Richard Grieco Quotes

As an actor, it's more interesting to play a nerd than anything else. It's a lot more fun - you don't worry about 'what's my hair like?' in the morning or 'which is my great angle?'

I'm an actor, and I'm supposed to reflect real people.

For me, an actor is a person who makes characters like a cobbler makes shoes.

I think of myself as an actor. The duty of an actor is to be able to impersonate anything - a child, an old man, a tree, a chair, a woman.

That was the fun of acting, being a blank canvas you could transform into the character - Indian princess, 20s vamp, Mother Courage, Oxford don, 94-year-old wife.

The job of an actor is the same in all of them, really. I mean, you're just creating a character that you hope people will believe, so it doesn't make that much of a difference really.

I don't like to intellectualize about my acting.

For me, it's just acting. It's pretending. The best actors are children, and children don't do research. You never see a child going, 'I'm wondering about my motivation here. How can I do this toy? How can I do this train? I don't feel train.'

The actor should not play a part. Like the Aeolian harps that used to be hung in the trees to be played only by the breeze, the actor should be an instrument played upon by the character he depicts.

I'm an actor in that I just want to create roles and characters and play parts that people remember and like or dislike or hate.

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

I believe an actor should be shameless.

It's always a mystery when you're going into a role - 'Here's your wife of 40 years and... action!' How do you create ease or chemistry or whatever is supposed to exist?

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

It's a strange thing we do as actors. I'm walking out the door, and I'll say, 'O.K., honey, I'm off to take my clothes off.'

What is important to me as an actor is that, even if I have to spread my arms, take my shirt off on a mountain top with my heroine in a chiffon sari, it still has to be me and my twist or my funny take on it.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

There's a tremendous amount to be gained from being a performer, and being an artist, and being an actor.

All actors are on the run from some demon or other.

I'm attracted to roles that are unpredictable, and if I can get my hands on something like that, I'm thrilled. I like performances where you don't know what's coming, moment to moment.

The secret to acting is don't act. Be you, with add-ons.

For me, personality acting is not that interesting. I don't want to just be myself.

One was never taught how to begin at drama school. But all it required was one intake of breath.

My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it.

If the script's good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it, and do it honestly. I also don't learn things for auditions, because I feel like it's just a test of memorizing rather than being real. Maybe every other actor would think that was terrible, I don't know. But it seems to have worked for me, so far.