Acting Craft Quotes

Sometimes being an actor is being a song in someone else's mixtape, so I really understand why more and more actors are making films of their own.

I'm always happier and a better actor when I can really lose myself in a character and become somebody else.

In Delhi, I became a serious stage actor. Then, luckily, the FTII acting course began, and I studied there, spent some time working on my craft. In 2008, I moved to Mumbai, and then in one and a half years of so-called struggle, I got my first film, 'Love Sex aur Dhokha' (LSD).

I'm still learning and trying to become a better actor. I still feel insecurity.

You can't just tell actors, especially young ones, to 'act happy' and expect them to do it. They must in some essential way be happy.

As an actor, you can't just imitate someone. You have to get under her skin.

I think it's my job as a young actor to watch adult actors and take tips on the way they work.

As far as acting, I just went in and just started training. It was the first thing I did right when I retired. I just went in and found class, and found people, found the right coaches that could sort of just train me along.

We're actors. We're the opposite of people.

I believe that you become a better actor only when you work with people far better than you are.

I don't know acting, but I choose good stories and portray emotions according to the story.

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

I think when you're acting, you usually don't have to know too much beyond how to pronounce the words you're saying.

I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.

I try to steal from the best. Suck it all in. 'Taxi Driver' is really a bible for film actors, a master class. A lot of emotional power, a lot of emotional depth but it's contained and you just see the tip of the iceberg.

There's such a work ethic involved in theatre that you can't learn in L.A.

Any good actor is a character actor.

For an actor, if you're not doing a job, you can't just practice acting. Your instrument is your whole person.

You will never, I think, fully conquer the play. Every night, you see this Everest before you. It's that two, three hours and the audience, and you'd better tell the truth.

I feel there are only well acted or badly acted roles and no such thing as a good actor or actress.

For me, acting was always a way to explore emotions - to dip into the well and really try to reach rock bottom down there. That was the most exciting part of it. I hadn't found anything that really allowed me to do that until I came upon acting.

Meryl Streep doesn't care how she looks. She just surrenders to the truth of the character. Not everybody has the ability to do that. They look good and they can pretend to be that person, it's not the same as being that person. And there are not many actors who will surrender to that.

I would loved to be called a character actor.

When you are an actor, you bring a tool in your craft but you are not that person.

I've learnt that there's acting for film, acting for theatre, and acting for an audition.