On-Set Learning Quotes

Growing up the son of a director has made me very aware of the various turns that a directing career can take. Sometimes your films turn out exactly as you want. Sometimes they don't. I spent a lot of my childhood on sets. I think as a joke, my father gave me a line of dialogue in each of his films during the worst moments of my puberty.

I learned more doing 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' than I did during three years at drama school.

It's amazing how much you can absorb on a film set.

'Cold Case' was fun. It was a fun experience. That was right when I was cutting my teeth as a TV actor. It was a great learning experience to work on really fast-paced television shows that are very high quality. It was a place where I learned that I had to keep up and I could keep up.

I'm self-taught. Even today, on the sets, I probe the lightmen, the stunt artistes... they are from a period I've not seen; I can visualise it through them.

I love learning from the filmmakers that I'm working with, but more importantly, I love learning from the crew.

'Friday Night Lights' was kind of like my college years because I did four seasons of that. It was my first series. It was the most time I had with one character, and kind of growing and evolving with the character over that long of a span of time, it just allows you to sort of learn in a completely different way that I had never experienced.

And once I was in college, about - maybe the end of my first semester of my sophomore year, I realized that college just was not my jam and that I felt like I was learning more when is actually on set. And I think a lot of that had to do with - I was working while I was in college. I was on "227," so I didn't get a chance to really be immersed in the culture of my school.

I don't think RADA wanted me, actually. When I was at Oxford I had a boyfriend at Central [School of Speech and Drama] and it looked like the most fantastic life, but I think not going makes you more free. Nothing can teach you what it's like to work on a film set, and the best education there can be for an actor is to walk up the street and observe human nature.

I learned so much on 'Sicario' and working with that group of actors, where there was the audacity, the confidence, to do nothing.

I remember something Clint Eastwood told me early on. I don't remember how old I was when you told me this, Dad. But you said, "As an actor, I never went back to my trailer. I always hung out on set and learned." That stuck with me.

Growing up on Mad Men with so many incredible actors and then going on to other things with amazing people, I never had any formal acting training, but they are all acting schools, basically. Just watching and learning from the best is insane. It's like having an internship and watching all these amazing people doing their work. You just soak it up like a sponge, hopefully.

Going to film school taught me how much I already knew, and that the best way to learn about film is being on the set with professionals.

I remember one day, Ekta Kapoor came to the set and scolded me that you don't know how to act, why did we cast you'? She asked me to stay on the set till I learnt the technique of correct dialogue delivery. At that time I felt very humiliated.

'Evening Shade' was such an eye-opening experience. I was 19 when I went on that show. I had barely had an acting class. So as Burt Reynolds continued to bring me back for the next three years, I learned so much from him and all the other legends that were on the show.

You learn from the actors that you're working with. I've taken a lot from all of them.

I learn a lot as a director from acting in other people's films and just in general.

'As the World Turns' was such a great experience and such a great school for me. It was better than any class I could have ever taken.

I don't watch anything of mine much. I haven't gone to drama school, or college, either. I just like to watch other actors in action. I learned so much from working with De Niro. I'd be in a scene with him where I was supposed to be acting, and I was just watching.

When you're in a soap, it's fantastic, and I'm really grateful for the fans who watch you and support you. For me, it was the best experience because I was able to act every day and work with so many different directors and get some great storylines and learn on-screen.

Abhishek Chaubey has improved my craft, as I learnt so much on set.

I'm such a believer in going to set, even when you're not working, because I think the best things to be learned, you don't necessarily get from your own scene or from someone speaking to you and telling you advice. I think it's all about watching and just taking it all in. It's not even when the cameras are rolling, necessarily.

I didn't get to see Predator until halfway through shooting. It was great to get an education while I was shooting because it made me excited to be part of this legacy.

You can do all the film school you want in classrooms, but if you are on the set, you are going to learn so much more because you are really in the middle of doing it.

The best part of making the movies... learning from the pros themselves.