Michael Shanks Quotes

You have to play your characters, not like them.

It would be hard to play a character you don't like - for me anyway - or can't find something in them to like.

I try and find a way to love every character I play.

I don't know how to play a character unless I love him.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

You have to like the characters you play.

That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.

When I act, a part of me goes into the character I am playing.

I don't have any training as an actor, but I guess I'm an intense pretender. When you read something over and over, it gets into you a little bit. You can't help but begin to feel it, even if you're a healthy person as I think I am.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

As actors, you play people who are not yourselves!

I love to act because I love trying on other people's skin.

You know, the character of Isabelle in 'Love Crime' is the only character I feel the furthest from. I have nothing to share with her, so it was really difficult. Being an actor of composition is something, but you always base yourself on something you know about.

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

You have to love the guy that you play, even if you play the villain, you've got to love him.

You put a lot of yourself into a character, so even though he's not you, in a sense it is you.

I think it's always easier to play parts that you have something concrete that you can relate to.

You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does.

I liken every character that I do to a relationship that you're in.

It's very important that I'm approaching a character that I've either not played before, or I can give it a different take.

Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.

Playing characters I don't relate to are a big challenge for me.

The only thing that I know how to do as an actor, as a trained actor, is you can't villainize the character you're playing. Whether it's a fictional character or a real character. Because then you operate from that sort of negative point of view, and you can't humanize him.