Jeffrey Dean Morgan Quotes

I know from teaching that actors want to act. Even the subtlest actors can do a little too much.

I just don't believe you're capable of being an actor unless you have a desire to experience your emotions in a public way.

Acting coaches in Hollywood were always telling me to use my hands and body more. But that was never me. I just breathe and sometimes it doesn't look as if I'm doing that.

What you learn from studying acting is that you have to have the courage to just make strong choices.

As a young performer, I didn't know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it's not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the easier it is to let it go when it's done.

I had to learn a lot on 'Victorious' because I had never done multi-camera before. It's like music: You need to be on it, and there's no room for subtleties.

To put on a performance, you have to be emotional. You can't be a zombie.

If I do a song where I'm angry, when it's time to perform it live I'm not mad, I'm happy. I'm at a concert. But I have to somehow drum up that rage. That's acting.

The big difference between TV and theater is that you get to do a new play every week, so it's quite challenging, but it keeps you fresh. There's never any fear of getting stale in your performance.

Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

I think the best comedic actors don't play it for comedy, they play it for reality. Then you find it funny because it's real. Playing the genre is the worst thing you can do - it's embarrassing.

I would have to say that I have to concentrate more when I'm doing comedy. There are so many details that make up any character, but developing a character for a dramatic role seems to come more naturally.

One of the things I'm always reminded of when I'm back on stage is how much you have to be aware of and in control of. There is no tight shot. There is no 'we're only shoulders-up this time.' No, from the top of your head to your pinky toe, you're telegraphing part of the story the entire time you're up there.

Good acting is thinking in front of the camera. I just do that and apply a sense of humor to it. You have to trust the audience to get it.

On stage you need to emphasize every emotion. But on screen you need to tone everything down and make it believable.

A lot of the time, you're supposed to play to the top of your intelligence, as truthful as possible. But when you're on stage making people laugh, you're still acting. I think it helped me a bunch to go on stage two or three times a week.

What I learned is that acting is to a large extent about trying to stave off self-doubt long enough to be natural and real onstage.

I never feel more alive than when I'm on stage. On film you feel chopped up, you can be acting from the neck up, or the hand, there is a lot of close up.

When you're always onstage, you really have to focus on listening and reacting.

I know that one of my difficulties as an actor is to try to do too much, from all those years ago when my acting took place live on a stage. It was just my shiny face there, so you've gotta be super careful how much over-expressing you're doing with your eyes and nose and so on.

Playing King George, for me, was a lesson in stillness and timing.

It's always a long process of trying to suppress the self-doubt on set when you're acting.

People often tell me that they have no idea how I can do standup. The idea of trying to make a large group of strangers laugh is, for many, absolutely petrifying - and it is - but there are ways of gradually developing the material that can ease the fear.

As an actor, I draw from myself.

I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it.