Paul Morrissey Quotes

Just getting auditions was rough. But also just learning how to act - when I did my first role, in a film I did which was a favour to a friend, I realised I was really bad at it.

I was in a movie called 'Flirting With Disaster' with Ben Stiller. I realized that I am really not a good actor and not something I wanted to pursue.

An actor will use every piece of information at their disposal, or a good actor will.

Always when I directed the play, I was always trying to cast people not who were necessarily like the characters, but people who I felt had the essential component that the character had, some kind of soul for it.

One of the first auditions I had in New York was for a commercial where I had to go in and audition to be a snake charmer... It was either some bank commercial or something where they wanted a guy charming a snake... I remember they wanted to know if I actually knew how to snake charm.

I only want to work with actors that really get it and make it work. I didn't want it to be a star-driven thing anymore.

I always used to say, as a director, that I could make anybody good in a movie if you found the right part. It all comes down to casting.

Actors are always looking for actor-proof parts. A part so good you can't screw it up!

Casting is everything. I put a huge amount of work into casting, and consistently across my career, I am most proud of my bold choices I made in casting.

A director should cast a person who fits into their script.

If a film is being made by an intelligent director, they're going to cast the right guy.

Am I a good actor? I don't think about it. But I'm working on it.

There are so many people who come to me to be an actor, but I select only those people who I feel can fit my script. If they do, I immediately say yes. I don't do screen tests. I talk to them and see how their mind functions. I read their mind and cast them.

There are directors who don't cast you for the way you act but for the way you are, the way you behave around the dinner table.

The better the actor I am acting with, the better my performance gets.

Ryerson helped me because I was around acting all the time. It was pretty much all I thought about, even if I didn't really get to practice every day; I definitely thought about it. Actually a lot of it was just sitting and watching, especially in my last year, but I think a good actor learns from everything.

Bill Murray, we've got to get people worthy to be on the screen with him, as opposed to just a bunch of random… with no disrespect… but a bunch of random local actors.

Talent is out there. But sometimes it doesn't work. You're going to find people who you think are wonderful, and the minute you turn on the camera, they just don't understand the concept of acting.

I don't normally think of a specific actor. I concentrate on the character, and then when we get into pre-production, that's how names come up.

I want to prove that actors are good, not just at working in front of the camera.

You have actors you've worked with previously, and you have actors you haven't worked with that you've seen in things where you know they can work in these parts. And then there are actors who blow you away, who surprise you.

Foremost is the casting; you need convincing faces. Most of our films suffer from casting.

There are two main jobs in acting - the first one is to be a good actor, and the second one is to convince everyone that you're a good actor.

A big fear of working with an actor that's never been a lead in a film before is that you're going to have to work really hard to pull a performance out of her.

As an actor, you're pretty much a hired gun. You are reading other people's words off of a page and doing what they want you to do.