John Mahoney Quotes

I find that I kind of have to sink into the character.

Basically, the way you get into any role is just doing research on the type of character you're playing.

I've always been one to want to memorize everything and just be confident that I know all of the lines, but that changed. After college, I realized it's not as much about being off-book as it is about completely understanding the character and, more so, getting into the mind of your character.

When you start out on a project as an actor, you know, you approach the character from the standpoint of maybe writing a list - even if it's a mental list that you make - of the adjectives that the character has or that character possesses.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

You try to get to know your character as best as you can before you start filming - what's written and not written.

I don't really ever think about whether or not I like the characters I'm playing. I'm more into the minutiae of their behaviour or what they're doing in a certain scene.

Oftentimes, in fact I think this is to my fault, I look at usually scripts as a whole. I should probably pay more attention to the character that I'm going to play and what they do.

Any sort of role requires a certain amount of research and embodiment of the character and psychological investigation.

As an actor, you don't want to ever get too comfortable where you're like, 'I know this character,' and you don't do the work anymore.

I always approach any character I do as being right.

If I prepare myself for a character, for a role, I always try to understand her.

When I act, I try to understand the character, why she's behaving like that.

During the inception of 'Zindagi Gulzar Hai,' we studied the characters and the script in depth so that we could imbibe the essence of it in our performance.

I don't prepare for my characters.

There's no set rule, but when you look at the script, you start thinking about this person and how to create this human being on screen. You dig deeper into a script.

You start out with scripts pre-written, with no specific actor in mind, so you've got to build a character on top of that foundation. It's not just lifting words off the page, it's constructing a history around them as well.

While I deeply admire actors who deeply prepare, it's just not something I do.

I feel like there are things I can relate to in every character. But I feel like when you read a script, you don't get to see the definition behind someone, you just get to read what the person goes through and find a place to come from to make it real.

I wouldn't say I'm a method actor. I do research when I feel I don't have enough experience for the part I'm playing.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role.

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

In the work that I normally do, you have a whole script, a whole arc, that you play. And I do believe a good actor will play every bit of information they're given.

There are always practical decisions to be made about any character you're playing.