Elaine Paige Quotes

I don't have a process; I just feel it. My book on acting would be very short.

As an actor, I trust my ear.

Mostly I work really unconsciously, and I think if the scenes are really well written, which they are, and if I just throw myself into it, I don't really think about it.

When I was starting out, doing guest spots on TV, and even commercials, I would go in with a whole crazy wardrobe and some terrible accent. Obviously, I was doing too much. If you bring too much flavor to it, it's absurd. There's something to just being spontaneous.

I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist.

Drama school can't make you a brilliant actor, but you can do stuff for three years - you're not going to be fired. You should just go for it all, even the stuff you think is codswallop.

I'm more interested in knowing my cues than my lines. If you know what your cues are, then you know what your reaction is going to be to them. Acting is about reacting, and if I can kind of purely react, that's easier for me.

I think one of the mistakes actors make is we're so focused on what we're going to say.

As an actor, being on autopilot is the worst thing possible.

One of the first lessons you learn as an actor is to listen.

If you've been in drama school for eight years, you've got teachers in your head all the time.

I just feel my way through. If I had to give an acting class, I wouldn't know what to do.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

All the things you can do to prepare for a role that free you, in the moment, are great. You have this muscle memory for things. You don't have to act it as much, once you've done it enough.

Any acting job that I ever got, I always treated it like I was a neophyte; I didn't know what I was doing, and I was going to work just as hard as I do on my stand-up.

On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact.

Acting to me is always reacting.

As an actor, your life experience is just as important as studying.

Most of my training at graduate school was geared towards drama, so I feel good about it, and I can do it, but it requires a lot more work from me. I feel like with drama... well, with all acting, really, you need to honor the truth of the situation.

I'm an actor and my job is to interpret.

I would be the worst acting coach ever, because I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm an actor. I love to create.

Frankly, acting doesn't scare me because I really enjoy it.

One of the most important things for an actor is to observe humanity.

Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.