Mark Strong Quotes

What's important about an actor is his acting, not his life.

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

For me, one of my favorites, director-wise, is Tim Burton. I also really admire the work of actors like Sean Penn. He is probably my favorite actor because of his dedication and commitment to roles, and the ability to morph and change himself when he needs to. It's about dedication and commitment and a passion.

I don't bring my life into a character at all.

As actors, you play people who are not yourselves!

Well, there are three different processes of making a film, of course. They're sort of re-written three times. You write it to start with, and then you shoot it and you re-write it while shooting and you sort of re-write it as you edit.

I'm not Jack Nicholson. I'm not Brando. But I do mumble.

I would love to direct an 'Apes' movie. It would be in the spirit of where I'm going with my career - avatars played by actors to say something about the human condition.

I have to say, when you make a movie, you really have no idea how it's going to turn out as an actor. The important bit for an actor is the actual shooting of it because the minute the shoot ends, it's got nothing to do with you anymore.

It's my privilege to work with an actor like Vikram who gets into the skin of the character he is playing, so much so that after the shoot it takes him quite some time to get back to his real self.

Everything you care about is getting the next step right: getting the script right, finding the right actors, shooting it. Then you spend half a year in a dark room editing your film, and you don't talk to anybody.

When I do a film, it is about how I become a character.

The actors make the film. They're the ones that take this theoretical movie that's in your head and make it real. The success of a film is entirely on their shoulders. I admire them, because acting is such a difficult thing to do, and I personally can't understand it.

The actor is merely a crude empiricist, a practitioner guided by vague instinct.

Actors are always a little high at work. Acting is their drug. So when you put the brakes on, they're naturally a little disappointed.

I'm an actor, so I love to be degraded!

Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience.

With the films I've done, I've written on them, I've acted in some of them. And even ones I haven't acted in, I've acted them out just to be sure another actor can do them.

Denzel [Washington] just knows the actor. He knows the process, and you don't often get that.

I sing as an actress. Whatever I'm singing about, I just become the story.

Where can I go that would give me the same level of satisfaction as an actor?

Actually I have to say when I'm acting, I try not to think about directing at all.

I'm a character actor, so as a character actor, I'm always looking for something interesting.

I have some friends who are actors. I've watched them work. And I would say that of all the arts, acting is the most grueling, thankless. Never apologize for your work.

The most interesting part of filming is what the actors do. That's the primary link between the story and the audience.