Lorraine Toussaint Quotes

You get the information, and it's not your job to judge it or not judge it. You adapt, and you do it. That's what we do as actors. We're just as surprised as the viewers, sometimes.

I've always believed acting is an improvisational art form, even when not a single line is changed. I mean, the behavior should always be improvised. My favorite moments in any performance are when I'm just along for the ride; when I'm surprising myself. I know when I'm done and I think to myself, 'Gee, I didn't see that coming,' I've done well.

I prefer to surprise myself as I'm writing. I'm not interested in it if I already know where it's going. So I have only the most general sense of what I'm doing when I start a story. I sometimes have a destination in mind, but how the story is going to go from Point A to Point Z is something I make up as I go along.

As for doing more dramatic work over comedy, I do whatever turns me on at the moment.

Being on 'The Following' is constantly flying by the seat of my pants. The story can change and the character can change at a moment's notice.

Sometimes you don't want to get married too much to a lot of rehearsing, I feel, when it comes to film, because there's so many technicalities. So if I'm in my head, I've gotten settled on something, I'm gonna have to change it if I get there and something was set that's completely different.

I love being the character actor. I get to stretch my muscles a little more.

I've always found that acting has been quite a hard thing to pre-manage because so much of it is spontaneous and the circumstances so uncontrolled.

I start with a character and a situation, but I don't know what's going to happen until I write it. Sometimes things happen that surprise me.

The longer I've been doing this, the more I've realized that you have no idea what kinds of roles are possible for you - dream roles can take you by surprise. That being said, I need to play Hamlet one day. I'd also love to be in a play that I have written myself.

The thing I love about sketch is sometimes it leads you as opposed to you leading it.

You can't really plan with acting!

As an actor, I go with the flow.

I typically try not to think too hard about what I'm going to do in a certain scene with a certain actor in a certain moment because I think that kind of lends its way to not being as improvisational and sort of carefree as one would hope.

I like to leave things open, and even when I write out the story ahead of time, it always changes. I don't think I would finish anything if I was sticking to a plan that was very rigid.

I don't plot, and I don't plan. I like to be surprised like the reader.

You learn your lines as well as you can and you go in there and go with whatever is thrown at you. Sometimes you don't know whether or not they're going to break the scene up, so you don't have to do it all at one time.

I don't think I had a script on 'King Kong.' But usually you read a script and then you go and audition for it. It's rare when there's no script. I sort of like the latter better, because I'm more successful at it.

I personally take cues directly from the script, then I like to surprise the other actors. But you must maintain control on a level and see how far you can go up, down or out emotionally. You have to balance the craft with spontaneity.

Well, I love acting, and I love acting quick.

When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven't planned to try to see if I can pull it off.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story tell itself.

You don't know what inspires you. You like to think you know what inspires you, but in the final analysis I don't think you really do. It's great to look at a blank sheet of paper, you know, and walk up to an instrument and not know what's gonna happen. It's the most challenging thing I do.

With theatre, you have to be ready for anything.