Judy Geeson Quotes

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

I love theater work because of the immediate effect your performance has on the audience. And I love the repetition; I love getting on the same stage for more than a month and reciting the same lines, trying to make a small or large step towards an improvement in my acting.

I don't like, and I've never been very good at, close-up shots. As soon as you have the camera right there in front of you, it feels like you're in a different reality from the person you are acting with; you lose any real connection with them.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

I think chemistry and great acting go hand-in-hand.

It's our job as actors to make it look like it's not manufactured. If you have two actors who understand their characters - and therefore what they are trying to portray - then all they need to do is be the characters and there's a chemistry there.

My experience with working with really great actors is you don't have to act. All you have to do is listen. And, that's sort of a virtue and a wonderful thing to be able to experience. It's so much less work.

When you are playing someone who is dealing with issues on a really personal level, if you don't bring your own issues into the equation, it's not going to feel really personal to the people watching it.

When you're playing someone who is angry and sad all the time, you get a little down.

As an actor, every opportunity, every role, everything that I do is an opportunity to have someone have a human experience with my work. I don't just want it to be about a cute wardrobe and a high paycheck.

As an actor, you are always someone else's tool. You can have a connection with them, and you can share their point of view, but ultimately, you are helping them reflect.

I know how to hit a mark without looking. I instinctively know where my eye line should be. That's all 100%. But your character and the story are always different, so the emotional part is not muscle memory. You're still surprised by stuff and get the adrenaline.

On 'Mad Men,' I have a bit of an advantage because I know who gets better as they repeat a scene and who's best at the beginning.

Part of being an actor is the rhythm of the life of being an actor, and that involves coming together with a group of people, making something together that is intense and requires a lot of intimacy, and then walking away from it with the possibility that you will never see any of those people again.

Andy Serkis is one of the best actors I have ever worked with. He might be the best actor I have ever worked with.

When you act with phenomenal actors, it makes your job much easier because all you have to do is react.

I think being in touch with your emotions is very key as an actor, and I think experiencing life is the only way to be in touch with your emotions.

Bad actors try to cry, and good actors try not to. Bad actors try to laugh, and good actors try not to.

Drama's unhappy, and playing someone unhappy would make me unhappy.

When I am dubbing for my character, if I laugh at the figure on the screen, I know I have done well.

If you feel like you're doing terrible in a scene, that usually means that you're not listening because you're too preoccupied with yourself... you're not listening to your scene partner. If you listen, you're naturally going to get that response that the camera's going to pick up because you just react.

Sometimes you read things that people don't even notice in a performance, that you just are moved by or understand that this actor is really living his or her life on the screen. The first time I realized that was when I watched Brando in 'On the Waterfront.'

I try and find a way to love every character I play.

Even great actors who transform who they are still go to a really honest place; I think that's sort of that special skill that actors have.

One of the things that make actors good is their capacity to listen.