We actors can't say every line as if it has weight, but what we want to do is be true to the meaning of each line, whatever it is. Even the lines that are throwaway may come back later.
What do I love about acting? I love traveling, meeting new people, exploring and just doing what I love.
As an actor, you use the things from yourself that you can apply to the character.
When I was acting, I was always asking abut the mechanics of filmmaking. I decided I would learn what everyone on set was doing, so I would feel less threatened.
Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.
I think it's so important when you're playing a character that you can't judge the person you're playing at all. It's a judgment-free zone. You have to just go for it.
Good actors are always looking for props. They're looking for behavior. It makes it a lot easier. You're not solely dependent of what's coming out of your mouth. You're also less self-conscious, less aware of the camera.
I'm an actor. It's like being a bricklayer. Sometimes I'm building a little wall, and the next time I'm building a palace.
I'm always happier and a better actor when I can really lose myself in a character and become somebody else.
I learned so much by being an actor, and part of my sort-of development as a writer is big thanks to the scripts I read in my acting life.
Watching Bernadette Peters perform is like an acting class. She's amazing.
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).
My strength lies in prepping. I'm not someone who can just walk onto the set and perform.
When I first started acting, I was just crap.
I'm still learning and trying to become a better actor. I still feel insecurity.
I've never acted, but I'm an entertainer. So I kind of used what I know from being onstage. I've done a thousand and two interviews, and I've been on camera a million times, so I'm not uncomfortable on camera, but it was interesting for me to be someone else.
As an actor, I feel one should use his look to trick people.
I love working with actors. That's what the set really is, for me. It's my time with the actors.
I watched season four of 'The Wire.' They have subtle performances that they do through their eyes. You could watch season four with the audio off and still understand what's happening through their eyes.
As actors, you don't actually need to know the future of the character. You just need to know the backgrounds.
What is important to me as an actor is that, even if I have to spread my arms, take my shirt off on a mountain top with my heroine in a chiffon sari, it still has to be me and my twist or my funny take on it.
I remember playing John Wayne Gacy, serial killer, very sick, neurotic, screwed-up guy. You know what? There's a part of me there, too, and you explore that.
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.
I find that a lot of the good acting comes out when you're physically being pushed: your brain turns off and just deals with the situation at hand. You get to a point where you're exhausted at the end of the day, but I quite like that.
I had many, many mentors that I worked with. Music teachers, choir directors, directors in summer stock or in regional theater. You know, people I was able to work with repeatedly and learn from who were really sort of appropriate people for me to work with at a given time in my development as an actor.
