Richard Dreyfuss Quotes

My job as a character actor is to make me fit the character, to serve the character. To present this human being who turns up in a piece of film or entertainment that's going, you know, exist as if it might exist after the film is finished and it existed before the film has started.

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

As an actor, you always have to love who you are playing.

Well, as an actor, at least from my standpoint, I can't not like who I'm playing.

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.

You have more creative freedom with writing, in certain ways, because you can create everything that happens. But, as an actor you also have creative freedom because you don't so much focus on what has to move the story along, and only on how your character is reacting to situations.

I tend to have a pattern of playing misunderstood characters.

I never really thought about what characters I play. I always just wanted different characters.

I feel I should never do passive characters. They don't work for me.

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

As an actor, you're sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character.

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.

My approach as an actor has always been the same, in that the greatest gift that you're ever going to have is your imagination because you're not going to have all life experiences. So you draw on things that are sort of close to it but you spend your time expanding on it or drawing something specific on whatever your situation is.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

You take what you know, and you put it through your own prism. If I play characters that break down or cry, it's Gary Oldman crying; it's not the character crying.

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

With most British actors, it's amazing. I think they start with the character on the outside and work in.

The beauty of performance for me is finding details with which to betray character.

There is a little bit of me infused in every character I play.

I have a tendency as an actress in general to ground my characters. Even when doing outlandish characters, that's my instinct.

As an actor, what you dream of is being able to portray people that people empathize with and understand and really feel for.

An actor is an actor is an actor. The less personality an actor has off stage the better. A blank canvas on which to draw the characters he plays.

I've always done method acting. I'm a method actor, and I've done that for years. I never did acting and decided to take it seriously because all the parts people want me to do were playing the pretty role. If I want to play someone pretty, I'll play myself.

Every actor turns everything round to their character.

As an actor, you are always someone else's tool. You can have a connection with them, and you can share their point of view, but ultimately, you are helping them reflect.