Barry Sonnenfeld Quotes

When it comes to performance, I don't like to prepare at all if I don't have to.

I don't practice or write stuff down - everything I do onstage was just made up before I went on.

The acting life can be quite scary, really.

I normally feel relief that I didn't die onstage or forget all my lines. Then I start remembering that I have to do it again sometime, and it'll probably not go as well.

I never had trouble within the audition room. That is a room that I control. So while I certainly experienced versions of what Titus Andromedon was going through, I never experienced the self-doubt.

I had panic attacks during rehearsal. There were times when I really thought I wasn't going to be able to do it.

I'd auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and I didn't get a place and it was terrifying.

I'd never experienced stress before I did stand-up, and it was a massive shock to my system, this thing of waking up, and the nerves of, 'You're on stage tonight.'

I am a person who dreads any kind of public exposure and any kind of public event. I spend all day, if I have to do a reading, preparing.

I don't like improv at all. It terrifies me. I like to know exactly what I'm going to say. Being surprised does make me a better actor. Anytime I'm afraid of something that makes me rise to the occasion, it scares me, but it's what makes great actors - being in the moment.

Auditioning for 'Philomena' was such a traumatic experience because I had three callbacks, and I was absolutely positive that I was just an option.

I love getting ready to do a scene, and thinking about it, and talking about it. But the rest of the time, I'm so nervous and obsessed. I'm just tearing my hair out in the trailer. The whole time I'm really tense.

I've never been good at improvising.

Acting scares me.

I was so intimidated by the thought of improvising back in the '80s when I was in Chicago. I think the opportunity only even came up once that I can recall, and I turned down the offer. It was to go improvise in some club in the suburbs or something. Good God, I couldn't think of anything more frightening than to get up there without a plan.

I'm terrified of learning lines, and I've always been terrified that I won't learn them.

I was very nervous at the beginning of Hotel du Nord.

People say to me that I can't be nervous because I've had such a wealth of experience, but I tell them that I have never done this particular part before.

I'm very bad with improvisation. I hate it.

I was really nervous. Even when I left the audition I was nervous.

When I first started auditioning I would stutter a lot because I was so terribly frightened.

For me, the scariest moment is walking on set before we shoot the first shot, and I am so anxious. It's a lot of pressure, and it's scary, and I don't think that fear ever goes away.

I think the first table read I ever did, my hand was vibrating the whole time.

I was paralyzed with nerves on 'Taste of Honey' and never quite knew what was going on.

While I'm acting, I'm a professional, and then I don't break into cold sweat for whatsoever reason.