Pauline Collins Quotes

Theater's wonderful because it's visceral, and it's happening in front of you, but you never get that close. So the close-up is a great privilege of film.

I looked at theater, in the sense that theater is unmanipulated. If I want to pay more attention to one character on stage than another, I can. I think there's not enough theater in film and not enough film in theater, in a way.

Movies are all about plot. Theater, even if it's story heavy, it's about ideas. Theater has to resonate in your heart in a way that movies don't.

I like films better than the theater because you have to spend so much energy projecting your voice from the stage in the sheer effort to be heard.

Theater is still a medium which attracts young writers. You'd think that it would be all over by now, with television and film. But it's not.

A seven-minute take is almost like theater.

Compared to film or television, theater is more interactive, collaborative.

Of course theater will always be associated intimately to literature, but the themes or whatever have to penetrate you by the senses. Theater is a sensuous experience, and that's its main difference from film or any other dramatic art.

TV has the unique opportunity to take musicals, live events, so it has that feeling and excitement and spontaneity, but still has a camera between you and what you are watching.

Film is very much about capturing the essence of things - if you feel it, and you've got the right person shooting it, it'll come across. Theater's a different animal; it's physically different and requires a different discipline. In the theater, you're mining the same material, constantly honing the same thing, executing it and keeping it alive and fresh.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

I think I'm kind of attracted to the material more than the medium. I'm not opposed to doing a television show, though. I actually think there are a couple of good ones. And there is some terrible theater. Film is a very different kind of acting.

Ultimately, as a director, you try and tell people where to look, but unlike film or television, where you force them to look at something, you can't control it completely.

I love TV now, and 'Modern Family,' but what draws me back to theater is that initial instinct of wanting to be a theater actor. I love the challenge of starting a play and not stopping until you finish. I love the immediacy of trusting your instincts.

Every time I go to the theater, there's something about the atmosphere, seeing something unfold live in front of an audience, that you can't get out of your system.

I've always really liked theater. It fascinated me. You can create a reality and get people involved in that reality. It takes place in real time.

Direction is the most invisible part of the theatrical art. You don't see it.

In film, the camera can get an array of shots so the audience can see the emotion the character is giving off. Using close-ups on the character's face really helps get the message across. On stage, you can't do that. But the stage has that live feeling that you can't get anywhere else because the audience is right there.

Television has some lovely aspects to it - and some ghastly aspects - but the theater itself was a wonderful invention.

Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I'm paid to tell elaborate lies.

Film and theater are about misdirection and making the audience see something. I find it interesting. One of the things we do in 'True Blood' is shoot all of our stunts in camera. Instead of doing some kind of visual effect, we try to make it happen.

In theater, you're playing characters. You believe you're somebody else, and you're acting.

There is so much freedom I enjoy in theatre. In films, the roles are limited.

I always envisioned working in film and in theater. Theater and film are not, they're not in any way substitutable. What I love about theater is so different from what I love about film, and I enjoy the craft of both.

Film is fragmented and gets into lots of other people's hands. There are a lot of pleasures that theatre gives me. You get to perform uninterrupted.