I don't ever recall being nervous before performing because I've already stepped into the shoes and the clothes of the character.
An actor is a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, he ain't listening.
All the time, as an actor, you want to be asking what's next and where things are going. If you're not asking those questions, you're not growing.
I don't know how to play myself. I'm not interested enough in myself. That's just not how I was educated. That's not how I learned to become an actor. Acting is creating a character.
When I do work, I choose to see every job as an opportunity to grow, as an actor and as a person. My favourite part of it is being part of a team, with everyone pulling in the same direction.
When I research a role it does get a little crazy and maybe even a little stupid.
At the end of the day, I'm an actor. I'm not here to sell other stuff or use off-screen things to generate whether or not I work. If I'm any good, I'll work; if I'm not, I won't.
You've got to empathize with every character you play.
When I'm acting, I'm two beings. There's the one monitoring the distance between myself and the camera, making sure I hit my marks, and there is the one driven by this inner fire, this delicious fear.
I've played my fair share of unpleasant character, and I have to tell you that you sleep better when you're playing fun characters. You think you don't take it home with you, at the end of the filming day, but subconsciously, there's something floating around in the background there.
I'm a task-oriented actor. A pretender. And I try to invent my process anew each time I make a new project. So I frown on any method.
I don't like to intellectualize about my acting. I don't sit around and study the pages of a script over and over again.
I don't work with fear, and I don't work with actors that are fearful.
I do figure every angle of a guy I'm acting - but not consciously 'til afterward.
I never had the desire to get in front of the camera. It never occurred to me! I always thought I'd be a theater actor.
I don't mind being identified as any character as long as I'm doing a good job as an actor. I have done all kinds of roles - from an editor, judge, police officer, murderer to a corrupt businessman.
But I'm an actor and I like to just keep working.
It wasn't a mission to be a rock star. It wasn't a mission of mine to even be a movie star. I just intended to be a good actor.
I look at smoking as a crutch, and as an actor I would like strip away as many crutches as possible.
I like to play characters, man. I almost don't even think of them as good guys or bad guys. I know that's a hard thing to realize, but I really just think of them as characters.
What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.
I'm a walk-on guy. When the director says, 'Action,' I'm on.
Never equate yourself with whatever success may be and how fleeting that is. The only thing you can do every day is become a better actor. That's the only thing I have control over.
When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like.
As an actor, I believe that acting is actually behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
