Martin Landau Quotes

In other words, if a teacher only teaches in one way, then they conclude that the kids who can't learn well that way don't have the ability, when, in fact, it may be that the way the teacher's teaching is not a particularly good match to the way those kids learn.

I definitely think it exercises an interesting muscle, auditioning for bad parts and trying to figure out how to make it real. I don't know what I'm talking about now.

You have to get through the Hamlet hoop as a young actor. Your classical qualifications are based on the quality of your Hamlet. And then, as an older actor, you have to get through the Lear hoop. And I'm approaching the Lear hoop.

I really enjoy acting. I feel I'm getting better and better with each movie I make.

I find all of my performances come down to mathematics in a sense - how do you approach the problem of this character? Sometimes I crack that problem, sometimes I don't.

It strengthens the acting muscles to tap into other parts of yourself. When you can accomplish something that's unexpected, for you as well as the audience, that's really important. It's also very important if you want people considering you for other projects to broaden their view of you.

I run the Actor's Studio on the West Coast, and one of the things I say all the time to the people I teach - many of whom are acting teachers - is that an actor needs to make choices that make him present.

The reason I am a good actress, I think, is because the times when I didn't have a good part... and you think, 'What the hell do you do with it?' You have to figure something out.

I don't watch anything of mine much. I haven't gone to drama school, or college, either. I just like to watch other actors in action. I learned so much from working with De Niro. I'd be in a scene with him where I was supposed to be acting, and I was just watching.

I had many, many mentors that I worked with. Music teachers, choir directors, directors in summer stock or in regional theater. You know, people I was able to work with repeatedly and learn from who were really sort of appropriate people for me to work with at a given time in my development as an actor.

For me, as an actor, the challenge is mostly before the film starts when you have to get into the psychology of the character.

My acting teacher, Earle Gister. He had a genius for knowing exactly where every one of us were in our development as actors. He always knew precisely what to say or suggest to unlock a moment. He somehow always made it seem like it was our idea. I call him 'The Invisible Hand.'

I'm a craftsman type of teacher. I don't like the thematic type of teaching that takes place in a lot of colleges.

It's never the practice to shoot the scenes in the proper order. Sometimes you shoot the final scenes of a film before you've even started the beginning. So you get good at it because you have to sort of just eliminate the memories of something you've done as an actor, which you haven't done as the character yet. But it sometimes is a bit of a mind-f**k.

To be a teacher does not mean simply to affirm that such a thing is so, or to deliver a lecture, etc.

People think that unless you become the de-glam girl, who has horrible things happening to her, you're not really acting; all it takes to cry for the camera is some glycerine. Not doing anything is what's difficult; I know a lot of actors who will agree with me.

I think my concerns are the same as every actor. Can I find this character and make it come to life properly?

A director really doesn't deal with performance that much, especially if you deal with great actors. Their work is the performance. What you're helping them with is all the stuff they cannot be in control of.

I think any actor, if they had the choice, would opt for challenging roles that test their capabilities.

I always approach every play based on the cast. When Denzel and I did 'Fences,' I didn't go to rehearsals and say, 'OK, James Earl Jones did a wonderful job in '87. Let me see if you can come close to James Earl Jones.'

Coming from documentaries, my biggest challenge was to understand actors' psychologies. American actors take it all very seriously; British actors don't enter into all this methody way of doing things.

If you just stay with it and take it scene by scene, episode by episode, all of the questions that I have, as an actor, tend to answer themselves.

When I first started my acting career, I only knew what my acting teacher taught me. When a director gave me an impromptu direction, I didn't know what he wanted me to do, and I wanted to escape from the place.

I had to push exposition through dialogue, which is really, really hard for an actor do.

I think for an upcoming actress the biggest challenge is that sometimes there are situations when she has no luxury for rehearsals.