Billy Magnussen Quotes

One fine day I discovered that more complex plays really have to be directed.

The great thing about the stage is that you have a structured month-long rehearsal period where you're going in every day. You have to have lots of run-throughs with theater because there are no second takes in front of a live audience.

I love stage work. The thing about plays is that they're perfectible. With film, you shoot that take and maybe another. During 'Spamalot,' I rewrote Act II three times.

Acting is very start and stop.

I like a lot of takes. I just go on until the actors get it right.

With theatre, you have to be ready for anything.

This is going to sound cheesy, but with acting there are so many tools. When you're on camera, you're using all of it. You're using the voice, you're using your body, you're using wardrobe, all of it, but it's funny, once you take all of those things away, you realize how much you rely on the physicality.

In theater, you have a rehearsal period and you know just who to be.

The process of doing a play is an organic one, and the process of doing a film is totally inorganic.

In a play, the director is God, and I'm a great arguer. Rather boringly so, I think, about trying different things.

I love opening night, and I love doing plays. But one of my favorite parts about doing a play or working on a new play is rehearsal.

The rehearsal time is almost my favourite part of being an actress, particularly if you're working on a play that hasn't been done before.

I guess I've been extremely keen on theatre, on getting on to the stage, taking on different roles, enacting vocations, personalities, people, situations, and I guess that's the interest that has driven me to work in movies.

The time and preparation before a play is something I really value, and it's something I learned in New York.

When you're doing a play, you don't always have a practical world that you're working off of. You have to create it for yourself.

In theatre, you rehearse for months and then perform. That way, you're totally in-sync with your character, the other characters, and the story.

I thought acting was just going on and remembering all of one's lines.

I really miss the rehearsal process of theater.

Fine-tuning a play like 'Uncle Vanya,' which is already well-known to the people playing it, is not so much a verbal exercise as it is a visceral one.

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, 'Oh, you're playing yourself.' I guess it's kind of a compliment. Or people say, 'Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.' The work is to make it look effortless. That's the hard part.

In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience.

It's an acting job - acting natural.

Acting takes so much energy.

When on the set of a film, you have to play natural for entire scenes in a very unnatural environment. You have to express emotions and interact with other actors and also use your voice.