If you think about filmmaking as an entire spectrum, starting with the writer and ending with maybe the marketing department, the actor's contribution is a rather slender band.
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 an actor. It's like being a bricklayer. Sometimes I'm building a little wall, and the next time I'm building a palace.
Directing a film requires a different set of skills. It is a difficult job, and I am happy being an actor.
When you do a Tom Cruise movie, you don't do a Tom Cruise movie and ask a lot of questions.
I never wanted to be one of those actors with a political agenda.
You can't judge a character, and you're never going to always play characters that are morally sound or know right from wrong.
Any good director creates a playground. That's what they do. They hire the right actor, open the door and let them play because stuff will happen, right then and there. The audience wants to believe that what's going on is happening for the first time, ever. That's what acting is. That's what good scene writing is.
I grow up in the States, in Miami, but I was born in Guatemala, and my father's Cuban, and in 'Body of Lies,' I played an Iraqi.
For me, the ideal job as an actor would be something that is intrinsically a drama but to which I could bring in as much humor as possible.
There isn't a switch that I turn on. I'm an actor. This is what I do.
As an actor, you are always someone else's tool. You can have a connection with them, and you can share their point of view, but ultimately, you are helping them reflect.
So for Bullitt, I just put my black hat back on.
An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.
With most good scripts and good shows, they expect the actor to bring some of their ideas to the backstory of the character. It's always a good collaboration between the actor and the writer and the director to try stuff out during the process.
I like playing characters that, you know, a couple could go see the movie and one person could love him and one person could hate him.
Moving from chair to chair, from coffee machine to coffee machine is the limit of my action in most films. But I enjoy being cast in them because I love watching them.
The first and foremost criterion for me when selecting a film is the character I am playing, and then the director.
To perform on stage, you have to run through your paces till you are perfect. Despite the script and director, the actor makes or breaks the play.
I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.
I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn't understand what being an actor meant anymore.
Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.
The whole business of being an actor is to explore, from research to shooting to why you do it. You're trying to see why people do what they do and how it feels to do what they do.
As an actor, you're only one little piece of the puzzle; you're fulfilling someone else's vision. If you're involved earlier on, you're kind of creating your own.
You can have good writing, but a great actor will make it feel and sound like great writing. You can have great writing, and mediocre actors will make it feel mediocre. Without the actors, you have nothing.
