CJ Adams Quotes

In acting class, teachers talk about how the 'givens' of a situation help define a character.

I'm a technician. I don't go for the get-into-the-role stuff. I read the lines and play the scenes.

How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.

The trick to acting is not to show off, it's to think the thoughts of the character.

Your job as an actor is to piece together whatever you've learned in your training, or whatever you have experienced in your life, to piece together a person.

I am trained in theatre, and so I take time to study and get into the skin of a character.

Part of being an actor is being susceptible to imaginary circumstances, so as soon as I'm on the set I feel like I'm actually there.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

Your primary tools, as an actor, are observation and imagination. You can pretty much get everything you need from that, and you do. It brings back that element of pretend.

I have just gained a deeper and deeper respect for acting and the whole art of it because you're really trying to live a life and to do the best justification for it.

My mentor Jon Simmons introduced me to the Stanislavski system, which is so heavy on back-story. So you write and write and write these back stories about a character and then you throw it away. So then on set, if it doesn't come, then you didn't do your work.

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters.

I'm a method actor.

Even though I was theatrically trained, learning to develop a character was an awesome experience.

I would go into a place that was quiet and isolated and think about how my character would feel in the situation, considering who he was and what he had been through. I would think about that even up to 30 minutes. And when I felt the character was in my body and I had left, I could walk onto set or into rehearsal.

I didn't learn anything about acting until I joined the Group Theatre. They taught me an entirely new approach, an entirely new technique.

I don't personally look to my own life experiences for answers about how to play a scene.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.

I understand what it is that actors do. They embody someone that they aren't.

You try, as an actor, to wear a mask; you're serving a story.

Acting is not just impersonating your character.

We are actors. We can adapt to any different look for the sake of the story and the character.

I learn the techniques and then take what I need. I have the Essie Davis technique of acting. I'm an instinctive actress.