Jonathan Groff Quotes

Behind the footlights there is always the applause, which stimulates the actors. On the screen it is a different matter.

A live audience with live reactions feeds a different sort of acting that will then inform your film work, and vice versa.

This is the way I wanna die. Torn apart by angry fans who want me to play a different song.

Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.

I don't know, on a sitcom, and in theatre especially, you have to really be listening to an audience. And if you're losing them, you can hear the sniffs, and the playbills shuffling and whatnot.

A stage actor has to be 10% aware of the audience as he's performing.

When you put the musical in front of an audience, you get to see how the audience reacts.

Rehearsals and screening rooms are often unreliable because they can't provide the chemistry between an audience and what appears on the stage or screen.

With theater, you have to really be able to listen and to respond to other people on stage. You're all constantly on your toes. And then with film and television, you can get a second take and things like that.

I just feed off the energy of the audience.

There's something about being in a house with an audience, and having that immediate feedback. I started acting because of that energy; it's what feeds me on stage and informs my choices.

I enjoy being on stage with other artists. I have a chance to watch and see people responding to the other artists songs. I get to see how people are affected by the music.

When playing any song in front of an audience, you're watching them experience it, and it changes. In a lot of ways, it's almost like the music is just the background buzz to what's happening between you and the audience in the room.

What happens a lot in film, though not so much in the theatre, is that you get stroked and sort of massaged, like a little guinea pig.

In the theater, you go from point A to point Z, building your performance as the evening progresses. You have to relinquish that control on a film.

I feel that doing theater does give you a good grounding to work on camera. The audience is the lens.

When you're onstage, you're acutely aware of the reaction of a particular group of people, because it's like a wave.

There's nothing like walking out and watching the people get turned on. Nothing in the world could replace it.

I'd say working on television is much, much tougher than films. But television has a great connect with a live audience, which is a refreshing change for us actors.

When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written.

I love playing live, I don't like studios all that much. I need the reaction of the audience.

I like working on stage because there's something very immediate about it, that interaction with an audience where you immediately hear their reaction, or feel them, whether they're with you.

We as comics do want an immediate response from the audience. It's really quiet on the set, and there are only the producers, and the director, so a comic is looking for someone to give a reaction, even if it is the camera guy.

It's a different thing playing in a smaller venue where you can actually see people's faces and reactions. It's so much more intimate. You walk away with a more personal experience.

We would play songs live on stage, and then we'd watch their reaction we were receiving immediately, if people were dancing and singing along. If they weren't, then we'd go into the dressing rooms of the different NBA teams that we were playing in their arenas, and we'd change the songs right there.