Sian Clifford Quotes

I'm not a booky actor, I don't go away and do loads of reading up on a part, generally. I'm more interested in what the people we're portraying do physically, and looking at their sentence construction.

I think back story can help guide your choices, but when you're playing a scene, you're not making choices; you're just intuitive.

When there's no technical problems, if you did the right casting, and the scene is well written, the actor will give you a strong performance with his intuition right from the start.

A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.

As an actor, the only thing you have is your instinct and your imagination.

If you've had intimacy in your life, you can be intimate onscreen. I mean, come on - I didn't know how to hold a gun, but I could play a cop.

I'm not a Method actress. I work in the present, the day-to-day.

I don't really prepare for roles. I just kind of do them!

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

Well, I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.

Vary the pace... is one of the foundations of all good acting.

I think the first thing is don't give up. If you love the craft. If you love being a detective and discovering who a character is and the detail of how they walk and what kind of shoes they wear and what did they do yesterday and what's important to them. I definitely advise actors to learn about the craft.

I'm always looking, as an actor, for activities. I think it's far more interesting to watch what people do than what they say. You always want to watch behavior, because the dialogue as written by our illustrious leaders is great. Eminently playable.

The secret to acting is don't act. Be you, with add-ons.

When preparing a role, I work first on the body language and physical aspects of the performance; the psychological dimension comes naturally once I'm in character.

I love an acting challenge, and I love getting to sit down with my script and do all my drama work.

He wasn't really Method but he believed that when you did a role there were lots of things you could do with your co-star in order to create the right environment. You known, if you were supposed to be in love, to create that feeling between the two of you.

My mentor Jon Simmons introduced me to the Stanislavski system, which is so heavy on back-story. So you write and write and write these back stories about a character and then you throw it away. So then on set, if it doesn't come, then you didn't do your work.

Robert De Niro taught me how to listen, and how to be part of the conversation. It's not just about reading your lines and saying what's in the script; you have to understand your character, along with the other characters so that you can always respond.

Acting is reacting. You can't react if you're not paying attention, if you're not listening.

When you drop your guard in films, the acting process compensates. You get lazy and you start acting.

To be a great actor, you really don't need to go to acting school or learn dance classes or work on your body. You have to be intelligent. You have to draw on a lot of emotions that you go through in life that you can tap into once you work on a set.

Preparation is definitely important, but it depends on the kinds of roles I do. Like, I completely identify with my character in 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.' I had to be myself and I didn't have to actually prepare for it.

I'm not what you'd call a Method actor.