury of having a script for a really long time, and you can get to talk with the director or the producers, and evolve with the role.

Whenever you have a role where you don't get to know anything about the character, you have to invent it yourself. You have to feel like it came from somewhere.

I don't normally think of a specific actor. I concentrate on the character, and then when we get into pre-production, that's how names come up.

There's no set rule, but when you look at the script, you start thinking about this person and how to create this human being on screen. You dig deeper into a script.

When I'm given a role, I'm consumed by a passion to bring to life a character that exists only on paper. I mull over the character for days and internalise his feelings.

As an actor, you can do what you want with your role. That's why they hire you; to take the role and make it real.

None of the characters I've played are really like me. That would be boring. That wouldn't be acting.

I don't really have choices in the material I get. So I have to make the choices in the way I play the characters.

The pleasure from acting comes from having great writing to work with. If it's well written and the character is interesting, then, as an actor, that's the raw material I need.