Penelope Wilton Quotes

When I was younger, I thought I had to shut myself off, work really hard to cry. I learned after a while that that's just not... You know, often in life, you cry when you're caught off-guard. That's where I need to be when I'm acting, too.

Sometimes emotions just come out in their own way.

He shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter, than he who does not deny his tears.

Enthusiasm does not always speak for those who arouse it, but always for those who experience it.

In a world where irony reigns, where you have to separate, protect and laugh at anything that is honest or has an emotional charge, I bet for catharsis. I like to invest emotionally in things. And catharsis, when it touches the emotional vein, can open the doors of even those who protect themselves.

I do love to cry. I'll cry at the drop of a hat. I'll cry at your basic television programme, let alone a weepie. But not big, heavy, serious crying. I haven't done that for a while, which is a relief. More like a little welling up of joy.

I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.

Randomness I love. And I still love just a holler right in the middle of an ongoing narrative. Pain or joy, ecstasy.

You can get swept away by a musical, but real tears are rare.

The hardest thing to get is true emotion. I always believe you need to earn that with the audience. You can't just tell them, 'Ok, be sad now.'

When I sing, I go somewhere else. Every time after I sing, I'll ask, 'Did I do OK?' Because I feel like it's like my soul squeezing out of my vocal chords. I don't sit there and think about 'I'm gonna do this next...' I just sing. I sing from my heart, and my heart's got a little lonesome in it.

The key to acting is less acting and just reacting.

Why can't people just say they were moved? Why do they have to say it's sappy?

Not everybody should be laughing at everything at the same time. That's not even natural. My thing is to feel natural, because I don't want to feel like I could just make people laugh at every single joke, every single time, with the same decibel level.

I think with the best actors, emotion is something that has no kind of check in them.

I have so many photos of me where I'm laughing like a crazy person. I don't know what it is, but I just go with it.

Playing is just about feeling. Playing isn't necessarily about misery. Playing isn't necessarily about happiness. But it's just about letting yourself feel all those things that you have already on the inside of you, but you're all the time trying to push them aside because they don't make for polite conversation or something.

One of the reasons why good actors are good is that they have poor impulse control. If you put them in front of a camera, they respond as if it was actually happening, in real time, rather than doing it after several takes.

If something touches me, I cry. That's it. I'm a bit raw, a bit rubbish, really. Often, a director will say to me, 'I don't think this is a scene where your character cries.' And all I can say is, good luck with that!

I feel what I feel. If I wanna cry, I'm gonna cry - regardless of who watches me.

Most people when they see me cry for a shot, say, 'Wow, what a natural!' But I actually do cry and break down.

The emotions you see when you watch 'Narcos,' they're pretty much my emotions and the way I would react if I were there. It's not something you create; all of us have everything inside ourselves.

Sometimes it's good to just sing and let the words come out. Whatever comes out is valid because it's what you were thinking.

Freestyling helps me portray the emotion that I'm feeling right there instead of writing it at home and having to add to it.

Things that make me angry and sad, I cannot hide. It's not because I want to be a rebel; it's my instinct. When something touches me deeply, I really have to react.