Gary Oldman Quotes

I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.

I find that I kind of have to sink into the character.

I never had a thing for movie stars. I was into the guys who could transform. Sean Penn. Daniel Day-Lewis. The ones who privileged the craft.

The first thing, the main thing, about how I work is I need to understand the character.

As an actor, I've learned to become a detective. You have to figure out who that person is. If the character is a thief, you have to figure out what makes them a thief. Whatever the prevailing idiosyncrasy is, I have to find it in the script.

I like to imagine that all the choices you make during the day that you're doing a particular scene are going to feed into the creation of that scene. It's not a movie-by-movie or a part-by-part basis. It's a day-by-day thing, and sometimes an hour-by-hour thing.

I actually love working with accents. I don't know, something about it unlocks something in me. It makes me concentrate on getting into character a little more, helps me find a focus.

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

David Cronenberg knows what we actors do as artists.

I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

It was interesting doing impressions as somebody else doing impressions. Normally, I'll do a voice, and it's me doing the voice. To have to be Robin Williams doing the voice was an interesting sort of study in getting into somebody's head.

I love an acting challenge, and I love getting to sit down with my script and do all my drama work.

I love doing characters that challenge me. I'd love to do something that requires me to change physically or learn a skill.

I think 'method acting' is a widely abused term.

To disappear your complete self into a character is quite difficult. I've tried it 85 times, and I've succeeded two or three times.

I try to allow the spirit of the character to live through me. That's the only way I know how to approach acting. I have to live it.

In many ways, acting is really like a science to me to figure out the human behavior of any character that I'm playing.

I think it is very important to be a method actor.

I love acting it's apart of me and I try to put a little bit of myself in each of my roles.

You have to be completely in the character, and that's so hard to do. That's why, when they call, 'Cut!,' you often feel yourself shift. Unless you're Daniel Day Lewis, who stays in character all the time, there's a switch that happens.

My style is an extension of acting and an outcome of some serious lessons I picked up learning when I did theatre in my early days.

I think people are always trying to demystify whatever acting is, so they want to know what your method is.

If Monsieur X spent an eternity studying treatises on optics, he would never paint 'La Grande Jatte.'

Actors who say they can dive inside a character are either schizophrenic or lying.