Joel Kinnaman Quotes

If I do a scene with an actor who doesn't have much experience, I say, 'I tell you what we're going to do: You just listen to me, and then you respond. We don't have to do any acting.' And that's good advice because you shouldn't see the acting.

I think back story can help guide your choices, but when you're playing a scene, you're not making choices; you're just intuitive.

When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'

That is one of the reasons one enjoys acting. Now and again, you get scenes where you work with somebody really good and you have a good time trying to make it really work and really work well.

Actors are always looking for the eyes of the other actors because you need help and you need connection.

Actors are always grabbing each other on stage, looking in each other's eyes, making a moment so private, the audience doesn't know what they're doing.

One of the exciting and enjoyable aspects of acting is being in the environment with another actor.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

I walk into a scene, and I do the scene. That's my job. I don't have an objective. I have the words, and I have whoever I'm playing with.

In acting there's two different things: You're either pitching in a scene, or you're catching.

To me, acting is like tennis. You're only as good as the person you're playing with, so if you're playing with Michael C. Hall, what do you have to worry about?

I like to learn the lines and not get any precontrived things in my head about the part. Just get on stage and see what the other actors are doing, and respond to them as honestly as I can.

I like to go off the other actors in the scene, which kind of stinks when you're acting with someone who's not that great.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

When you see bad acting, that's usually what it is - they're not listening to the other characters. It's always hard with first-time actors to get them in that moment where they are really listening to the other characters and reacting to the other characters.

If two actors can communicate well during a scene, it works and makes for good chemistry.

Improv acting is not just saying the lines but connecting with the other actor.

An actor will use every piece of information at their disposal, or a good actor will.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

Fine-tuning a play like 'Uncle Vanya,' which is already well-known to the people playing it, is not so much a verbal exercise as it is a visceral one.

I did one or two plays at school. Once I played a tree, so I never thought I would be a good actor.

There is only so much you can do if you're pulling weight and there's nobody there to play off of. You can't have those beautiful moments with new actors who are so worried about everything else but the moment.

Actors, their greatest tool, their greatest resource is imagination. You can take things, power objects, you can recruit your dreams, you can access your memories and get there. So the idea is not to act but to just be.

It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.

You have to like the characters you play.