Bill Nighy Quotes

I'm not a theater rat, so I never got a theatrical agent and did a play. I came really close though.

When I was about 16, I did a Neil LaBute play called 'A Gaggle of Saints' from a collection of plays called 'Bash' - very violent story about a young Mormon who goes to Central Park with his friend and beats up a gay guy. But it was the first thing I had ever done, and I thought, "God, this is fun! This is far more fun than anything else I've been doing at school. I want to stick with it."

I started doing regional theater. My first job was 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at Dallas Theater Center.

A play that works well and is done quite a lot - I've never done the math - but it's probably more remunerative than a movie.

If you want to support a writer, produce the first five plays he writes.

In a perfect world, I would love to do one play for every three movies.

John Cassavetes wrote A Woman Under the Influence as a play. He said, "Hey, I wrote you a play." And I said, "Great, let's read it." I read it and I said, "John, I couldn't do this every night and twice on Wednesday and Saturday".

I've always said I prefer theater, but there's only ever been one play that I really loved doing, and that was The Seagull.

I think if you can write a play, or produce a play, the first step toward success [is] if people don't want to kill themselves in the lobby. Now there must be four or five other steps, but that's the first.

I went to New York out of college, and in my day, we were told that was the way you became a good actor. You don't go to Hollywood, you go straight to New York and work in the theater. So that's what most of the people I knew did.

I've sort of done a play every four or five years I guess if I look back in my career. And I think that's good.

I started off doing plays as a theater actor. But I never thought of it in terms of it leading anywhere. I was just trying to be the best actor that I could be in the context of what I was doing.

I’ve loved the whole process. From previews to rehearsals, I’m in the best company. I’ve done one West End show before this but the excitement here…it’s incredible. It’s been a real education working on this, I don’t feel worthy. The role is over the top, bold and ridiculous.

You can read a Shakespeare play, but does that mean you wouldn't want to see it on the stage?

The play I did on Broadway a couple of seasons ago started out of town and it moved its way into New York because of the experience that we had out of town.

One of the things that made me want to be an actor more than ever was seeing a Chekhov play, "The Sea Gull," when was 14 in the Bronx.

Most of the theater I've done in the past was when I was a kid or a teenager so it feels like being a kid again. I'm happier than I've ever been. You really get to go to work every day and play, and try different things. I don't know, I've never felt so lucky to do this job. So I hope to do a lot more theater.

I did a couple of little Off-Broadway things, but my first Broadway show was A History Of The American Film, written by Chris Durang. Swoosie Kurtz was one of the stars. It was a wonderful show. It closed in 40 performances. I think it was kind of ahead of its time.

Sometimes I think the experience of a play is finished for me when I finish writing it. If it weren't for the need to make a living, I don't know whether I'd have the plays produced.

I've always had great satisfaction out of writing the plays. I've not always had great satisfaction out of seeing them produced-although often I've had satisfaction there. When things go well in production, on opening there's no nicer feeling in the world-what could be nicer than watching an audience respond? You can't that from a book. It's a fine feeling to walk into the theater and see living people respond to something you've done.

I did a run of a play over the summer in a really tiny theater in New York and that was rejuvenating for me. I directed a short series for Hulu called Paloma and being in an editing room, I learned a lot about acting.

The old guys like me started in the theatre. I was in the theatre for nine years.

There was a play that was written by who I think is America's greatest playwright, and he wrote a small part in it for me. It was going to open in Chicago, and then go to New York. But then, he died. It was Arthur Miller. That was the reason I turned Lost down.

I've been wanting to do a play for years.

I did a couple of plays in junior high school, maybe high school, and then I did a play in college.