Derek Cianfrance Quotes

The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself.

When I was starting out, doing guest spots on TV, and even commercials, I would go in with a whole crazy wardrobe and some terrible accent. Obviously, I was doing too much. If you bring too much flavor to it, it's absurd. There's something to just being spontaneous.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

Since ballet has such a solid classical framework, everything is supposed to be a very specific way, so you learn to look at things with an eye towards perfection. But in acting, it isn't always necessarily good to be like that - really magical things can happen when it's unexpected and messy.

I like a performance, a live performance, so I like little mistakes because that's what makes perfect - the mistakes.

I've always believed acting is an improvisational art form, even when not a single line is changed. I mean, the behavior should always be improvised. My favorite moments in any performance are when I'm just along for the ride; when I'm surprising myself. I know when I'm done and I think to myself, 'Gee, I didn't see that coming,' I've done well.

What you learn from studying acting is that you have to have the courage to just make strong choices.

Acting is what happens on the way.

You know, working as an actor, I'm always working within my own imagination.

If the script's good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it, and do it honestly. I also don't learn things for auditions, because I feel like it's just a test of memorizing rather than being real. Maybe every other actor would think that was terrible, I don't know. But it seems to have worked for me, so far.

The whole idea with acting is that you take some risks. And if you take some risks, you're really going to mess up sometimes. But it's not OK to mess up a movie; it's not OK to do that just so you can improve as an actor. But film-making takes a little bit of risk in every department.

I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.

I don't like to intellectualize about my acting.

I don't like going for more than a year without doing theatre. I don't mind falling flat on my face so long as I feel I'm open to the possibility of something extraordinary happening.

I don't like a lot of rehearsing.

I love to act and put on a show, but you're playing a character all the time. For music, it's really just me being myself.

Writing and directing might be a red herring, and really I'm just re-examining what it is to act, to do it well and do it properly.

I want to do more theater, which allows you to take bigger risks and experiment.

There's always a sense of newness with acting, because every role, you come to every role fresh.

I learned one thing from De Niro: He taught me to listen. Nobody says anything strictly from the script. It's improvised. It was the best piece of advice I have ever gotten in my life. It has helped me through the past thirty years.

I just think there's always room for humanity in acting, one can only hope, so when you bring in the whole life of a person that's playing a character, then surprises happen and are allowed to happen, and so it makes it more interesting.

Acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people.

I have learned a lot from jazz. I compare good acting to jazz music. The more you study and prepare as an actor, the more equipped you are to live in the moment. Just like the gifted musicians in my dad's quartet, it takes a courageous actor to be free.

I don't have a process; I just feel it. My book on acting would be very short.

The slightest thing can ruin a scene, but you must be willing to take chances.