Joe Mantello Quotes

I sit every once in a while and I think about plays and films I can do with William Petersen into our eighties. He's the most incredible scene partner I've ever had.

I don't know if you ever say to yourself that you want to be an actress. It eventually becomes a social function - you are an actress and you make a living out of it, but at the beginning it's more a matter of how to survive, or how to exist in a certain way.

There's a tremendous amount to be gained from being a performer, and being an artist, and being an actor.

I've always loved acting with adults versus like the whole High School feel.

I love acting, every job is a dream job when you're an actor. I'd like to do eventually more film work and to collaborate with the best actors and directors in film.

Well every moment, every project is different. I took a very slow approach to acting, trying to really work with people I could learn from. And I got something different out of each experience.

The idea for actors is to make a living telling stories, so if you can do that, then you're way ahead of the game.

When I got into drama school, that's when I knew that I could safely say that I wanted to be a professional actor.

I became an actor by doing school plays and youth theaters, and then National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. And then I did study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. For me that was a good way to enter the field, to work in the theater.

I started in community theater at 7 years old. I loved being on stage and performing. At the time, I didn't correlate that the stuff I was doing on stage was the same thing that I was watching in my favorite films.

The reason I wanted to be an actor is that I don't want to play me for the rest of my life and make money out of that.

I want to walk the bases - I want to do all the actor-y stuff.

I've been in leadership roles on Broadway, and it's one thing to lead a Broadway company - you're with those people for a year straight, and you're doing that same show, eight shows a week. It's quite another when you carry on the story... You go beyond that, and you ride the wave of a character.

I was really an actor before I knew I could sing. And I just put the two together and went to musical theater school. But acting is a huge passion of mine, so it doesn't matter which medium as long as I have the opportunity to grow and to learn from a piece of work and work with good people, and on a very good-quality project.

I am a director's actress in general - I depend a lot on them.

When I lived in Ojai, I did community theater, and I was intrigued by acting.

I came from a theater background and always wanted to act.

It's a great experience as an actor to just work loads all the time. Constantly getting through material.

It took me a while to figure out what kind of work I needed to do. I worked with directors like Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh. I wanted to do interesting roles.

What I can say, categorically, is that working with Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates will have been the most formative experience for me, as an actor, for the rest of my life.

When I did 'Cyrano' for Roundabout, I was originally supposed to direct and play the title role, but I quickly realized that was madness, and we called in Jamie Lloyd, who directed me in Osborne's 'Inadmissible Evidence.'

Acting is a career where you keep learning with every film you do.

One of the things I love about acting is that there is always scope for growth.

I have realised I am a director's actor.

I always wanted to be an actor, and I wanted to be a part of good movies. Wherever I get to do these two things, it's enough for me.