Marion Cotillard Quotes

I don't theorize too much. I sort of let the experience sink in, and I have to discover what the character is by doing it, and having those thoughts that she's thinking.

When you have the cast, the sets, the lights, an opera takes on its own life. I'm not one of those directors who marches in with a set of plans.

The thing about Brando was that I'd make these directions, and he'd walk away. He'd heard enough... to get the machine going.

I started to see acting as a real science. That really helped me grow as an actor.

Early in my career, I'd plan something out for my characters. But I've learned that if you know who your character is and you go on instinct, it won't be wrong. It's never wrong. It's just different.

I don't like to intellectualize about my acting. I don't sit around and study the pages of a script over and over again.

I used to ask Sean questions about acting. He's a brilliant actor, but I could never digest his information. I work primarily on an intuitive level.

Everyone else went to drama school, and that teaches you how to dissociate from your character. I don't know any technique! I'm just acting by chance - and by connection.

The way that I work is I didn't go to drama school or anything like that so I have no choice but to be instinctual because I don't have a tool kit in the same way.

I don't really overthink my characters. The camera comes on, and I am on.

Sukumar comes from a very different school of working style. He never shoots with set dialogues and scenes. Most of it is improvised on the spot. He'd tell me, 'Rakul, if this is your character, how would you behave? Show me.'

I am neither a method actor nor a trained one. So, I don't generally prepare for any role. Becoming the character and being in that moment are most important.

I don't know acting, but I choose good stories and portray emotions according to the story.

I do better just letting the stories develop. I don't outline very well, and I can't follow it if I do. Once I've outlined it, why write the damn book?

I'm not a Method actress. I work in the present, the day-to-day.

I like to allow a story to arise as I'm writing scripts. I find it horrible when I try to think of something for the plot without really being on the ground and seeing where it goes.

I try not to think too hard about music. I like to see where it goes. I try not to give it a direction. I figure out what it is as it's forming. I don't have any goal in mind other than to make the best music I can.

I know feeling pressure gets you nowhere creatively. You've just got to understand the character, understand the story, and just play it to the fullest extent.

I typically try not to think too hard about what I'm going to do in a certain scene with a certain actor in a certain moment because I think that kind of lends its way to not being as improvisational and sort of carefree as one would hope.

I write my scripts on a whim, without worrying about plot points and graphs.

I don't prepare for any role. I go on the sets and do it.

My acting style changes according to the way a character is imagined.

There's nothing more liberating about starting with something that is not written. You pretty much create the history of that character and that character's life story.

Most actors do that. They fill in the blanks. You don't want to play a cipher.

Whenever I work on a role, I always allow it to subconsciously take me to a place that is magical and unexpected, rather than consciously driving it to a place.