Viola Davis Quotes

I don't know how to let loose when I'm dancing to the music and the people that made the music are watching me. I've never felt so much pressure in my life.

Every time you have to come up with a new body of work for a new show, you're aware that people are just ready to rip you apart, they're just waiting for you to fall or make the slightest trip up.

I think the pressure gets to me when I play shows and there's more people in the audience than I'm used to.

To be honest, when I can feel that a lot of people are watching me, I get a little scared, but at the same time, it inspires me.

I enjoy performing, always, but when you're taping a gig, you've got to blank out this mass apparatus of self-consciousness that's surrounding you, this invitation to drown in self-consciousness. Otherwise you just won't be able to do anything.

A sold-out house my first night back. Do you have any idea what kinda pressure that is? I could have been at home in my warm bed, playing Nintendo.

Performance is hard. I know this. I really enjoy it, but I have bombed, I have fluffed, and I have said the wrong thing.

I was definitely not the kid that just wanted to be famous for no reason whatsoever and then happened to find comedy. Fame and all that stuff have always been slightly terrifying to me, and it makes me very anxious.

You have that moment just before you go on - I've had it in every play - where you just kind of want to run away. There's a whole audience, and they are waiting outside, and you're like, 'Why am I doing this again? Why? Why?'

You get more nervous in front of a lot of people. That's why, when you play a concerto, you play with a small orchestra, in some place where you don't feel that it is as important as Carnegie Hall.

If you have stage fright, it never goes away. But then I wonder: is the key to that magical performance because of the fear?

Entertaining on any scale can be stressful and daunting.

I could never just play in a pub in front of four people because I would have had all the press turn up. That way, you don't get to build up naturally. It makes the work feel unnatural, and puts a lot of unnatural pressure on you.

Holding auditions in front of an audience is testing.

The nerves are a problem on trumpet, because when you mess up everyone can hear it. Just remember most people are too polite to say anything about it. That should calm your nerves.

I'm nervous whenever I perform.

I definitely get nervous about if I'm going to forget the words to the songs or something. And I don't enjoy being the center of attention for an hour straight - I think that's really stressful.

I know really, really famous people who are terrified every time they walk on to a stage.

I'm not saying I look cool, but every single time I go onstage, it is a fail if I don't feel like I'm going to pass out at least twice.

I get scared of a lot of attention. I get scared of the spotlight. And I'm not talking about on the basketball court.

I was jumping out of my skin. It was horrible. I was all over the place, because I'd never been in front of a live audience. That's a whole other element in the play, the audience.

The last thing you want to do when you are about to film a scene is think, 'Oh my God, so many people are going to watch this.'

You can take 100 penalties in training, but when you go out on that pitch in front of all those people and the television cameras, it's completely different.

Playing piano well is one thing, but attempting to play at concert level accompanying Meryl Streep while Stephen Frears is filming you in front of hundreds of people is - well - psychotic.

I do not love performing. I get really scared.