Tana French Quotes

Whether you need to like a character, I don't think that's necessary in order to portray him.

I love acting, and ultimately all my characters are very different, and each character I love in a different way.

In terms of the character itself, I can't really say that I find anything really difficult. I enjoy the character so much I don't perceive difficulty in trying to be him. It's just a matter of how do we get there.

I just love to be able to actually build a character.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

Sometimes you can just step into the character, and you get all your feelings and emotions just from sympathizing with her and being her. But then, other times, you just have to resort back to anything that you've been through in your own life and try to play that.

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.

Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.

Playing characters I don't relate to are a big challenge for me.

The actor's job is to put themselves in the shoes of the character they are trying to portray as truthfully as possible.

As actors, we have to take characters, and we have to feel for them and ultimately become them, and share that on screen so that audience feels that.

I used to think the actor's job was immersing himself completely in another personality.

It's always exciting to create a character that people can relate to, where people are like, 'Oh, I know this dude,' but maybe you've never actually seen this type of character on TV.

I think that acting involves doing your job so well that you are able to help the viewer identify with the character.

What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture, in a scene, they get locked into a particular way to play the scene, and it lacks an immediacy.

I always have a contract with a character. Even when he's unappealing. The contract is to give him his due. To tell his story. And to keep his secrets.

I usually don't find myself reacting to my characters. I just create them ... And let the audience decide whether they're empathetic or scared or compelled to cheer me on.

I care about all the characters I play, and I get quite defensive about them.

In theater, you're playing characters. You believe you're somebody else, and you're acting.

With films, you completely immerse yourself in a character, get into who they are, live it and then release it.

Sympathetic characters usually have a voice. They usually don't have any trouble being heard.

I can inhabit any character in a way that is difficult to do successfully in a contemporary novel.

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