Colleen Atwood Quotes

Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment.

You try, as an actor, to wear a mask; you're serving a story.

When you have a book as material as it is, it's a lot easier to create a character because you have so many resources to draw upon when acting.

Well, with each character that I play in my life as an actor, I try to figure out how to find the challenge.

Whether you need to like a character, I don't think that's necessary in order to portray him.

Actors act... Their job is to become this character. And I have, in fact, seen Sam Heughan become Jamie and Caitriona Balfe become Claire right before my eyes. It was an astonishing transformation.

Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.

We are actors. We can adapt to any different look for the sake of the story and the character.

You're always trying to find common ground with whatever you do, but you want to not be thinking about yourself when you're performing a play. The job is getting yourself out of the way and letting the character go about the scenes.

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

Transformational acting was the reason why I became an actor in the first place. Your hair and make-up and the costume are the tools that you have, and it makes you feel like that person. When you look in the mirror, you don't feel like yourself, and it changes the way you move. I love that stuff.

It's your job as an actor to fill out the blanks. I love doing that. To fill in the bones.

In terms of the character itself, I can't really say that I find anything really difficult. I enjoy the character so much I don't perceive difficulty in trying to be him. It's just a matter of how do we get there.

I just love to be able to actually build a character.

With any role, you're extending yourself and acting out things that never happened to you.

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.

That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

The idea of transformation - playing something I'm not - is the bit I enjoy most about acting.

I always enjoy impersonating my characters in the first-person singular.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

When you are developing a character you have to bring so much of yourself to the role.

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 want to play characters that are interesting to watch.

I can inhabit any character in a way that is difficult to do successfully in a contemporary novel.