Olivia Williams Quotes

Olivier said that drama is an affair of the heart, or it's nothing, and he was right.

I don't think I'm a great actress. I think I can act or I can react. Coming from a musical background and being a dramatic singer and writer, when I write stuff I really feel it. So I sing it like it comes from here. That's how I do the acting.

One thing that bugs me in comedy is when somebody does a fake cry, you know, like they fake cry in a comedy. But in a drama they'll really cry. That bugs me.

I love the simple poetry of theater, where you can stand in a spotlight on a stage and wrap a coat around you, and say, 'It was 1860 and it was winter...'

When you see something that is well-written, the actors can get behind it.

For me really good acting is about subtext.

I must not say what I truly think, or you will tell me I flatter you-but I can only speak what I feel-and very often I cannot even do that when the feeling is very deep.

In drama you can either pretend everything is OK, or you can show the world as it really is in the hope that it gets better.

Modelling is only about the look. In acting, it's the feel that matters.

I think that all the anger and cynicism comes from suppressing things that we always wanted.

Every character I've played is goofy, but it has to have some type of reality.

There's nothing more thrilling than watching great actors say things that you wrote and bring them to life.

Acting is doing. It's not speaking; it's behavior. It's something happening, even if you're only listening.

I'm acting a lot when I'm writing for other people.

When I read my interviews, I feel, is it me? I constantly wonder if someone will get hurt if I say this or that. It is unfortunate that I am scared to say what I feel.

When I discovered drama, I felt a connection.

I always loved drama at school. We had a great drama teacher at my secondary school, and she made drama feel cool. She inspired me, and then I did the National Youth Theatre in London.

As an actor, what I can do is tell the truth. At least, I hope I can tell the truth - a dramatic truth, but still an honest portrayal.

I've always been drawn to storytelling, and acting is the most immersive form of storytelling you can get involved with! You're actually in the story when you're acting.

Theatre is highly satisfying in terms of words. You get to speak in monologues; words drive the action.

Being singer is different than being an actor, where you call up sources from your own experience that you can apply to whatever Shakespeare drama you're in. But an actor is pretending to be somebody, a singer isn't. And that's the difference. Singers today have to sing songs where there's very little emotion involved. That and the fact that they have to sing hit records from years gone by doesn't leave a lot of room for any kind of intelligent creativity.

A lot of acting requires you to be a charming version of yourself.

I understand that in the industry, a lot of it isn't real. Which is a difficult thing. Where I come from a lot of people are straightforward and I've had to learn how to not say exactly what I feel. Sometimes it gets frustrating being a person who says what he feels and what his heart is telling him. Every once in a while I fall into letting the industry get the best of me and not just saying exactly what I feel.

I was frequently told at drama school that I was thinking too much.

If I seem detached or distant, it's because I think this is a more exact reproduction of life, where you hide as much as you show. When I see a scene in which feelings get loudly exteriorized, I say to myself, 'Well, at least this never happens to me.' I very rarely go through this type of expression. Most of the time things are hidden or at least much more subdued.