Anoushka Shankar Quotes

I always try to stick to the script because I want to respect the writers, and I want to respect the director. But if the director and my fellow actors are okay with me playing with it a little bit, then I definitely want to play with it.

The hardest thing is that I never do anything the same way twice, and when I'm on the air, I'm very unscripted, and I'm very comfortable in that role. So me being scripted is not a comfortable place for me.

My gigs are built on improvisation: I go out there and I'm like the Energizer bunny.

I've done a lot of television, and there's no rehearsal process - you have to come to the set with your guns blazing and with a point of view.

Studio work is very methodical, while live concerts must be very spontaneous.

I have a reputation for being an improvisational actor, which is true, but I also know what I'm doing so that if the improvisational strand doesn't work I can go back to what I know's already there.

Hopefully I'm bringing to rock n' roll the kind of spontaneity that I love, and always believed rock and roll stands for.

With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting, you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy, and have the cameras rolling.

I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story tell itself.

I don't rehearse with my actors... the first rehearsal is the first time we turn the camera on... Sydney Pollack never rehearsed his actors, and I found out that's allowed... so you film reactions; you don't create them.

With theatre, you have to be ready for anything.

No one set that I ever do is the same. I mean, if I go to a comedy club, and I perform three sets, all three sets are different because anything can happen in between sets.

The show is different every night, because I never write a setlist.

You can't plan everything - if I did a performance exactly how I rehearsed it, it would be so boring.

Sometimes I know a joke I'm going to yell out ahead of time, but most of the time it's stream of conscious. You never really know it until you've got everyone dressed up, the set is built, all the extras are here.

I don't plan an awful lot in life just as I don't plan an awful lot in my fiction.

There's something interesting about playing live; you're in the moment, and I think it would be beneficial.

Sometimes with films you have a freedom to be able to, Okay, we got that take so let's try another one where suddenly I'll say this, or you'll get to improv. You can't do that with stage. We have to make it new every time, and also within the structured settings.

Sometimes you don't want to get married too much to a lot of rehearsing, I feel, when it comes to film, because there's so many technicalities. So if I'm in my head, I've gotten settled on something, I'm gonna have to change it if I get there and something was set that's completely different.

The key is, if you're not monkeying around with the script, then everything usually goes pretty well.

With theater, you have to really be able to listen and to respond to other people on stage. You're all constantly on your toes. And then with film and television, you can get a second take and things like that.

In the theatre you can change things ever so slightly; it's an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all.

I'm open to anything. I would love to play someone completely off the wall.

I'd much rather do one or two takes of one thing and then see how it goes.

Improv training allows you to get out of your head a little bit and take more risks, which is something I would like to continue to improve upon.