Ben Kingsley Quotes

I worked with the same trainer that worked with Denzel Washington in THe Hurricane. It was three months of training, five days a week, 4 to 5 hours a day. This was followed by a month of choreography.

As soon as I have the script in my hand, I'll be up in my apartment room pacing up and down learning it because it's just such a lovely thing to do.

I usually mug up my Telugu dialogues much before going to the sets every day.

I normally go through every single line as part of my warm-up before a show. When I'm working on a film or TV programme, there often isn't a rehearsal, so I tend to learn my lines much later. They are often shorter, too, so they're essentially just there.

It's stressful to keep doing audition after audition after audition. You finish one and go to the next one, and you have to learn lines. For me, I have to work on my accent, so I was getting accent coaching and acting coaching. I wanted to make good impressions.

So you have the challenge of just learning the lines, period, and not only learning them, but learning them to the extent that you assimilate them, so that you're not worried about what the next word is coming out of your mouth when it comes to doing a scene. And you're also in the trenches with the writers, just in the wonderful kind of back and forth of how is it best to say something, even if it involves four or five words. I love that kind of thing.

I just try to remember my lines most of the time.

Practice your improv more than learn your lines. 'Cause there's no way you'll be able to learn all those lines in a short time. You have to realize what you know and what you don't know - and what you don't know, just come up with three alternate lines or improv that you can put in that spot.

Whenever you read interviews with actors, they always seem to be given three months to do something - get fat, get skinny, learn card tricks.

I never actually do rehearsals. That's one of the reasons that I write those bios and if I can meet with the actors I'll meet them or talk to them on the phone. What I want is for them to come on set knowing their lines and knowing who the character is.

I think you get the most honest performances when an actor shows up to set with their lines memorized. That's a very important thing that a lot of people seem to forget.

Jennifer [Lawrence] and Josh [Hutcherson] seem very, very grounded. They're getting down to the film like they did last time.

Be brief, that the mind may catch thy precepts, and the more easily retain them.

It's not that demanding. It's fun. That's one of the great things about being an actor. You get to learn all these things normal people don't get to learn. Going through hallways where it's basically like S.W.A.T. tactical stuff. Around hallways, how to cross, how to signal everyone. Then how to hold a gun, holster the gun - everything.

[In acting] I like the fight scenes because you don't have to remember lines.

I hate the word "method acting." It's just so silly. You hear people going, "Yeah I'm a method actor." I'm like, "So what happens if you're playing a period film or something? You're in the Second World War. And what happens when your mom calls you on your phone? Do you go, 'Oh! What is this strange talking brick device?'" No. It's stupid. But you do everything you can to get in that mindset.

I watch a lot of television and I watch a lot of film and I hate when you watch the action sequences - and I always tell when they use a stunt man - and then they put the actor in and you can tell these actors haven't done anything.

If you're a theater director, you're not going to be prepared for the technical side. And if you're a technical director, you're not going to be prepared for the acting side. The only thing you can do is go through the meat grinder of your first film.

I was lazy. I would have been a hell of a lot better actress had I taken it more seriously. I never had the proper respect for acting. Quite often, I learned my lines on the way to the studio.

When you make many films with the same actors you can develop a special understanding with them. I love working with people I know and that I trust.

Some actors might just do one thing, and another actor does another thing. I do an awful lot of preparation with the script, really. What I do is repeat the script, over and over and over again. Through that, it's almost like it seeps into my enamel. I'm reading all the characters, as well as my own. That is where the bulk of my preparation goes into.

We rehearsed for two weeks [in "Fences"], and we taped out the whole house in the front, and the rooms, and we stood it up like a play. We tried to get off book and gave people small props.

For movies like The Longest Ride, I got to hang out with cowboys at rodeos and learned how to ride a bull, essentially.

The whole point of making a film is to tell a story. That seems to be forgotten. Many films today just rely on special effects and they have an explosion every five minutes. Who needs it? It's rather repetitious.