Professional Acting Quotes

You can't be an actor in a small town-you have to go to New York or L.A.

Right after I left drama school, I had a job.

I was 14, when I wanted to be an actor. My parents were basically like, "This is a very hard life, and you have to be really serious about it, and show us that you're serious about it. You can't drop out of school." They strongly encouraged me not to act professionally until I finished college, which I didn't. And I think they should have been horrified! It's a really hard life. I'd be really scared if I had a child who wanted to be an actor.

As far as acting, I just went in and just started training. It was the first thing I did right when I retired. I just went in and found class, and found people, found the right coaches that could sort of just train me along.

I started acting as a way to support myself.

I remember when I first came to Los Angeles being staggered by the range of roles open to me. These were leading parts in shiny new projects, and what always excited me was knowing there was a possibility that I could actually get these parts. I always had the impression that I had a chance.

I'm grateful that I have a theater career because television isn't kind to you when you're over forty.

I did my share of kid acting, like lots of us do. I even played King Herod when I was 6, but when I got to the end of my school period, that was it.

The pressure is always stepping on stage with actors who are just so well-established. It's a scary thing. I haven't been around the block that many times, especially not on big projects. Dialogue makes things easier. When you start bouncing dialogue off of other actors, it becomes comfortable; it becomes conversational.

I didn't get into acting to have a moment, I got into it because of people who've inspired me, like Judi Dench, Holly Hunter, and Jodie Foster.

When I was 20 years old, my mom flew me for my first Broadway audition for 'The Color Purple,' and I only found out about it because I knew that Fantasia was in it, and so I went online to ActorsEquity.com. I was not a part of the union, but I flew there for the audition, and the next week I made my Broadway debut!

I wasn't acting on passion. I was simply acting.

My first professional audition as an actor was when I was about 12 years old, and it was for a children's television show called 'M.I. High,' which I ended up doing for two years.

I made a sort-of living in the beginning of my acting career as a reporter. I think my very first job was 'Early Edition' as reporter no. 1, and for 'Light It Up,' I was reporter no. 2.

When I was five, I went on my first audition. It was for a Pizza Hut commercial.

I've been on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of auditions in my life, so it's not unusual that I went in for 'Glee.' What was unusual is that it was a week, exactly, after I had given birth.

I really, specifically, love acting, and I think it's a really cool thing to be really indulgent and follow that. I have a lot of ambitions in life, but for the next few years, I just want to be an actor. That's a lucky opportunity, and that drives me to want to be good at that.

You don't pay an actor to act. An actor will do that for free because we love to act. You pay an actor to wait.

'EastEnders' changed everything. I was a jobbing actress living in Stepney, and I was on the dole at one point. Then people started to send me scripts, which was always my dream.

I went on a road trip and ended up in Portland, Oregon, and from there, I did non-stop theater. I had just graduated, and I had all these ideas about what good acting was, but I hadn't put any of it into action. I spent five years honing my acting chops. And then I had this epiphany one day that I need to go to L.A.; I need to be on a sitcom.

I did fringe theatre for so many years, and then I got my first play at the RSC, which was an amazing feeling, but I was 30 and had started acting in my early twenties.

I don't mind being identified as any character as long as I'm doing a good job as an actor. I have done all kinds of roles - from an editor, judge, police officer, murderer to a corrupt businessman.

I've been working as an actor since I was 9 years old.

I got my first professional job at Harvard, at the Loeb Drama Center, and I remember sitting on campus one day under a tree - I was doing 'Threepenny Opera.' I was reading a book, and the light caught me, and I thought, 'I want to be in the movies.'

Broadway is really, really hard.