Harvey Keitel Quotes

I'm not a method actress.

There are a lot of actors who will sit here and talk to you about characters - 'He does this, and she's a really interesting character because she does this.' I'm not like that at all. I'm not an actory actor.

Oh my goodness me, Daniel Day-Lewis - huge, huge fan of his. I've always loved his philosophy on acting: he always talks about returning to a state of play.

While I deeply admire actors who deeply prepare, it's just not something I do.

The truth is, I'm a character guy. That's how I see myself. I always see the role as being far more interesting and important than I am... not all actors approach it that way.

I'm not a method actor. I can't even explain so much what I do.

I am not one of those actors who dwells on the histrionics and the subtext and future text of the character. I deal with the scenes that I'm doing at that specific time, because if I do that, they play in more of a real way.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

I'm not a big method actor. I'm much more superficial.

My approach to the work is the same, whether I had the lead or a supporting role. I consider myself a character actor in the true sense of the word. Unless I'm doing my autobiography, I'm playing a character.

I don't like to intellectualize about my acting. I don't sit around and study the pages of a script over and over again.

I've always been a material-based actor. That's what I've done, the choices I've made - like a heat-seeking missile.

My approach to acting is the 'let's pretend' school of acting.

People talk about method actors, meaning someone that's prepared very, very well, or whatever they mean when they talk about it. But the right method is whatever works for you. And what works for me on any given day is going to be different.

Most American actors are taught the Stanislavsky method... Method acting, but I really think that as an actor you have to develop what works for you. There is really not one way of doing anything. There are many ways of achieving the same goal.

I don't personally look to my own life experiences for answers about how to play a scene.

I don't have any theories about acting, and I don't think about how to do it, except that an actor shouldn't take himself too seriously, and shouldn't try to make acting something it isn't.

I'm a task-oriented actor. A pretender. And I try to invent my process anew each time I make a new project. So I frown on any method.

You want to go into scenes thinking not that you're the good guy or the bad guy, but that you've got a job to do. And I'm not talking about as an actor; I'm talking about as the character.

When you get to set, you don't try to play the plot; you just play the character.

For better or worse, I don't necessarily categorize myself as a method actor; I'm not going to make claims that I stayed in character 24/7.

I like method actors who don't focus on the glamorous side, but on realistic acting.

I never do any research for my roles.

I never really thought I was a method actor or anything like that.

I am not into method acting.