Sean Baker Quotes

I think back story can help guide your choices, but when you're playing a scene, you're not making choices; you're just intuitive.

Acting is reacting. You can't react if you're not paying attention, if you're not listening.

It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.

Robert De Niro taught me how to listen, and how to be part of the conversation. It's not just about reading your lines and saying what's in the script; you have to understand your character, along with the other characters so that you can always respond.

When there's no technical problems, if you did the right casting, and the scene is well written, the actor will give you a strong performance with his intuition right from the start.

I'm more interested in knowing my cues than my lines. If you know what your cues are, then you know what your reaction is going to be to them. Acting is about reacting, and if I can kind of purely react, that's easier for me.

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.

Well, I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.

The more and more I work with really great actors, the more it's about opening yourself up to what they bring.

As an actor, one's role is very much to respond and react to the situation within the context of the character and his world.

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

When people embrace character, there's latzie. It's the stuffing of a scene that's not written. It's not in the stage direction and it's not in the words. When people embrace character, it informs their living, breathing moments in a scene so well.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

The key to acting - from what little I know about that wonderful craft - is listening, and interacting with the other person in order to achieve magic. One way to do that is almost to provoke.

I was a student of Stella Adler and then later Lee Strasberg, and they were into sensory work. At its best, acting is not about words - even when the words are important.

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.

Know your lines; otherwise, have an open mind because you want to get lost in the moment. When you have talented actors and directors to work with, then it's pretty easy to do.

I feel like everything you learn as an actor growing up is wrong. You're supposed to hit your mark, find your light and know your lines. Those are all things that just make things wooden, dull and boring.

As an actress, it appeals to me because I love the idea of playing those in-between moments, the sort of behavioral stuff that one might not normally see.

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.

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

I don't believe in overcooking the actors too much. Especially when it's a real performance that I'm looking for.

Preparation is really important for actors; they need to know who they are, where they're from, and the experiences up to the point that we make the film.

The most vital thing for an actor to deliver a great performance is to be honest to the role he or she is playing.