On-Stage Chemistry Quotes

One of the exciting and enjoyable aspects of acting is being in the environment with another actor.

I don't know other couples that work together a fraction as much as Nick and I do. We met in a play, and we've done TV and movies, and we just did 'Annapurna,' our off-Broadway show, and we've done theater together several times, so it's just a little bit of everything.

That is one of the reasons one enjoys acting. Now and again, you get scenes where you work with somebody really good and you have a good time trying to make it really work and really work well.

Songs always get better after you start playing them live.

When I was doing 'A Raisin in the Sun' with Sean Combs, we began in bed, and he would give me 10 kisses and an 11th for luck before the play began.

I get pretty attached to the majority of the characters I play. I can't help myself.

In a live performance, it's a collaboration with the audience; you ride the ebb and flow of the crowd's energy. On television, you don't have that.

The better the actor I am acting with, the better my performance gets.

I definitely love performing live because there are moments of spontaneity. And as much as you're performing on stage, I feel like the audience is performing, too.

Playing live is really the art form. You're a lot freer, a lot looser. You've got people there that can give you feedback, and then you can play off of that. There's so much more energy.

The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself.

I feel as though, as an actor, you can only make brave choices when you're acting with people that you're so relaxed with that you can make a mistake.

I want actors. I want to be with other people. I don't wanna be alone, because of the connection when you're in a room, in a scene with someone, and it comes to life. You feel like the moment is something magic.

Part of being an actor is the rhythm of the life of being an actor, and that involves coming together with a group of people, making something together that is intense and requires a lot of intimacy, and then walking away from it with the possibility that you will never see any of those people again.

Theater is a lot more interactive, more of a cohesive unit. With television, it can be a different director every episode.

What I enjoy most with acting is when it's a good scene with one or two other actors, and you feel a strong connection, and you don't know how you're going to respond, and everybody is listening to each other and getting affected by each other, and even though you've rehearsed it many times, it feels like it's happening right now.

I like the things every actor likes - I like great, intense duet scenes with good actors.

Working on a film, you don't get time to develop rivalries, but the theatre is like a little village, and the differences between me, Lionel and Georgia grew.

There are different types of double act: the classic dumb-and-dumber, like Morecambe and Wise; the good cop/bad cop, where one's a bit spiky and the other's daft. Sue Perkins and I take what we might call the Ant and Dec approach: the double act came out of our friendship.

There's a wonderful adage in acting that you're stuck with the character, but the character is also stuck with you.

During 'Anna Christie,' the biggest challenge I had was working with my daughter and sort of not stopping and asking an audience member for a camera to record the moment.

I like collaborating with actors. I love finding that moment where it all comes together.

I don't like shows, I don't like to put on a show, I just really want to work intimately with my actors.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

I think that much of the success of the Broadway mounting of 'Newsies' was due in no small part to the infectious camaraderie on stage between the boys.