Melissa Leo Quotes

The big secret in acting is listening to people.

You need to become a good listener. As you're working, you hear someone else's lines and how you absorb them becomes your acting.

When a performance isn't working, it's usually because the actor is trying to do something and they're not able to express their idea very well. It's a muddled expression.

Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

One of the most important things for an actor is to observe humanity.

Acting lessons teach you to really listen to what the other person is saying because in acting it's all about responding to the lines.

It's important to listen to the actor who is there on the stage and living it.

Acting is doing. It's not speaking; it's behavior. It's something happening, even if you're only listening.

Acting is an emotion which has to be felt. Some feel it, some don't!

Acting is the most communicative thing I can imagine doing.

The job of an actor is the same in all of them, really. I mean, you're just creating a character that you hope people will believe, so it doesn't make that much of a difference really.

Acting is a mysterious process.

Acting is like any other art form, in that you have the option to go very big or go very small.

One of the first lessons you learn as an actor is to listen.

Actors are observers of human life, of human behavior.

I think acting is a work of imagination.

I often have the feeling that acting is really not difficult, because all I do is I just listen. I just listen. I just listen to what there is. And if there's nothing, then I listen to nothing. If there's a chair, and it's empty, I listen to an empty chair, and I will respond to it.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

The minute I start to talk about acting, I realize that I can't. You know, it's an abstract thing, a little bit mysterious even if you do it for a living.

It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.

I have learned that acting is not about beauty.

For me, acting is doing.

The art of acting is to pitch good. You do the pitching and hope that the other person catches the ball and does some good pitching back to you.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

Acting is what happens on the way.