Barry Levinson Quotes

As a young actor, it's important to see how the greatest in the industry work... diva behavior is never it.

Some actresses are just insane. I've never worked with a nasty actress - they're all absolutely delightful. But completely barking.

There are quite a few actors in the business who are much more difficult than kids or monkeys.

When you work with actors, what you're hoping to absorb is good ways to be an actor as opposed to how to handle being famous.

I don't call cut between the takes - it's my way to help the actor keep focused. As soon as you say 'cut' you have 10 people jumping on them and everybody's trying to do a great job, and they do, but sometimes they forget that the more important thing is the performance, creating the performance.

I've worked on shows where the lead actor doesn't know their lines, doesn't care, and it affects everybody - the crew, the director, the other actors. It's definitely a responsibility.

Honestly, soaps are great training. You're doing 90-plus pages a day. It was my acting class, where I built my foundation for showing up and being professional.

The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it's disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.

When someone says 'Action,' you just get on with it and hope that that is translated onto the screen for other people to see. All you can ever do is work as hard as you can on it and make sure you're doing your job.

It was nice working with a jolly team in 'Gangaa.' I was well-acquainted with the production team, which was same on 'Balika Vadhu.'

Sometimes - and I don't mean it disrespectfully - the easiest people to work in the wrestling business are the people in the locker room.

I want to prove that actors are good, not just at working in front of the camera.

For a two-hour movie on a 20-day shooting schedule, it's O.K. to have an actor who's a pain in the neck.

Everyone who comes to the entertainment industry wants to be a film actor. Who wants to be a television actor by choice? I want to change the perception of Indian television as being the poor man's medium.

It doesn't matter what people think about you, so long as they get the play through your performance. Only a few not very good actors go in for self-advertisement.

It's my life's aim to make people understand the job of an actor, what they go through, and why they are such a protected species. People see the glamour part of it. But there's so much stress that often you don't even pay attention to the luxuries.

I think acting is boring because you have to sit for a long time. And being a director I am used to running around and being busy on sets. I lack the actor software.

Everybody knows I work every single day, I never rest, and I always work to give my best to the fans.

We've got a great deal of respect for each other on camera as well as off, no matter what it might occasionally look like.

I love acting, though I don't like the frills around it - red-carpet appearances, dressing up to look a certain way.

All I can say is I am lucky I have never had any misunderstandings with my co-stars.

It was a pleasure to have somebody else be the boss. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun any other way. He's been around and made a lot of movies and he's a great straightforward person to work for. And it was a pleasure to see other people to pick up characters that you've sketched out loosely on paper and make them into something fascinating.

I don't know what I am on set. I can be many different things on set depending on how stressful a situation is. But at the end of the day we're making movies, we're not saving the world... we're not an army, no one's lives are at risk and we're just trying to make art, so I think as long as you keep reminding yourself that's what it's about you can have fun.

If the director's a communist, whatever, he's a communist. All I care is that he directs. For the actor, the same thing. All you really care is that he comes in and performs.

The crew, the actors and the writers all work the same way. We always want to do the best job.