On-the-Spot Decisions Quotes

I think audibles, the way people talk about it, it's overrated.

When I'm shooting on location, you get ideas on the spot - new angles. You make not major changes but important modifications, that you can't do on a set. I do that because you have to be economical.

I research every part thoroughly. I talk it out with my actor friends, but then I throw it all away when I get to the set. You have to be spontaneous.

I have a few filmmaker friends who are known for shooting super-fast, and they say that you don't have the time to over-think things and how that helps things out creatively.

Whenever you go on TV, there are so many checks and balances; it's a big business with a lot of rules. Stand-up is intimate and the freest, most lawless place I've ever been able to go.

I typically try not to think too hard about what I'm going to do in a certain scene with a certain actor in a certain moment because I think that kind of lends its way to not being as improvisational and sort of carefree as one would hope.

I think I think in the moment. So when I'm in character, I'm in character, and I'm obviously thinking about what's going on around me, but it's easier to do stuff when you're in character.

I think you can only prepare yourself as much as you can, but no matter what, there will be curve balls. I had no idea I'd be taking a flight, landing, and heading straight to a radio station. I thought I might have time to curl my hair, have something to eat. No! You go right into things.

Being on 'The Following' is constantly flying by the seat of my pants. The story can change and the character can change at a moment's notice.

You have to run, an awful lot, on instinct. Even on 'Veep,' it's not like you get weeks of rehearsal to break out what's going on in the scenes.

When you're making a film, you have to make most of your decisions on the run, and there is a tendency to always shoot from the hip.

There's always a certain amount of camera improvisation.

Sometimes the character will go into a completely different direction than I expected once the cameras start rolling. That's what I love about what I do.

You work on a play or movie, you have the whole script, so you're constructing a performance based on the bible that you have. In TV, you don't, so to actually invest in that and let that be the exciting part is terrifying and certainly leaves room for mistakes, looking back.

Television is so dictated by time constraints that you have to make quick decisions and go with them.

I think by now if people hire me, they know I'm going to improvise. I'm an improviser by trade.

There are no rules in live television.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

I don't have much foresight, and I think that's an asset for an actor.

Sometimes you go into a film and you have no time to prepare and have to compress the details into a few days and then rely on the instinct and what happens when you're in a scene with other actors and that chemistry or not.

When you make a documentary, you have to adapt to what reality imposes upon you.

Studio work is very methodical, while live concerts must be very spontaneous.

In a play, you know where you start and end and all the stops you have to do, but in television, you can't construct this carefully planned out arc for your character. You often get a script and you're shooting it two days later, and you don't know what's going to happen next. It's one of the harder things that I've done.

When you make a film, you never know how it will turn out, especially when you improvise it.

With a play, for me, there's no time to sit back on it. You're living on your instincts. And every night there are subtle changes and adjustments, because what's in front of you is a living, breathing audience.