theatrical transformation Quotes

The makeup [for Count Olaf] took about two and a half hours every morning. The meditation was another hour and a half. I would eat a big breakfast - that was probably 45 minutes. And then it was lunch.

In the theatre, every form once born is mortal; every form must be reconceived, and its new conception will bear the marks of all the influences that surround it.

Playing Mrs.Baskets was an interesting experience for me. It was the most rewarding thing I've done since Life With Louie. So you never know: If somebody asks you to put a wig and a dress on, you shouldn't just say "no" right away.You should at least see if there's money, fame, and satisfaction involved.

When I'm on stage, I'm not me playing me. I'm somebody else doing me. I could never go on stage and be like, "Hey, I'm Mike Tyson. My mother and father was in the sex industry." That's the politically correct way to say it, but I would really say, "My mother and father were pimps and whores. This is my life." I could never do that as Mike Tyson. Because I'd feel sorry for myself. But if I could be objective about it and be somebody else, portraying Mike Tyson, saying this story, then it's easy sailing.

The other, the other aspect when I say I'm an actor is that as an actor you make this imaginative leap into being somebody else, that's to say the muscle of the imagination is as important as any other of the muscles in your body, and so it is something about this instinct in space and time which for me I associate with being an actor rather than a director.

I hate being an actor, they dress you and put on your makeup and you just feel like a little baby.

Father Time is the make-up man responsible for the physical changes that determine the parts the average actor is to play.

If you play men, in a way it's easier. You can have a voicebox, you can have false hair, mustaches, wigs, you can have all kinds of stuff. But when you're playing women playing men, you only really have yourself to work with, plus tiny little extras.

We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.

I become an actor, a quick-change artist, as if I can trap the Prince of Truth in the act of switching a style.

In real life I'm obviously a lot more shy, but once I'm on set and in costume and I'm hidden behind the person I'm playing I feel quite free to experiment.