Marie Dressler Quotes

I tend to play more true-to-life characters in real situations.

I think the hardest thing I've had to learn is that just because people might speak a certain way in real life doesn't mean it's engaging in the theater.

Acting is about being in the moment and audiences are smart to know what is authentic and what is not.

The great thing about acting is you don't have to worry about yourself at all. I tend to just get out of the way of me and let something come through.

As an actor, I draw from myself.

I think that acting involves doing your job so well that you are able to help the viewer identify with the character.

Theatre demands different muscles and different aspects of one's personality.

When I do a character, I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had.

In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience.

I approach a comedy the same way I do a drama. I try to make it as real as possible.

In school, I was playing old men and women, babies, Russian people, and all sorts of weird parts - a lot of comedy - and that's sort of like home to me.

And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.

The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.

The best advice my dad ever gave me is that acting is believing. Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

What I try to do often when I'm acting and what I like when I'm seeing good acting is how authentic it is. How true is this to what I know of the world that's been created for me? The ultimate test for me is, like, if I heard a clip of it on the radio, I'd like the audience not to know if I'm acting.

But today I felt different, today I forgot how long it takes to get into the skin of a character and I remembered it, because today I actually got into that skin and it felt so different.

That's the thing about acting - you can't fake it.

Theater is a way to keep challenging myself.

I think, first of all, every time you want to play somebody who is real is always challenging and always scary, because you are given a responsibility of someone's real life.

Creating a role is an interesting thing - each show or each situation is different.

And when I go to see plays, I marvel at how people can do that. I've done it all my life, but I still find it mystical.

In acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.

It's challenging to take on something else that is not you and make it very real and have others be able to associate with it. It's wonderful to provoke thought.

Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, but if you walked into the building they'd probably throw you out. That's very hard.