Kiernan Shipka Quotes

It takes me some time to get into what I am doing - since I am not a trained actor, I don't have that skill. I have to think of what I am doing and how it comes through.

As an actor, I've grown considerably. It's taken me years to get comfortable doing a romantic scene and dancing on stage in front of a live audience. I've really opened up a lot.

I do whatever I need to do to get into character. Sometimes it's being incredibly quiet, and sometimes it's being loose and goofy.

I've done films where we don't rehearse, and I've done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.

You know, I've never been much of a method actor. I feel like, with every project I go in extremely prepared and I like to have a good time.

I learned more doing 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' than I did during three years at drama school.

Sometimes a scene works and acting is the easiest thing in the world and you don't have to do much of anything - just enjoy yourself and listen to the other actor. When it doesn't work, then every actor has different ways of dealing with the impasse. Sometimes you use memories from the past. Whatever. It depends from job to job.

I find that the acting's getting easier - with experience, everything is more instinctual.

Good actors, especially when they know their character, will come in and either tell you in advance that they have an idea, or in the middle of the rehearsal or the scene they'll let it loose and you go, 'Ah that's great.'

I was a theater actor back in the U.K., and you knew the whole play, so you could plot your storyline and character. And then I did 'Lost' and didn't know, and it was kind of frustrating, but I enjoyed it.

My acting coach makes the impossible accessible.

Because I trained in theater, I always leave a film shoot feeling like I haven't done anything, like I just sat in front of the camera and whispered, essentially.

I think when you're acting, you usually don't have to know too much beyond how to pronounce the words you're saying.

When I first did 'Best in Show,' I had never done any improvisation.

Sometimes fake laughing is hard once you've done a scene 18 times. I don't want to brag, but I have a reputation for being very, very good at that. It's funny finding what's challenging about acting as you go.

It's not like every actor needs to train, but an actor will either develop their process through training or through working.

Honestly, I'm a shallow performer. I just go with the text and feel my way around it. There's not a whole lot of shaping.

I find acting slightly nerve racking, but I like the challenge.

As an actor, you're constantly looking to be pushed.

I don't do rehearsal. Some directors prefer to do rehearsal - readings before the actual shooting - but I don't like this process because I think there are certain things that are so spontaneous, and they cannot happen twice.

For me, there's nothing more valuable as an actor, or better way to learn, than getting to perform in front of a live audience, no matter where you are. Whether it's on Broadway, in Florida, or doing a tour.

As the actor, you can't be worried about the scene that you're going to playing two days from now. You think about what's going on right now and in the moment. That's what you worry about.

I learned the process of this kind of acting, how things run, how chaotic it can be, and what kind of different muscles you have to flex.

Scorsese is a fan of improv and is always pushing actors to think up something that would make the scene more fun. He loves any idea that helps the scene be alive.

I've been to acting coaches and everything, but they had to open me up and all that, so now I'm getting better with it.