Paul Dano Quotes

I think my concerns are the same as every actor. Can I find this character and make it come to life properly?

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

I have just gained a deeper and deeper respect for acting and the whole art of it because you're really trying to live a life and to do the best justification for it.

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 love an acting challenge, and I love getting to sit down with my script and do all my drama work.

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

All actors bring something unexpected to the role because they have to translate what's on the page and make a real character out of the black-and-white text that's there in the script.

Talking to actors is the same as talking to any other artists; it's getting into the moment for them, and making sure they can lose themselves in the performance!

The process of rehearsal means you learn so much and really get the chance to develop your work on a character.

I think I approach everything as an actor first. I'd rather walk onto a set and just act and just worry about that.

Your job as an actor is to piece together whatever you've learned in your training, or whatever you have experienced in your life, to piece together a person.

I think sometimes you can think up a story, but it's because you're comfortable doing that, but when you're an actor, one of the things that you have to do is take yourself out of your comfort zone.

I would like to portray something that would challenge the actor in me.

In order to make Alma innocent and open, I had to forget that I'm stressed as an actress because I'm making a film with Paul Thomas Anderson. I had to let go of everything and hold onto the text. The language was like a rope I could cling onto and make my way blindfolded through the shooting.

As an actor, you think you know your craft, you know the conflicts in your character, but often you don't.

I learned a tremendous amount about dialogue because I suffered as an actor.

It's always a mystery when you're going into a role - 'Here's your wife of 40 years and... action!' How do you create ease or chemistry or whatever is supposed to exist?

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.

As a filmmaker I find it much more rewarding to work with actors who are classically trained. It's about the work and only the work.

As an actor, you are in a unique position because you're not only memorizing dialogue but really embodying it. You naturally feel the rhythm of good writing.

My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it.

My mentor Jon Simmons introduced me to the Stanislavski system, which is so heavy on back-story. So you write and write and write these back stories about a character and then you throw it away. So then on set, if it doesn't come, then you didn't do your work.

One of my main techniques for acting is I try to know almost nothing beyond the words that I have to say, because that's my zone of control.

In my career, there have been three things that were challenging: playing gay; playing a Jewish woman; and playing Chekhov. The scariest part was playing Chekhov!

When there's no technical problems, if you did the right casting, and the scene is well written, the actor will give you a strong performance with his intuition right from the start.