Jeremy Piven Quotes

So I just play the character, I play the lines.

Yes, Pluton, actually, in the play. And I play him in my most stentorian voice.

As an actor all we want to do is act and play people.

I play a crazy talk-show host, but that's not me. It's like an actor playing a role.

If it's a role like this one, an actual live person, a legend, there's lots of material laid out.

You just have to play the character.

Actors are always looking for ways to build a character.

People keep asking me, 'What evil lurks in you to play such bad characters?' There is no evil in me, I just wear tight underwear.

I think a lot of acting is about the removal of self-consciousness. The actor is going to be in front of a lot of people, and will naturally feel self-conscious. So a lot of the preparation for that is the removal of that idea. Like you embody or are connected to this character, therefore you can present this character in a way that eventually, when you come back to see it, you feel not exactly ashamed of.

You got to constantly be in character.

I think in every character there are aspects of yourself that you bring to it. But then it would be really boring to just play yourself.

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

If you're an actor, go out and act.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

Having done a lot of theater, I'm used to sustaining characters over long periods of time.

The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.

I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use more style in theater than in film roles. I love to sink my teeth into a part.

Who I am on stage is just an amped up version of who I am in real life.

I'm on fire when I'm singing, I'm completely in character, I use my sense memories, and every syllable of it is meant. It's a very special thing.

The job of an actor is the same in all of them, really. I mean, you're just creating a character that you hope people will believe, so it doesn't make that much of a difference really.

As an actor, to go and see those shows - great plays like 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and Clifford Odets's 'Golden Boy' - it's so exhilarating. I'd personally love to perform the role of Jerry in Edward Albee's 'The Zoo Story.' He's a transient, lost soul, and an example of humanity at its rawest.

It's true what people say - that actors are the closest thing there is to children. They play.

There's something about being any kind of entertainer that is acting. You have to put on a show. Things you wouldn't do in your life, you do on stage. You have to let go. And that's extra hard for rappers. We have a tendency to, quote unquote, keep it real. As an actor, you have to be able to humiliate yourself. Do whatever it takes.

I love to act and put on a show, but you're playing a character all the time. For music, it's really just me being myself.

So what's so enticing about doing a play is that you get to do that thing that got you into acting in the first place... There's a real attraction to being able to play, to just play. And that's something that theater affords you.