Michael Ealy Quotes

Our job as actors is to invent the things that bridge ourselves with the characters, so you have to build something if it's not there - you try and learn what makes people behave in a certain way.

Being a dramatic character was more difficult for me. It was a new thing that I explored because it was challenging. But I love to challenge myself and different things.

The first thing, the main thing, about how I work is I need to understand the character.

It's our job as actors to make it look like it's not manufactured. If you have two actors who understand their characters - and therefore what they are trying to portray - then all they need to do is be the characters and there's a chemistry there.

Of course, every actor has their box and you have to respect and play for it, but I do love challenging myself. I love every role to be new, and I always like to bring a freshness to every character I play.

I do whatever I need to do to get into character. Sometimes it's being incredibly quiet, and sometimes it's being loose and goofy.

You have to find ways to relate to the characters you get to play. Put it in terms and in a context that speaks to you.

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 think substitution is a huge part of acting, but I don't personalise my work that much.

I try to allow the spirit of the character to live through me. That's the only way I know how to approach acting. I have to live it.

I don't believe actors who say they don't bleed into their characters. It's absolutely impossible not to.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

All of the actors that have served to me as inspiration over the years have been those more associated with dramatic work who have, in turn, been able to embody their characters and lose themselves in those characters that they create.

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 wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but I do try to focus very deeply on what character I'm playing, and everything else goes out the window. I forget about everything. I try to get everything else out of my head.

I wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but there are times where a role will require you to live in their world.

I never really absorbed myself in a role like some actors do.

Actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, they totally immerse themselves in their parts.

I find that I kind of have to sink into the character.

I'm focused on finding characters I connect to.

There are so many ways to approach a character. You have to figure out the similarities between you and the character, build on them, and at the same time, blur the dissimilarities. Since you do it day in and day out, it becomes a process and a part of you.

I'm not a very good actor, so I break character all the time.

Every time I feel that I really hit critical mass and I'm in the right place is when I feel like the director and I become a third thing, and that's the character.

As an actor, you use the things from yourself that you can apply to the character.

In some roles you do that very hard work where, at some point into rehearsals, where all of a sudden it snaps into place. You feel like the soul of this character is now dwelling in you.