The varying physical characteristics of the actors may also necessitate changes. Sean Connery is six feet four. Dustin Hoffman isn't.
It was a shock to my system leaving 'The West Wing' and going to 'Psych.' I remember being like, 'What are you doing?' when James Roday first started improvising. Steve and the writing staff write it that way. They leave gaps.
It's a tough transition really for theater actors to adjust to television or film, and all of these years later, I still have a tendency to play it too big.
When I first watched 'Coraline,' I thought, 'If that ever got adapted...' If it was done by real actors, I think that would be a really fun thing to do, just because it's a kind of whole new universe.
People think that theater actors are too big for the camera. It's like, 'No, we're actors and we adjust for our audience.'
Actually, guest star roles are really hard. Since you have to walk into a show where the cast has been working together for a long period of time, it can be a real challenge. And you have to feel your way around that while still making an impact on the overall effect of the show.
What's funny is that there's a lot of great Australian actors in American movies but you don't often hear them do their Australian, original accent.
I think there will always be a particular generation of actors who... think that they're going to be replaced by robots. But certainly the emerging actors... understand that that's part of the craft.
In the theater, it's a visceral and physical response because you move around so much. You have to do something physical to pull you in. On TV or in movies, everything is so small. You can just lock into a character and ease yourself into that way.
It's not easy for Chinese actors to do foreign films, and it's not easy for foreign actors to do Chinese films.
Content is getting its due respect. Our audience wants to see characters on screen and want to see actors play new roles, adapt different body language.
I know actors who say acting is acting, but I love the live-ness of an audience. I love feeling the energy of a room and allowing them to sort of teach you how to do it better.
It has given me an insight into what it's like as an actor to come into a show in the middle of a production and fit into a group that's already established.
