Keira Knightley Quotes

Because as an actor, I really feel you cannot judge a character. You have to totally commit to that character. And for me to totally commit to the character, I have to find those places where I understand the sequence of behavior.

I relate to those characters - and any character I play - in as much as I put myself in their positions and feel how I would personally deal with their experiences.

When I was acting, I got trained in creating a character as a three-dimensional person. If you're doing it right you should be able to draw an audience into the character's world and make them feel their fears.

I think that's an incredible thing that we can do as actors - to feel empathy toward someone that you may otherwise detest, you know?

For me, portraying a character is not about liking or disliking it; it's about meeting a challenge that's thrown at you.

As an actor playing a character, I can't come in with my judgement, or else I can't play it honestly. My judgement has to be reserved for later.

You don't have to kill somebody to play a murderer. You have to read the script and interpret the character.

If you judge the character, you cant play it.

When you play a character, you bring yourself into the character. You get a chance to shine and show your translation for the character and her state of mind.

I never like to judge the character. I just have to leave my feelings of pity, or fear, about a character - whatever I feel towards the character, I try to leave to one side. It's good to have them, but it doesn't help me. I can't act those things. I just to play the character as truthfully as I can.

You definitely put a bit of yourself in every character, and you always have to have an understanding and empathy for the person that you play.

Working on camera is a different ballgame in the sense that it's far more intimate work, but the basics and the foundations of being able to create something that isn't necessarily your own instincts - is a character that you have inside your head - whether you're talking about television or film or theater, that still has to be the grounding work.

I think that acting involves doing your job so well that you are able to help the viewer identify with the character.

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

That's precisely what we do as actors: try to convince the audience we are somebody else. And if you can do that, you are really doing something.

I mean one of the basic rules when you're acting is that you mustn't stand in judgement on a character, you mustn't say Hitler was a bad man because you can't act in that way.

Sometimes you can just step into the character, and you get all your feelings and emotions just from sympathizing with her and being her. But then, other times, you just have to resort back to anything that you've been through in your own life and try to play that.

It's absolutely true that it's almost impossible to play a character without having any affection for him.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

The trick to acting is not to show off, it's to think the thoughts of the character.

I think when you play a role, you always have to be a defense attorney for that character.

You have to have sympathy for and an empathy with a character in order to play them.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

That's, to me, the ultimate goal - to disappear inside another character and bring them so fully to life that I've convinced other human beings that it's a real person.