Sofia Boutella Quotes

There's a lot of thinking when you choreograph something. You're not just choreographing some bodies, arms, legs flying around to look cool. It's a lot more complicated and sophisticated. You also have to deal with the connection of the whole film, so when I choreograph, I think of the movement itself, the camera angles, the characters.

I don't have any theories about acting, and I don't think about how to do it, except that an actor shouldn't take himself too seriously, and shouldn't try to make acting something it isn't.

With my work, it's not possible to just cast a production and leave it. I have to nurture the group of dancers to make it happen.

Some people say, 'Do you have any theories on acting?' And I say, well maybe: I think you can start with zero and end with zero. You don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to go for the result.

I would love to get great performances from actors as a director, because that's what I'm always looking for, a director that's going to help me go places I've never been before.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

I love working with Alicia Keys, because it's not just the ability to do the dance to me; I think it's the ability to interpret it that excites me the most.

Honestly, I am so ignorant of how dance works that I can't even imagine a story that you would want to tell through movement.

Those 25 dancers we worked with for a day, in as highly productive a way as possible - a long class, a period of teaching bits of the repertory - in fact I didn't teach Bank, I've used parts of Oil and Water.

I do think that's so much a part of what being a director is - in working with actors - to really try and be sensitive to what each actor needs to get to where he wants to be.

Every great dance company, even when it seems poised in perfect balance, needs constant renewal of both repertory and performers.

There are a lot of actors who will sit here and talk to you about characters - 'He does this, and she's a really interesting character because she does this.' I'm not like that at all. I'm not an actory actor.

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

When I was a kid, toe dancing and toe shoes had a meaning in our culture as a serious kind of art.

There's no point pretending that all of Martha Graham's pieces are equally strong.

Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.

Choreographers, historically, are born, not made - their talents drive them to it.

The script of a play is not a finished product: It's a set of instructions.

I'm a director's actor; I'm a storyteller's actor.

Oh my goodness me, Daniel Day-Lewis - huge, huge fan of his. I've always loved his philosophy on acting: he always talks about returning to a state of play.

Well every moment, every project is different. I took a very slow approach to acting, trying to really work with people I could learn from. And I got something different out of each experience.

I think people are always trying to demystify whatever acting is, so they want to know what your method is.

'Whatever it takes' is my opinion of method acting and, indeed, any other kind of acting. Look at Brando and De Niro. But it's not my cup of tea.

I had always choreographed a little, beginning in high school. And I leaned toward choreography. I always had an overview of what was going on.

Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.