Matt Berry Quotes

It was interesting doing impressions as somebody else doing impressions. Normally, I'll do a voice, and it's me doing the voice. To have to be Robin Williams doing the voice was an interesting sort of study in getting into somebody's head.

Usually, impersonations come out of something you dig, because you're listening to it over and over. And you kind of start developing... You're really trying to emulate them, then you realize, 'I sound ridiculous doing this. Oh, hey, maybe this is a funny impersonation.'

Animation is a fascinating area from an acting point of view because it's not really like anything else because you are only providing a portion of the performance. That's very inspiring and it forces you to do things in a different way - to tell stories through your voice.

I started improvising the Cliff character, based on someone I grew up with.

I would make the tea on a Daniel Day-Lewis set just to observe how he crafts roles like he did in 'My Left Foot.' That was the equivalent of seeing Haley's Comet for me. I just couldn't understand how that was possible.

Acting is something different to everybody. I just know that if you watch an actor or actress getting better and better, I think that's them just understanding themselves better and better.

It's funny; recently I've started to notice people's impersonations of me, and it's basically like a hyperactive child.

I'm not an impersonator. I'm a lousy impersonator, actually.

I found that I could make people laugh doing people like Shirley Bassey. Fortunately it worked.

I think impersonation is a great art. It's something that I enjoy doing, in a frivolous and lighthearted way. But I don't flatter myself to think I'm an impersonator.

I steal things from people, characteristics, and I just stock them in my head like a library to use for characters in the future.

Usually when I write a script, I have in mind some real people that I'm writing about, who don't always act in the film afterward.

A lot of times characters are combinations of people I come across in life. I people-watch a lot.

If you're very open to watching the world go by, with people's different tics, you absorb it all without realizing it and find ways to put something into your character. I'm not sure I'm always aware I'm mimicking someone.

Maybe I'm secretly in my soul a method actor.

Every character I do is based on someone I know.

Sometimes after a compliment about my characterization skills, I'm asked if I model my characters on real people. Emphatically, no. And sort of, yes.

I try not to think too much about where my voice comes from. I'm channeling characters and emotion to come up with beautiful words that tell a story.

Actors may not realize the extent of their own power. Acting is creation. It's them bringing their own stuff, letting it marinate in their soul, in their creative engine.

Actors sometimes immerse themselves into it so deeply that the line between who they are and their character can become blurred. For me, I think it's just about getting clearer on my whole life and who I am in order to make it possible for me to play whatever character is presented to me at a particular time.

I often draw from people in my own experience to base a character on, going back to my days with Mike Leigh.

I usually hold a puppet and play with different voices until something happens and the right voice just hits me. Then, I'll pick a name that just seems to fit the character that naturally comes out.

I take bits and pieces from everything. But I think the Method can be very isolating, and sometimes it's more about ego than playing the character truthfully.

I don't know how to play myself. I'm not interested enough in myself. That's just not how I was educated. That's not how I learned to become an actor. Acting is creating a character.

I did Popeye and Ronald Reagan and everybody was saying things like "yeah he's a cute little kid" but I started, little by little, telling stories about people I'd met and expanded my voices.