India Eisley Quotes

I think it always helps when you build a character, and then, you actually step into that character's wardrobe, something else happens. Another angle of the character comes to life.

Whenever I switch from one character to another, there's always a few days where I really struggle because I'm changing voices and I'm changing ways of looking at the world. I'm not just flicking a switch; it's harder process than that.

Transformational acting was the reason why I became an actor in the first place. Your hair and make-up and the costume are the tools that you have, and it makes you feel like that person. When you look in the mirror, you don't feel like yourself, and it changes the way you move. I love that stuff.

I do tend to play characters that have a lot of costume and hair change. I sort of like the change of physicality thing.

That was the fun of acting, being a blank canvas you could transform into the character - Indian princess, 20s vamp, Mother Courage, Oxford don, 94-year-old wife.

What I like about acting is that you can be a different person every day.

A lot of male actors are method actors and they become the characters which they both were.

I've done a few costume dramas, and people say, 'What was it like wearing the costumes? Did they really help you with your character?,' and most of the time it doesn't make any difference. You're wearing something a bit weird, and it's sort of uncomfortable, but it doesn't really have a huge impact on the part that you're playing.

I love playing 'Madame Vastra.' Although I do suffer, spending three-and-a-half hours in make-up every morning to have her lizard skin put on. I was so excited the first day when we did the make-up test, but after six hours, I was like, 'Can we finish now?'

You have to be completely in the character, and that's so hard to do. That's why, when they call, 'Cut!,' you often feel yourself shift. Unless you're Daniel Day Lewis, who stays in character all the time, there's a switch that happens.

Suffice it to say, every actor works differently. Laurence Olivier would put on his costume and when the wardrobe was right, he was in character. That sounds superficial, but it's true, and look at the results.

When you get all this stuff on and you put on the guns and the hair, it has an effect on the actor. It tends to lend a certain something to the way you feel as you're just walking around looking that way.

You have to let the costume inform you.

I feel like when you perform in a period drama, it's so easy to transform yourself into someone else because the costumes are so different.

When a role involves physical transformation, it helps build the character better.

For an actor to create a different look for every film is not easy.

In normal life, we are all sweet and not vamp. So, to play a villain a lot of focus is required.

The clothes, the shoes, the gold belts and the necklaces always click me into the character, for sure. You could not feel the character, and then you put on the shoes and get the walk.

What's wonderful about acting is that you get to play different roles. For instance, in 'Amelie,' I played a young mother. Some of the photoshoots, you're playing a role. I like to be able to look at a photo and say, 'Wow - that isn't even me.' I enjoy being able to project.

You try, as an actor, to wear a mask; you're serving a story.

When I played Candy Darling in 'I Shot Andy Warhol,' that was easy to play that part. They made me into a woman: I'm in heels; I'm waxed. I'm gonna find the femininity and lay on the bed and take the voice of an old movie star.

The actor is there to translate what's on the page onto the stage or the screen. So I find it important that an actor manages to actually get out of the way, vanish as a person behind the character, never to be seen or talked about again. That's my philosophy.

The only way I know how to do something, as cheesy as it sounds, is to become that character, and it affects me in a not so healthy way.

There's a great tradition of actors taking on parts of much less obvious sympathy.

Instantly when I'm acting, I kick into Frank Agnew face.