Angela Lansbury Quotes

Acting, it's the disappearance of self, disappearance of your own needs and your own wants and the kind of embracing of the character that makes it work.

I understand what it is that actors do. They embody someone that they aren't.

I do enter into character on set, but I can step out of it.

In acting you have to not be yourself. It's like whatever character is put on, you have to just to turn into that person.

I surprised myself, that I was in the tissue of the character enough, that I could actually come up with something that I didn't actually feel or didn't believe.

I love acting... I really do. I love crawling into another character's skin. That's something that I've always, always, always, always wanted.

All good actors are unpredictable, and a little crazy in a good way, because they feel more secure playing other people than themselves.

The idea of transformation - playing something I'm not - is the bit I enjoy most about acting.

Ultimately, the idea of acting is to understand the people you're playing, and then where they're coming from is not so mystifying. You've got to detox a bit after, though.

When I act, a part of me goes into the character I am playing.

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

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

What I learned about acting is that you become the character, like I became 'Timothy Green.'

In the moment of acting you don't feel like anything, you feel like the person, as much as you can.

I try to allow the spirit of the character to live through me. That's the only way I know how to approach acting. I have to live it.

As actors, you play people who are not yourselves!

By being an actor, one can explore various personalities of a human being, be that person, behave and live that person's life, and then you are back to your normal life.

When I'm playing a character, I don't wear perfume.

Any good actor is a character actor.

When I was in theater I was forever trying to inhabit a space which puts yourself under the microscope as an actor and your personality and your take on life, but actually through another portal of a character.

How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.

I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.

You have to play your characters, not like them.

Actors who say they can dive inside a character are either schizophrenic or lying.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.