Kevin Macdonald Quotes

Whenever I wear things that feel too tight or dig in that's always a clear understanding that I'm not going to feel good that day.

It's much easier to cry or be angry, but to really laugh and genuinely be buoyant and laugh. That's hard if you don't really feel that way.

Instead of trying to manufacture feelings, use the way you already feel. Or at least add that in.

One of the key emotions a lot of people seem to be feeling is disillusionment, and what I try to do as a lyricist is touch on these emotions.

I think when a man shows his true emotions, it's a really good indicator off what he is.

I can't be manic without it feeling false to me.

Cinema became what it is today when technology allowed movie directors and actors to develop emotion. You can see into the eyes of the actors and know when they are going to cry.

I became obsessed with the true stuff, and that led to shaping 'The Way Back' screenplay somewhat toward a minimalist style, to avoid free-hanging moments, and to hold the music back, so it would never lead you to an emotion, and to try to make the emotions as real as I could.

I think a lot about the editing of the films when we're making them, partly because I studied that, and partly because if you think about being in love while you're supposed to be acting in love, there's nowhere to go. You have to focus on something else and then do what's being asked, and you might get some semblance of something interesting.

It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have.

I can tell when an actor's forcing tears, and it's tricky because you then have to film it and edit in a certain way to skirt around the issue.

To tell someone not to be emotional is to tell them to be dead.

People act on the outside the way they feel on the inside.

When you're on set and you professionally listen to what the other actors have to say, then the emotion is naturally evoked.

For me, what makes great actors, always is how truthful they are to the character and the story and the emotion that they're trying to tell.

I find a fence a very uncomfortable place to squat my bottom.

Theater is such a different ballgame than film. And that's really why I stayed in film, because I really love the reality of connecting with your own feelings, and really putting that across in a realistic way. In film, the smallest muscular movements in your face, that are produced just by sheer feelings, you're not controlling them in anyway, can be seen by people in the audience because your face is sometimes, frighteningly, 40 feet wide!

As Uta Hagen would say, there's the representational actor and the presentational actor. My sister [Maggie Gyllenhaal] came up to me recently after she saw this movie, Southpaw, the movie I did, and she thought there was this exploration of that type of presentation, and a bit of representation as well, if I could be totally honest, where she was deeply moved.

I've been in scenarios as an actor where you have to manufacture an emotion that's not really there, but it wasn't hard with Halle because she's a great person and very beautiful, so it ain't a tough job at the end of the day.

Very often, when you're playing people who love each other, or who hate each other, you manufacture those feelings. You have to do that a lot.

The study of acting consists in the main of getting out of one’s own way, and in learning to deal with uncertainty and being comfortable being uncomfortable.

It's not like I prepare anymore, or have to think about my son being dead to get emotional. If you're working with a good actor and you're reacting off of them and you have a good script, it just comes organically. It's just stored in your body. So that emotion will just be brought out of you, as opposed to trying to force it.

Playing a drunk doesn't mean being a drunk, only bad actors try to be drunk. A real drunk tries to be sober, he wants another drink. How a character hides their feelings tells us who they are, no one shows their feelings except bad actors.

The important thing in acting is to be able to laugh and cry. If I have to laugh, I think of my sex life. If I have to cry, I think of my sex life.

It's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself