Eddie Marsan Quotes

I'm an actor. I was trained by Stella Adler, one of the greatest teachers of the world. I was 19 years old, and she frightened me to death. I was her houseboy for a while.

Of course, in later years, I'd studied acting more than ever before - mostly with the late Stella Adler, who was marvelous! - but in my earlier years, I couldn't afford to do this.

I think I might have been a more interesting actor, had more of a career earlier on, if I had more formal preparation. When I see something ten years later that I was in I think, 'Boy, would I love to do that over.'

When I was 15, 16, I studied with Stella Adler at the Conservatory of Acting, then I stopped again and went to the Actors Studio when I was 18.

Look at someone like Edward Norton. A truly phenomenal actor. He's definitely went to school and trained.

I think acting can be very frustrating, and there's no experience that doesn't make you a better actor.

A lot of people are surprised to hear that an actor studied for two or three years. They take the craft for granted and wanna just wake up and be an actor.

Anytime I met an actor, I just attacked them and said, 'How did you do this?' Eventually, I began to realize that you went to school for it. I wasn't a bright kid, so it took me a long time to figure that out.

Like any other actor, I draw on life experience.

I never felt Lee Strasberg could act, and I fail to see how someone who can't act can teach acting.

Most actors nowadays are models turned actors. That's why a lot of young actors are terrible. You have to learn how to act. It is not something that you can just do.

A lot of moms give their kids line reads. My mom wasn't put in that position because I always had an acting teacher helping with the feelings rather than how to say something.

If I wasn't acting, I'd be teaching acting. That would be my easiest thing to fall back on is teaching it.

There are lots of people in the world who do have the advantage of going to a good drama school and just decide that they want to be actors. There's nothing wrong with an untrained actor; they have to get their training somehow, they have to learn.

I'd always dabbled in acting.

I don't think film actors need training, really.

I thought acting was all about natural instinct but I've realised, through working with so many talented actors on 'Wild Swans' and 'Run,' that I can see the training. That's why I am back at drama school.

I went to acting school, but only for nine months. If you're an actor, you know, don't really need to learn how to do it.

Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn't do that.

When I first started out, I was a bad actor.

I was a guy who needed to go to class, because I had some raw talent that I thought was identifiable, when I finally made a decision to be an actor. And yet I wanted to learn how to really do the stuff. You know, 'How do I get to be a serious actor?'

Just getting auditions was rough. But also just learning how to act - when I did my first role, in a film I did which was a favour to a friend, I realised I was really bad at it.

I always tell younger actors that if they want to learn the ropes, there's no better place to do it than right here in the U.K.

I've never had an acting lesson in my life. I don't know whether that's a good or bad thing.

As an actor just learning the craft, you literally do a scene with Jimmy Gandolfini, and you walk away a better actor.