Viggo Mortensen Quotes

To this day I over prepare. I draw storyboards for every scene - chicken scratches so crude that they amuse and horrify the crew. I send out shot lists, act out the scenes, and search for a theme that I can relate to. It's my favorite time of the process.

I think the two main tools actors have are the imagination of what other people have gone through, to connect with and through research, and there's one's own experience.

What I had found after the success of Karate Kid II is that an actor basically needs to - a primary requirement on my part as how I view as actor is you have to create a background, you have to create a history of that character and place her into the script that you're reading and carry on forward because you don't know how the future unfolds. This is what storytelling is you place a certain set of circumstances with a certain set of characters and you see what unfolds after an event happens.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

Sometimes a character is really based on research that you do. Other times it's just based on your imagination or perhaps your conversation with the director. Or sometimes all of the above. It depends on the movie and character.

I find it easier to play someone who is so far from me because you create someone - you build this person based on the story and the script, with the director.

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.

You know, I've never been much of a method actor. I feel like, with every project I go in extremely prepared and I like to have a good time.

I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character's life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.

I figure out who I'm playing opposite, and I really do study them.

Whenever I am acting, it's everything, you know. If I'm researching a role, I'm completely consumed in that and, between action and cut, I live in this suspended time.

Concept is what makes actors raise their game.

You wanna do a lot of backstory for your character - as an actor, you wanna research that. But on the show, it's fun to remain in that naive place as you go along, and be able to continue to discover things about your character as the writers come up with them.

I find all of my performances come down to mathematics in a sense - how do you approach the problem of this character? Sometimes I crack that problem, sometimes I don't.

I think people are always trying to demystify whatever acting is, so they want to know what your method is.

I'm always practicing lines, researching, trying to be fresh, and fully trying to become the characters I play. That's how I roll.

I've heard that Alfred Hitchcock said that by the time he was ready to shoot a film, he didn't even want to do it any more because he'd already had all of the fun of working it out. It's the same thing with these Frank comics.

I really don't feel it's necessary, as an actor, to make people feel uncomfortable, just because you need to be in a certain headspace. So, I do take myself away and do my own work and hunker down.

One of my favorite parts of being an actress is being a detective.

The day before I work, I don't like to even look at the script and let whatever happens happen on the set. But I do prepare a lot. I'm a big believer in that.

Preparation is really important for actors; they need to know who they are, where they're from, and the experiences up to the point that we make the film.

There's pre-production, and the second part is when you start rehearsal. Pre-production was a very large learning curve for me.

My starting point is always to read a script and have a conversation with the director about what their vision is, and then, after that, I love to do research.

In general, I don't really think too much about pacing, myself. You kind of look at each script and what each script demands.

When I start a movie, I already feel like I'm in it. I'm not a jobbing actor anymore; most of the films I do, I'm involved with development. Some, I've taken from scratch, and worked so heavily on the script, I'm embodying a lot of the character by the time I even get close to filming, because I've asked so many of the questions that I do. There is nothing better than being able to ask all the questions, do all the work. It's when you let it go that you fly.