Ken Loach Quotes

I was amazed by the kind of preparation Hollywood actors do for their roles.

I think acting really helps as a director. It's just no question, because you totally understand the acting process.

I like to prepare for my roles well, so you can call me a method actor to an extent.

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

When I shoot, I try to feel the body and the face and the weight of the actor, because the character until that moment is only in the pages of the script. And very often, I pull from the life of my actors. I'm always curious about what these characters and these actors are hiding about their lives.

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.

When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters.

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.

Now there are certain things you have to prepare - like dialect and special skills. But in the moment, interaction between two characters on the page doesn't need - for me, I don't need to prepare that.

I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.

In films you do a scene, you play around with it and unless you're doing a lot of reshooting, which no one has the luxury to do, you deal with the problem for a day and then you move on. On some level, it never allows you to go very deep into what performing is about.

You make a decision whether you just work on the script and believe in every moment and pick out every moment, or if you sit down and memorize lines. Once you really dig into a script, learning lines becomes almost second nature.

There's pre-production, and the second part is when you start rehearsal. Pre-production was a very large learning curve for me.

An actor will use every piece of information at their disposal, or a good actor will.

My preparation is mainly just knowing the lines and getting in and knowing where your character is, knowing what it's about and having ideas that you can put in on the day.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

I don't really prepare for roles. I just kind of do them!

I think back story can help guide your choices, but when you're playing a scene, you're not making choices; you're just intuitive.

In acting class, teachers talk about how the 'givens' of a situation help define a character.

Well, I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.

When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'

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

As an actor, one's role is very much to respond and react to the situation within the context of the character and his world.

It's not good just to have life experience of film-making and that's all. It's hard to play a real person when you've been in jets and town cars for three years.

All actors do that. Should do that and do that. For the most part. I say all actors. I'm exaggerating, but you know who does and who doesn't. Vince is a wonderful young actor who knows his work and did a beautiful job on this film.