Jonathan Groff Quotes

I guess there's this mind shift that happens once you're on stage. I don't know, chemicals, something happens and you just... I just become completely in control of where I am. And it's all about trusting the people that you're on the stage with, listening... and it just falls into place really easily.

I think my best teacher and my best study was theater in general. It taught me a lot of patience and a lot of hard work, and I think that theater teaches you that you've got to know your stuff because you only get one chance.

I would rather do a play because it's instantaneous. You go on the stage, and you know whether it's happening or not. Somebody asked me 'What is acting?' And I said, 'Acting is listening.' And if you ain't listening, nobody's listening.

Being on stage a lot is quite physical.

I love working in theater because it's such a challenge to have the audience right there in front of you. If you mess up, you have to figure it out and keep going. There's no take two! I do hope to return to the stage someday. I really love to sing.

I've done a lot of theater, and I know that it's a different audience each time who doesn't know the story, and we have to tell it.

I'd also like to do a play. I've never done theater, and constantly changing and refining a performance is something I'd like to do, even though it may sound like work to some people - and it probably is work.

The art of acting is to pitch good. You do the pitching and hope that the other person catches the ball and does some good pitching back to you.

I wouldn't say that I was a born performer, because I work very hard at it.

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

I know from teaching that actors want to act. Even the subtlest actors can do a little too much.

I really love live performing!

The more you perform and get out there, I guess the more practice you have at it and the better you are and the more comfortable you are on stage.

The most difficult thing to do is drama.

Acting is something I love to do. I love to perform and I love the art, the craft of it.

Acting is a mysterious process.

I've done a lot of stage in my life, but I never had to dominate a stage for three hours.

I definitely loved going on stage, I loved the nervous feeling and the performance and the doing-ness of it. It always felt kind of natural and inevitable and logical.

Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

To be in front of an audience and pretending, and to lie, this is the principle of acting.

You've got to have a sense of different audiences. I'm a kind of performer manque - I come from a long line of failed actors!

One of the things I'm always reminded of when I'm back on stage is how much you have to be aware of and in control of. There is no tight shot. There is no 'we're only shoulders-up this time.' No, from the top of your head to your pinky toe, you're telegraphing part of the story the entire time you're up there.

I feel real confidence in working on the stage.

As an actor, you should be willing to take challenges.

There are a lot of things that make up a performance, a lot of technical things. It isn't always just about pulling it up from the darkest recesses of your mind or your heart. It's your experience and your observation.