Jeanne Moreau Quotes

Once you are in the character, you should let your inner actor take over you.

I walk into a scene, and I do the scene. That's my job. I don't have an objective. I have the words, and I have whoever I'm playing with.

I never do anything for the camera. It's my job to pretend the camera's not there. I'm never moving for the camera.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

The trick to acting is not to show off; it's to think the thoughts of the character. I was lucky because when I started acting, it was doing jobs above pubs. I learned to act in anonymity, so by the time people saw me, I knew what I was doing. I was crap for years, but no one saw me being crap. It's a trade you learn.

When you drop your guard in films, the acting process compensates. You get lazy and you start acting.

I'm an emotional actor. When I'm doing a scene, I really believe it. I live the part as long as I'm in the scene.

The actor already comes with emotions to the scene: fear, the fear of being in front of the camera. It is this fear that spurs the emotion of the scene. I too am afraid; I don't know exactly what I am searching for. On the set, we are all participating in this fear together.

I don't have any training as an actor, but I guess I'm an intense pretender. When you read something over and over, it gets into you a little bit. You can't help but begin to feel it, even if you're a healthy person as I think I am.

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.

There's no one more willing to do something than an actor when it comes to perfecting a scene.

I think one of the mistakes actors make is we're so focused on what we're going to say.

Early on, someone had told me, 'You know, the camera can always tell when you're lying.' And, Jesus, that intimidated me. 'The camera can always tell? How am I going to do this?' Until one day I thought, 'Wait a minute, acting is lying. Acting is all about lying.'

If I do a scene with an actor who doesn't have much experience, I say, 'I tell you what we're going to do: You just listen to me, and then you respond. We don't have to do any acting.' And that's good advice because you shouldn't see the acting.

I guess every actor has certain emotions they can access easier than others.

It's very hard to tell an actor, 'Stop acting.' It's easy to tell a non-actor, because they're embarrassed when they act. They get ashamed when they do something cliche, whereas an actor is happy.

Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

Actors don't need a lot of talk beyond the first few sentences. They may say they don't draw on their own life, but all actors do.

I like to learn the lines and not get any precontrived things in my head about the part. Just get on stage and see what the other actors are doing, and respond to them as honestly as I can.

I wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but there are times where a role will require you to live in their world.

When you get to set, you don't try to play the plot; you just play the character.

I've never acted, but I'm an entertainer. So I kind of used what I know from being onstage. I've done a thousand and two interviews, and I've been on camera a million times, so I'm not uncomfortable on camera, but it was interesting for me to be someone else.

Good actors are always looking for props. They're looking for behavior. It makes it a lot easier. You're not solely dependent of what's coming out of your mouth. You're also less self-conscious, less aware of the camera.

Actors are very demanding because they have nowhere to hide. If I write a scene, it doesn't turn out very well, I don't ever have to show it to anyone; when you turn the camera on, or when you walk on stage, they have to feel like what's happening is real.