Improvised Acting Quotes

It's great when improv is encouraged. It's a really fun thing. It depends on who's in the movie and how their process works as well. It takes a director who is open to that because you have a script, but then something funny could happen on set.

The film [Close Up] made itself, to a large extent. The characters involved were very real, I wasn't directing the actors so much as being directed by them. So it was a very particular film.

We would write scripts, like for 'Shutterbugs.' Then when we shot it, everyone just came up with new stuff. We've definitely learned how to do it better as we've gotten along. So basically, that's how it went. We just go in with ideas and try to figure out funny stuff while we're there.

When I go in to 'Comedy Bang Bang,' I'll go in most of the time with some beats of where we're going with the idea. Everything else is improvised. Nothing is scripted. A lot of times I'll go in there with nothing and it's just conversation with the character.

The improv, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but when it does, it's like open-field running.

When I had kids, I became a better actor. I just stole from them.

I heard that the same thing occurred in a scene in Alien, where the creature pops out of the chest of a crewman. The other actors didn't know what was to happen; the director wanted to get true surprise.

TV becomes easier because you get to spend time with that character. It's going to go on for a while, and the more you know something, the easier it becomes, the less nerves you have about it, and the better it is for improv because you have that camaraderie between cast regulars. In film, it's harder because you got to get in and get out.

Our challenge with "The Office" and "Extras" was to get it completely scripted but to find a cast that could make it look like they were saying it for the first time.

But I really like our experimental, performance and monologue videos, where there's barely jokes in the video, where it's almost a joke in itself that the monologue is even being recorded.

The shortest feedback loop I can think of is doing improvisation in front of an audience.

Doing a play, you have a little bit more time, obviously. You rehearse for a month before you get up in front of people. It's a totally different energy. With film, TV, you want to try to capture lightning-in-a-bottle moments. I don't try to rehearse as much with that stuff, because you want those sparks of something to come out, if they do.

If I improvise at all on 'The Goldbergs,' it's with the physical stuff.

That's what I love about the mockumentary style, is the added thing of people knowing they are on-camera, which changes your behavior. That's why we sometimes do what we call spy shots.

I never went to acting school, so improv was my training. Just being quick on your feet helps in everyday life.

I want to be a little more dramatic nowadays. I definitely want something big and funny, but I look for things that can just have people see me in a different light and let me mature as both an entertainer and an actor and a comedian.