Ellen Terry Quotes

The secret of being a great actor is a love of food.

I found acting tough; it takes a lot out of you if you have no technique.

Working with a great actor is really educational.

I thought the best route to being the great actor I wanted to be was to play the great classical parts.

A really great actor, in a lucky performance, can transform himself or herself. I've seen actors do that. But often it's a mechanical transformation, which isn't as interesting, and you've got to be careful how you go about something like that, I think.

My advice has always been to study the craft of acting if you want to be an actor. There are many great schools that teach acting. NYU being one of them.

Modeling is great because I don't have lines to memorize. But I find acting much more challenging - which is a good thing!

I know what my limitations are as an actor, but my strength is putting myself into a well-written part. When I get in trouble is when I have to fix it, or when I have to carry it on personality.

Good acting is really excellent carpentry.

I had the benefit of watching good people show me what it really is to be an actor - the day in and day out of it.

I'm grateful to be in school developing my practice as an actor. In that process, it's difficult to say that you've definitively 'learned' something.

Film acting is one of the only industries where you're criticized for working hard. In any other industry, it's considered a quality and something to behold.

Because I didn't go to drama school, I didn't start in the business with any toolbox apart from enthusiasm and instinct. I'd throw everything at a part and sometimes realise that I had hit my limits.

I took acting lessons when I was 19, 20, and I had my writing.

I had no real experience studying acting; I came to it having done other things for a living for many, many years, and I have this gigantic respect for experience and technique.

Film acting is really the trick of doing moments. You rarely do a take that lasts more than 20 seconds. You really earn your spurs acting onstage. I needed to do that for myself. I would hate to say at the end of everything that I never did a stage play.

In order to be a good actor, I'm a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table.

I would absolutely recommend for actors to start in the theater because it establishes a foundation in your craft that you can build off of.

I like to grow as an actor, and you can do that by playing parts that are unfamiliar to you and uncomfortable.

One of the great things about being an actor is that you have a completely different challenge every few months.

As an actor, acting is like playing a sport. You do this thing that's intangible, and while it's happening, it's great. But then when it's done, there's really no tangible product. Someone else is capturing it and turning it into something tangible.

I pick up a lot of stuff from them, but I don't think there's any great trick to acting.

I definitely think it exercises an interesting muscle, auditioning for bad parts and trying to figure out how to make it real. I don't know what I'm talking about now.

'Hollyoaks' is where I learnt a lot of the craft, being in front of a camera six days a week. That's certainly an experience you don't get in drama school. It invites you to be comfortable in front of the camera.

I think acting can be very frustrating, and there's no experience that doesn't make you a better actor.