Bruce Beresford Quotes

For me the voice is the most important, but making your singing believable makes a great performer.

It definitely helps to have the acting experience going into singing, because when you're singing, you have to portray the emotion you were feeling when you wrote the song. They're the same thing, in a way; it's expressing your emotions through words.

The way I teach people to sing... I have them talk the lyric out until it sounds like something they really believe, like an actor with a monologue.

I've always believed you should sing songs you can really put yourself into. I think the emotion you put into it is just as important as singing the notes.

As a singer, you have to bring the soul to the song.

I don't think the singers take it as seriously as we used to. The words, the meaning, the phrasing, the feeling of the song. They see the words, they know the tune and they just sing it.

I think an actor without life experiences is empty.

Whenever I start to really think about what I'm playing, I may play it better musically, but the feeling isn't there.

You know, when I did 'American Idol' the three times, I tried to tell these kids you have to tell the story of the lyric.

If you start to disrespect the character you're playing, or play it too much for laughs, that can work for a sketch, it will sell some gags, but it's all technique. It's like watching a juggler - you can be impressed by it, but it's not going to touch you in any way.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

Nobody sang better than my mom. That's why I've never even thought of singing for singing sake. I've always thought of a song as an acting piece, as a way to say something.

An actor matures with experiences, and the more the emotions he/she has been through, the greater the intensity of performances.

Singing isn't always about being on key; it's about emotionality.

Being in front of all these people staring at you and it helps you to dig down and become more emotional and get lost in it as you're feeding on people's energy.

Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

My advice to singers is always the same: 'Don't sing the song, sing the lyric.'

When you see a singer on stage who is 100% committed to the personality, character and temperament of the role being sung, it's truly awesome and very powerful.

But the throat just kind of falls into line once you realize in your head what it is. You got to remember the musicality of a character you're going to do.

I think being in touch with your emotions is very key as an actor, and I think experiencing life is the only way to be in touch with your emotions.

My No. 1 piece of advice, especially for someone who's an actor-singer-dancer - a triple threat, they're called! - people say, 'What's the most important?' I always say acting. Without knowing why you're singing or what you're singing about, it's just noise. And without knowing why you're moving your body, it's just flailing of arms.

Sometimes you read things that people don't even notice in a performance, that you just are moved by or understand that this actor is really living his or her life on the screen. The first time I realized that was when I watched Brando in 'On the Waterfront.'

The beauty of acting is you just get lost in it. You play the character, and you hope that it works.

All good actors are actresses. The more like a woman they are, the better they act, because a man's salvation is his femininity. Women have stronger sensibilities than men, which allows them to go a bit deeper when they are on and off the stage.