Jack Nicholson Quotes

I'm lucky that people believe me when I'm in character.

I want people to believe me when I play a part and they are less apt to if they know a lot about me and have associations about me.

The trick is not to become somebody else. You become somebody else when you're in front of a camera or when you're on stage. There are some people who carry it all the time. That, to me, is not acting.

There are so many examples of talented actors working today, no matter how they live their private lives. I'm lucky that people believe me when I'm in character.

In the role of Miss Munim, I had credibility as an individual.

An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.

You convey something that the public either trusts or it does not trust, and it has to do with the content and how you handle the news, but it also just has something to do with your persona.

You need to be real enough to be believable, but you don't necessarily have to be real enough to be real. There is a distinction.

If they didn't call you a tough guy, then what else would they call you? Something worse than that? I'm playing parts, and if they call you that, it's because I played the part right.

Everyone thinks I am exactly like the characters I play.

I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There's still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy.

I was acting when I was playing baseball.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

I was a terrific liar as a child, and I believe my lies. So it's a natural step into acting.

It's really surprising that what you put on paper, people will believe.

I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played - they're all really far from who I am.

I play into the perception of me, but it's not really me.

You want to try and bring a character to life in an honest a way as you possibly can. It doesn't matter whether he's a doctor, an actor, a car salesman or a captain of a starship. If you can bring truth and honesty to that character, then your audience will believe you.

I go wild on a stage. Some folks have measured us an image. They pretend us to be saints. And that image is much tougher to keep up with. Because that's not who we are.

I'm not really an impersonator.

Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, but if you walked into the building they'd probably throw you out. That's very hard.

If I don't believe in a role, I can't pull it off.

I still have a reputation as an eccentric. But the fact is that audiences probably mix up my roles with me as a person.

Many people think I'm a television personality. I never have been! Just someone who acts it.

I find often in Hollywood there are many people who play themselves really beautifully. And certain parts are not that dissimilar from who you are as a person.