Lesley Manville Quotes

There isn't much improvisation in film - there's virtually none. The people that theoretically could be good at this in a theater situation don't necessarily do this in a film in a way that will work, because it's much broader on a stage.

I've found acting on stage much more challenging than on screen.

Any actor working a long time should know how a shot is set up, where to place themselves, how to handle the lines. I'm a member of the crew, like the best boy, the electrician. What I'm good at is making eyes at the camera.

Britain produces great actors because they learn on stage so know their stuff when they get on a movie set.

I have always felt that acting in a film is very challenging in itself. But when it comes to performing live, I think that is more challenging.

By the time I got to the Fox studio for my first major film, I knew how to hit a mark. I knew how to memorize lines. I knew how to pay attention.

I spent a long time working in the movies to figure out that kind of acting and also how to write and produce for the screen.

In Korea, I do different kinds of genres. So, like that, I would like to do a lot of good acting films.

In England, when we're at drama school, we spend a lot of time learning the craft from playwrights and stage actors, who are very well trained in the basics of acting because they need to get it right the first time - you can't have second or third takes when you're in front of a live audience, unlike in film.

I started off on stage because it was the only work I could get. I haven't been back for 11 years. I think any stage experience is good experience, as far as being an actor is concerned.

I have, I think to do a play a year is very good if you can afford the time and the energy because it's difficult to do, it's really the actors medium of course, because you're really out there and nobody's yelling cut so, yeah I have.

I'm an actor who wants to do great parts, and I've been very fortunate, for a long time, to get meaty roles, and sometimes some of them are meatier than others.

I did theater when I was younger, and I'm not the best actor ever - I haven't done it in a long time - but hey, if an opportunity presented itself, I would take it!

I've been doing theatre for years, but film acting has broadened my horizon.

You learn a lot about acting and being physical and being on stage, but there is technical stuff on camera that you can't learn until you do it.

In the theater you rehearse in order to do the performance. And in the movies the rehearsal and the performance are kind of the same thing. You're figuring it out and hopefully the camera is pointed at you when you're doing it.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

I guess once you've been acting for a long time, you glean the great bits of good directors and the bad bits from other directors, and you know the way that you would like to be directed.

My schedule is completely different doing a play than it is doing a movie, and I actually think it's a much harder schedule because you've got to do it eight times a week and you've got to do it good eight times a week and with different kinds of audiences who are cold or drunk or tired, whatever it is.

Theater to me is acting but it's more real on film.

Maybe I can't act, but I know the gimmicks. I studied acting all my life and know what's good for me.

Film acting is really the trick of doing moments. You rarely do a take that lasts more than 20 seconds. You really earn your spurs acting onstage. I needed to do that for myself. I would hate to say at the end of everything that I never did a stage play.

I was trained as a dramatic actor. I'm really excited to do some more dramatic stuff.

I've learned almost everything I know about acting from my dad.

Live television drama was like live theater, because you moved without thinking about the camera. It followed you around. In film you have to be more aware of what the camera is doing.