Derek Jacobi Quotes

My dream as a youngster was to be like Olivier. To be a great stage actor. To be a great Shakespearean actor. To me that is the Olympics of acting.

My first acting lessons were Shakespeare. The first time I ever started working with a coach was doing scenes from 'Measure for Measure,' which were tough dramatic scenes. And then 'Taming of the Shrew,' which required comedic timing. And that's the kind of stuff I love.

I'd started going to acting classes at 14, played 'Medea' at 15 and really wanted to be a classical actress.

There's posh character actors. For God's sake, Olivier was one of the greatest character actors in the world. Hamlet, Shylock, Othello - Othello! Whether you like it or not.

I thought the best route to being the great actor I wanted to be was to play the great classical parts.

My advice to young actors is probably to do some theatre; definitely do that. I keep running into these actors who have never been on stage, and it's invaluable for an actor. What you will learn about yourself is huge.

Doing Shakespeare once is not fair to the play. I have been in Shakespeare plays when it's not until the last two or three performances when I even understand certain things. In the old days star actors would travel the world doing the same parts over and over again.

Soaps are the best. They really are. If you can do a soap, well, you can do anything. You have to learn pages of dialogue very quickly.

The first 10 years I was a professional actor, I did Shakespeare.

My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.

I was never the class clown or anything like that. When I was growing up and doing theatre in Seattle I was always doing very dramatic work. Now I can't get a dramatic role to save my life!

I want to play King Lear, Macbeth, Benedict, Coriolanus. I wouldn't mind doing Hamlet again. Well, I'm a little old. Perhaps I can rub Vaseline on the audience's eyes.

Theatre contributes in the growth of an actor and lets one know the real worth of acting.

I had always heard that theatre is for 'serious' actors but after actually having rehearsed day in and day out, I realize how challenging it is.

Looking at the actors I most admire - Judi Dench, Ian Holm, that whole generation - they all started in rep and slowly built themselves into the position where they could juggle theatre and film.

Theater roles are written by the great masters. The greatest literature that you can possibly know are the theater roles like King Lear, Hamlet, and all of those great roles. So all you do is you dive into these unchallenged roles and see how far you can get, what kind of accolades you can get, and how good you can be in them. In movie roles, you can actually improve them by knowing a lot about your own stage technique, which helps a great deal in the cinema and how you can project inner humor even though the particular dialogue is not necessarily funny, but you can infuse it with humor.

I was really interested in acting and thought secretly I could do it but didn't tell anyone. It was a quite private thing that I wanted to do.

After working for a couple of years, I have realised how much hard work it takes to become an actor, and my father has gone through it all these years. It's draining, both physically and mentally, but he makes it look so effortless.

There's something very fine and lucid and rich in this tradition of the English actor.

Once acting hit me, once that bug hit me, I just... took the jump and dove right in.

I want to attack and to lead my life with vigor, but I'm in the watching stage at the moment. Younger actors feel pressure to bring a pop to every scene; as the roles get bigger, I'm finding you can add layers and do less scene-to-scene.

I want to be an artist... an actor who acts really well.

Young actors ask me for advice. They say, 'Should I get an agent?' I tell them, 'Don't worry about that. Act, act, act. Get into that production of 'The Three Sisters' in a church basement. Consider every audition a chance to act, even if it's just for three minutes. Just do it whenever and wherever you can.'

I always saw myself as a stage actress, and that was the reason I wanted to act, but very slowly, I've changed.

It helps me as an actor to always be on top of my stuff.