Olivia Wilde Quotes

When you are an actor, you have to stay inside this world, but when you are with the crew, on the outside, you are in the dirt, working through all the issues. It's just a different way of working, and I think I preferred it.

I miss working with great actors, working with great directors.

I got a role in this movie called Freeway playing this really angry, aggressive, violent young woman who believed wholeheartedly in the truth. I had such satisfaction afterward, and I thought, That's what I want to do.

Creating a character and living truthfully through her is a whole different ball game. It's all part of the same person but it's a much newer medium for me.

It doesn't matter if you're doing a studio movie or you're doing an independent movie. When you get to set and you're doing a scene, it's always going to be the same job. I really don't think about my career, in terms of planning it out and what this does for me.

I take a script and mull over it and underline the bits I want to emphasize. When I go to the set, I know exactly what I want to do.

I've had some marvelous parts, but I'm also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people.

Seeing The English Patient is wonderfully draining, but imagine acting in it for six months.

Having done a lot of theater, I'm used to sustaining characters over long periods of time.

As actors, we're always asked to portray and react to these extreme circumstances, otherwise it's not interesting. They are agonizing things to think about.

Most of the film directors expect their actors to want to work fast.

The way I choose parts is I look at the scripts... I choose a part by whether or not it challenges me.

When you do a play, or even a movie, you have weeks to finesse your character. You really understand why they do what they do. In TV, you get new material weekly about your character.

So I regard my part in Genevieve as a real challenge.

As an actor, it's amazing to get to create different characters.

In films you do a scene, you play around with it and unless you're doing a lot of reshooting, which no one has the luxury to do, you deal with the problem for a day and then you move on. On some level, it never allows you to go very deep into what performing is about.

It's been a lot of fun getting to work with Tracy Middendorf, who plays my mom. As an actor, it's always fun to have different parents and to create different familial dynamics than you have in your real life.

Creating a role is an interesting thing - each show or each situation is different.

As a director, it is important to understand the actor's process.

They did cast me as an ingenue once, and the novelty was nice. But I said, 'There is nothing here to play!' I really like getting into the meat of a role.

I never really do much research before signing a film. It is just the script and character that I concentrate on.

I'm still fighting really hard to get any role I get. If it's comedy, I go for the laughs. And if it's drama, I try to tell the truth, and try to play the real stakes of whatever scenario the character's in.

As an actor, you can't think about the end result or the fame; you just have to focus on the day you're in. You have no control over the finished product, what people will think of it, so all you have is the experience of making it, and you have to stay focused on that.

When I first became an actress, I expected to do regional and classical theater; I just love the whole creative process.

I'm not a huge kind of visual director. For me, it's all about the acting. There's no greater buzz than working with actors and seeing what they can do and how much they can improve on what you'd written. That will always be on the top of my list. It's a real privilege to see it live before anyone else sees it.