Philip Seymour Hoffman Quotes

Acting has always been something I've wanted to get into. I think the best models are actors; you're taking on a character. In that sense, I have been acting for a long time. It didn't seem like a crazy transition.

Obviously, I play a villain in 'Downton Abbey'. As an actor, you want to get a variety of roles, so to be offered the part of Joe, it was perfect.

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.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

When you shoot a film, you have very little time to waste, and I try to go into the character as soon as possible and stay there as much as I can.

I want to go back into acting again.

I usually get out of my roles easily when dramas end.

As you know, before entering the glamorous world of Bollywood, I was into theatre, where I played varied roles, from a lover boy to a servant.

I expect at some point I'll probably want to go back on stage and do some theater, because I've not done theater in 10 years.

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

Until Genevieve I had tended towards the more dramatic type of role.

Stage is definitely my home first and foremost - I still feel like I'm yet to earn my stripes on set.

The thing about 'On the Doll,' I was doing 'Nip/Tuck' at the time, and I was doing only 5 or 6 scenes an episode. So I had some free time, and I wanted to do something completely different than what I've ever done before.

When you do a play, or even a movie, you have weeks to finesse your character. You really understand why they do what they do. In TV, you get new material weekly about your character.

I started taking acting classes when I was twelve.

So I regard my part in Genevieve as a real challenge.

When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters.

I'm still fighting really hard to get any role I get. If it's comedy, I go for the laughs. And if it's drama, I try to tell the truth, and try to play the real stakes of whatever scenario the character's in.

For seven years I did very little theatre, and I have to make up some time.

I've been on projects before where there's no rehearsal, and you walk in on set and that's literally the first time you've ever played the character, and then I've had times where there's been three weeks of rehearsal. I like both.

I'm supposed to be a pretty good theater actor.

I didn't really understand what you did when you went in front of the camera. And then suddenly I just understood it. When you're in a play, you carry the story, but you don't have to do that in film.

When you do a play, you have all this time to rehearse and grow into the character. In television, even though you're waiting and waiting and waiting, once you're actually on set engaging in the scene with another actor, time is of the essence.

I loved my role in 'Learning to Drive.' It was so different.

As an actor, you want roles that are full of meat.