Chris Cooper Quotes

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.

In acting, you draw so much on your private life.

There are elements of myself in every character I do, just because you take from your real life experiences and sprinkle those into your character.

It's always a mystery when you're going into a role - 'Here's your wife of 40 years and... action!' How do you create ease or chemistry or whatever is supposed to exist?

I'm not a method actor per se, but if I'm playing a character that, at its core of its persona, has experiences I don't have, I try to search out and get firsthand experiences of similar sorts so I have something to fantasize about.

I suppose with any character that you play you always bring your personal experience to it. You always bring people that you know or that you've met and sort of - this is what I do, I mean, I don't know what anyone else does - but people that you know or that you've met that have affected you in certain ways, you bring into it.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

He wasn't really Method but he believed that when you did a role there were lots of things you could do with your co-star in order to create the right environment. You known, if you were supposed to be in love, to create that feeling between the two of you.

I never practice before, I never work hours on a script. I just choose my characters and trust them, and after that, it's about the director taking your hand.

First of all, the actor needs to get out of the character's way. You follow the character without judgment or prejudice or preconceived ideas.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

I think it's a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.

The interesting thing about acting is using all your own stuff and having some kind of personal catharsis while you're working.

I don't think I do that much to prepare for roles in general.

I try to create as many circumstances outside of set that help me fall into character when I get onto set.

You draw on whatever's relevant to the part you're playing; it makes it more personal.

In terms of jumping into a character's skin, I try to immerse myself in the role as much as possible to bring me closer to them. All I do is what's required to achieve what I want to achieve.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.

Whenever I work on a part, I look at the world through the filter of the character and I pick things they might use through my observations of real life.

I'm a Method actor. I spent years training for the drinking and carousing I had to do in this film.

I'm not a method actor, but I'm affected by the life I share my life with during shooting. It's always a very strange and special period for me.

I try and imagine myself in situations and figure out how I'd have reacted and responded to them, and then bring that insight into my acting. Much of acting is about borrowing from your real-life experiences.

I don't think I've ever watched a movie to prepare for a role.