On-Set Performance Quotes

You might have, as a character, 30 pages of dialogue a day if you're what they call a 'front-burner story.' So you go home, you learn your lines for the next day, you get up, you're there at 7 in the morning, you do a quick rehearsal, you're on camera, you might leave, you know, at 7 at night and start the whole thing over again.

You have to come in and be that character when you walk into the room. That's what one of my first acting teachers taught me. You know, don't go in there being Jennifer and then expect to flip and change, because they're not going to have that imagination.

You have to find it in the moment, and that's one of the challenges of being an actor - especially a film actor - is that you have to maintain these heightened emotions for long periods of time. There's no trick to it. You just have to do.

I started doing the big Hollywood stuff, and I realised, 'Oh, there's no rehearsal at all; you just turn up on the set, and sometimes you haven't even met the other actor, or the woman who's playing your wife, and you're suddenly in bed with them.'

You play a hologram on 'Star Trek,' and you have to spew line after line. I spoke in paragraphs on 'Star Trek.'

I'm not into that method acting thing. I just turn up, say my lines and go home.

I've had to make the transition from sweeping in for 15 minutes, doing my stuff and clearing out, to carrying a movie for the duration - in a dress.

For me, rehearsal is very important, and I spend a lot of time doing it. Also, I work with my acting teacher for hours and hours before walking onto any set.

I've been on projects before where there's no rehearsal, and you walk in on set and that's literally the first time you've ever played the character, and then I've had times where there's been three weeks of rehearsal. I like both.

I like to be in character a good few hours before I arrive for filming.

If you can walk into a set and feel the reality of it, then immediately you're not having to work to bring yourself into the character.

The real work of an actor goes on inside, and I don't think it changes from director to director - I always go for broke! But I don't get a lot of direction, unfortunately.

The day before I work, I don't like to even look at the script and let whatever happens happen on the set. But I do prepare a lot. I'm a big believer in that.

As an actor, your first priority is the work - immersing yourself in the role, backstory, and bringing that to screen.

I'm not an actor who is often asked to be in period things.

When you come onto the set, everything should be focused around your character and you should stay in the pocket, as much as possible. Every actor has their own process. For me, I really need to stay in the pocket.

'Batman' took 10 months to film, and by the time I stopped working on it, it took a long time before my English accent came out again. I was actually having to try for it.

On a film you can really get away with learning the scene the night before and that's often just not possible with TV, so you have to be a little bit more prepared a little bit more in advance.

We did very little improvisation on camera, and once in a while we did.

Rehearsal for film is tough. Until the camera's there, everything changes.

When you do a play, you have all this time to rehearse and grow into the character. In television, even though you're waiting and waiting and waiting, once you're actually on set engaging in the scene with another actor, time is of the essence.

I use this method to bring emotion into my performance. I recite my lines in English first, and then switch back to the original lines when shooting begins.

Film is a lot different. You have the whole script in its entirety, and you have a couple of weeks to learn different scenes, really go over them and rehearse them so when you get to them they're more fleshed out. But TV shows are harder.

I could not be one of those actors who stays in character all day long. I'd go mad.

When you shoot a film, you have very little time to waste, and I try to go into the character as soon as possible and stay there as much as I can.