Brett Cullen Quotes

Through theater and acting school, I found a way to articulate myself.

Do theater. Because you'll develop a craft that you'll always have. It'll give you a chance to really learn how to act and you won't go into the world with a few measly tricks that will only carry you so far.

My advice to young actors is probably to do some theatre; definitely do that. I keep running into these actors who have never been on stage, and it's invaluable for an actor. What you will learn about yourself is huge.

Theater opened up a whole new world for me. It was a freedom I'd never known before.

To start, I wasn't really interested in acting at all, and I didn't make much impact. The first play I was in was on for five nights and I didn't show up for two of them and nobody noticed. But I stayed because that's where my friends were, and after a while I found myself wanting to inhabit other people's worlds and lives.

At first, I didn't really have a passion for acting.

Theatre contributes in the growth of an actor and lets one know the real worth of acting.

When I go to sleep, I want to know that I have experimented as an actor, and I am constantly seeking to evolve.

I know with Gary Ross especially, he kind of gave me pointers here and there, but he kind of let me become firm in any way that I needed, and he just let me try things and to explore what I can do with my acting. So that was very helpful.

Film and stage are very different; I don't necessarily prefer one over the other. Every few years, I get a big itch to go back to the theater. To learn humility, to learn bravery and to remind yourself that the pistons that drive your craft are working on full power. And to remind yourself how badly paid actors can be.

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

I don't have an exact moment when I decided I wanted to be an actress - it kind of was just really a part of my growing up.

One of the skills you have to master in theater is the ability to make the audience believe that things that aren't there are there - just like when you're acting against CGI. Also, in a theater, the people in the back row can't see the whites of your eyes. Or your lips moving as you deliver dialogue.

The reason you want to act is to continue to explore every different part of the human psyche.

Our school not only makes you an actor, it makes you understand who you actually are as well... it gives you discipline and punctuality. It also teaches you a way of life.

To play a role where you get to reveal intellectual change is wonderful.

I don't know if you ever say to yourself that you want to be an actress. It eventually becomes a social function - you are an actress and you make a living out of it, but at the beginning it's more a matter of how to survive, or how to exist in a certain way.

That's what I love about acting, you get to find little pieces of yourself in every character you play.

As an actor, you always want to find a piece of who you are in every role you take on.

And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.

As an actor, I don't really think you find yourself. I mean, once you find yourself, I think it becomes boring and you become set in your ways. I think, as an actor I think it's not a bad thing but more of a gift. It's something you're always doing as an actor. You're adjusting constantly.

Sometimes acting is really cool because it forces you to exercise certain muscles in your personality that you wouldn't normally be called upon in life.

I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.

I became disillusioned with dance when I was 16 and started focusing on acting.

The idea of transformation - playing something I'm not - is the bit I enjoy most about acting.