James L. Brooks Quotes

I always try to make each character my own.

I think it's always challenging to look at a script and make it your own while maintaining the sense of what the style of the show is.

An actor's job is about putting across the author's intention; I don't think of myself on the same level as a creator.

Ultimately, however, the script an actor enlivens is someone else's words.

I always have a rule that acting is acting and truth is truth and you just go out there and you do it. But what happens in each medium is that you have other responsibilities. The acting remains the same, but each medium dictates assuming other halves to make the acting work.

My James Bond wasn't any different to my Saint or my Persuaders or anything else I've done. I've just made everything that I play look like me and sound like me.

An actor is defined by the choices he or she makes.

Definitely when you give a script to an actor, it's like dropping a capsule in water and the fizzing starts. That's when the thing starts to live and breathe.

When I do a character, I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had.

I think every actor brings something personal to a role, right?

As an actor you become that lighting rod between the person who made the play and the audience.

I'm always amazed when any actor can decipher my direction.

My job always is to play a person, not to judge her.

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

As an actor, you try to put a little bit of yourself in everything you do.

Of course you can find something exciting and dynamic in any character you want to portray.

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.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

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.

With every character, I just bring something that I can make my own.

Inevitably, every part an actor plays contains some of himself.

See, that's the thing: I'm not one of those actors who thinks, 'God, I've got to improvise and make it my own.' No, my first job as an actor is to take what's written and make it work. And then, if they want me to improvise, I'll do that.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

There is a large element of me in every role I do.

I know a lot of actors who get a part and then they dissect it and they want to change it and they want to add stuff. I'm always amazed and so impressed by actors who do that.