Jim Cummings Quotes

I can't do an accent unless I'm on the set. I forget how to do it until I'm on the set.

I think the buzz of acting is playing people different to you, and for me, that means traversing all genres.

That's the thing about acting - it does have the feeling of downhill skiing. When it's really all going right, you know your lines, you know what's important to your character, you pick the strongest reactions possible to elements in the story. But then you let it all go and you're in the moment and stuff happens. It surprises you and it's super strong; it's like you're living life in a slightly heightened way in the time between "action" and "cut."

You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over again and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment.

I've done films where we don't rehearse, and I've done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.

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

I've never done an improvised movie as a fictitious character. I think that's the challenge.

I always enjoy impersonating my characters in the first-person singular.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.

Coming from theater, and having been to acting school, and done little, small Australian independent movies, a lot of the time, it's always about character.

I just love the process of working with other actors. It's like jamming with a musician, except it takes a little more effort to get to that place as an actor, because you have the cameras and lights and everything. But I love jamming with these people.

I would quite like to do a different accent or play something so different from myself because Olivia, the character I play in this film, is similar to me.

In films you do a scene, you play around with it and unless you're doing a lot of reshooting, which no one has the luxury to do, you deal with the problem for a day and then you move on. On some level, it never allows you to go very deep into what performing is about.

Good actresses can often accomplish miracles, and it is possible to be someone you've never been or will be. But in a sitcom, there's no time.

I love playing characters with different accents. It's a lot of fun.

In the moment of acting you don't feel like anything, you feel like the person, as much as you can.

As actors, you play people who are not yourselves!

By being an actor, one can explore various personalities of a human being, be that person, behave and live that person's life, and then you are back to your normal life.

I have played a few lay saints in my time.

When you're doing a play that's fully produced, you have the benefit of rehearsing for four or five weeks, so you really get to live in the skin of the character for much longer than when you first start doing a character on TV.

How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.

For me and for I'm sure any actor, each role is a different challenge to prepare for in a different way.

I played a real nasty little girl but most of the roles I had up until then were very sweet and very nice.

As an English actress constantly playing Americans, you already had to step way out of your box in that way.