Acting Habits Quotes

One role blends into the next role. I mean, there's strange idiosyncrasies from roles that I play that I picked up that will never go away.

It's important for an actor to feel like they're really being watched and to receive feedback and encouragement about the aspects of what they're doing that feels truthful - and also to raise awareness when they might be resorting to habits and tricks, which every actor has.

You do have habits and rhythms that you do sort of fall into when you're acting, but if you've got text that doesn't allow you to do that it puts you in a bit of an uncomfortable space and takes you out of your habits.

I like to use my hands. When I was in theatre in college, that was one of my biggest notes: 'You use your hands too much.'

These days, I pay attention to my eating habits and avoid junk food, but looks are not that important to be a good actor.

There are a lot of actors who will watch the monitors. They'll do a scene, and then the director will look back to see if he got whatever he wanted. I just find it odd to sit there and watch yourself.

If anybody ever points out to me I'm chewing scenery, I certainly like to stop doing that.

I think actors always like to think they don't bring the character home, and then their family all laugh and tell you otherwise.

I have had teachers who were brutal. If you look up 'brutal' in a dictionary, you will see their names. And I think that it's under the guise of wanting to change the actor's habit - wanting to break bad habits and replace them with brand-new ones you can use for the rest of your career.

I don't want to be like the actor who rehearses everything in the bathroom, then comes to the set and carries on completely uninterrupted while the other actors tiptoe away.

As an actress people always tease me like: if there's anything you can do to make yourself unattractive you will do it.

I find it rather tedious working with some actors who have to go into a corner and bounce up and down, shake their hands and arms, saying to the director, "Just a second - I'll be ready in a few minutes, " while all the other actors are waiting around to get in. Then they say, "OK! I'm ready now." And then they come on and do it exactly the same way they've done it in rehearsal.

Since I started acting, I had to quit a lot of bad habits. I've tried to stop biting my nails, because people always look at your nails during auditions. Truth be told, I still have a 'cheat nail,' but I've been cheating less and less.

One of the things I did early on in film was over-enunciate and talk too loud.

I learned to act reactively very well because those were the sorts of roles I was given for 20 years. It was hard to break out of that typecasting.

I think I do things that are more common in theatre.

As an actor, I have these tics that I don't even know exist.

I'm not one of those actors that goes to watch the playback, after every take. I really don't like it, and I don't want to see it.

I've never shown up to a session in my pajamas - but I definitely do auditions in my pajamas all the time, if I do them from home.

While I deeply admire actors who deeply prepare, it's just not something I do.

It's often wrong to write for specific actors because one ends up using what is least interesting about them, their mannerisms and habits. I prefer not to write for specific people.

I think it's quite common for actors to almost rely on their characters to exercise parts of themselves in their regular life they don't tend to explore so much.

It was so hard to watch myself back because whatever movie I do, I never look at the monitor. I hate looking at the monitor.

When you do a four-camera sitcom, everything is a little schtickier. It’s not necessarily that you pick up bad habits, but there is just a very specific way of acting that you fall into on those kinds of multicamera shows, and you have to break those habits when you go in to do other things.