Top 100 Actor Quotes
#1. As an actor, I think it's really important to be as anonymous as possible. It's your job to convince people that you are somebody else, and so any recognition I'd get away from the screen - well, it's not something I actively seek. To be honest with you, I'm surprised anybody does.
Jodhi May
#2. There's a lot of actors out there or people who want to be actors. It's unique to find somebody that, you know, needs to be an actor.
Jeremy Sisto
#3. Being in 'Coronation Street' is only going to make me a better actor.
Rob James-Collier
#4. That's an actor's dream to get something meaty and juicy and challenging to work on.
Rutina Wesley
#5. If you are a successful actor, which is what I am, then you tend to get labelled very quickly and easily.
Kristin Scott Thomas
#6. You know Marques Houston, you know I'm a dancer, I'm a singer, but I wouldn't want to do a movie that I'm a dancer and a singer in. I want to do movies that people can take me more seriously in as an actor, because when you're making that transition, it is tough.
Marques Houston
#7. From 1980 to 1990, I shot more films than any other actor in the Screen Actors Guild, apart from Gene Hackman.
Steve Guttenberg
#8. Every job I've had since 'Smallville' has wanted me to have red hair, so I have to thank 'Smallville' for that. But, just the fact that it was so different was appealing to me. As an actor, you want to be able to play a lot of different things.
Cassidy Freeman
#9. The only thing I wanted to do when I was a young naive kid was to become a New York stage actor.
Oliver Platt
#10. I had spent my entire career not wanting to talk about weight, not wanting to deal with it, wanting to be an actor first.
Sara Rue
#11. I was an accidental actor. I was never formally trained.
David Soul
#12. I stay healthy - I mean, I've got a sports background and an athletic background. I was in competitive sports since the age of five. I was a personal trainer before I was an actor and a personal trainer for the first few years while I was acting and getting my thesis.
Neil Jackson
#13. I'd like to be wanted for my body, too! As an actor I want to play all different kinds of women - independent women but also very vulnerable women.
Rachel Weisz
#14. The basic skill of an actor is, in fact, empathy, and that's maybe not a skill, it's a disposition. I am an assistant storyteller. I enjoy feeling useful to a team effort. It's my way of finding a use for myself, a utility in this world.
Harrison Ford
#15. There's no one actor in particular that I want to model my career after, except for the people who have been able to keep their career varied and who choose things that interest them. That opportunity is all I really want.
Hugh Dancy
#16. Once you become an actor, it's important to take care of yourself. I live in Santa Monica, where I can mountain bike, hike and go running on the beach. I like a nice sunset jog.
Mark Feuerstein
#17. My mother told me I was begging her to be an actor when I was four. My father and my grandfather saw at least one or two movies a week; they were film buffs, so I guess it just rubbed off on me. And now it's kind of become a way of life for me.
Giovanni Ribisi
#18. Just be yourself. As an actor, you pretend all day - that's what the job calls for. So, when it comes to my personal life, a woman who keeps it real is a breath of fresh air.
Justin Chon
#19. What dancing has helped me with is blocking; it makes me comfortable with my body. You know how to hit your mark, you know how to embody a swagger. But sitting down and looking across the table at another actor and being able to go to battle on screen is nothing to do with singing or dancing.
Columbus Short
#20. Not knowing the camera is there, the ability to be unwatched, is the key skill of the film actor.
Peter Skagen
#21. That's the first time I've been involved in such a big way as a voice actor and this script [Voltron] is very matter of factly.
Rhys Darby
#22. Because of my background in theater and radio acting, I knew that I could make a living as an actor.
Casey Kasem
#23. I have been portrayed by actors in three television documentaries, two plays, one musical and a film. It's no fun watching yourself being traduced and imitated by an actor.
Felix Dennis
#24. In comedy, beware the split focus. The audience should focus on the face of the actor. The audience must see the setup. If there is action elsewhere on the stage, the comic line can be lost.
James Carver
#25. It was great to watch Orson Welles, not only as an actor but as a director.
Max Von Sydow
#26. Johnny Depp was the most polite young actor I've ever worked with.
Robert Englund
#27. If life is a performance, and I am not an actor, am I supposed to lie down and die?
Juliana Hatfield
#28. I'm a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don't look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once.
Curtis Armstrong
#29. In motion pictures, the actor rules. The camera served the actor.
Richard Donner
#30. I don't feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor.
Matthew Macfadyen
#32. I never look at myself as a closet actor wanting to make music or a closet musician wanting to act - I'm very proud to do both and I don't put one above the other, I'm very grateful and excited by both opportunities - it's really a unique opportunity to do both.
Jared Leto
#33. If I wasn't an actor and I watched my films, I could easily be like 'This guy's a clown,' you know?
Seann William Scott
#34. Every role is challenging in its own way, but the most challenging roles are the ones that are badly written - then it's completely up to you to come up with something that is interesting to the story and myself as an actor.
Richard Schiff
#36. It [winning Oscar] is the most important event in the career of an actor, an extraordinary moment, beautiful. Some people live their whole life just to win an Oscar.
Sophia Loren
#37. If I say I'm the best actor for the part, I mean it and I'm not kidding.
James Woods
#38. There's nothing more terrifying than an actor who comes with an idea.
Lance Henriksen
#39. The performance is created by the director. The actor is the material. And I think that has to be true.
Ian McKellen
#40. I used to say that I wanted someone cute and nice, an actor too, so he'd get it. But now I think it would be good for me to date someone who's not in the business.
Selena Gomez
#41. Allow the emptiness inherent within actions and experiences to guide and shape your choices. Let your actions direct you, the actor, not the other way around.
Frederick Lenz
#42. I've never been turned down for a role because I'm gay. I'm a character actor, and that's probably why. I don't find Hollywood, in my own experience, to be homophobic ... But I do think the straight folks will continue to play the straight roles.
Jane Lynch
#43. The difference between the actor and the painter is that the actor would buy somebody a knish in order to have them watch him act.
Al Pacino
#44. When I was a kid, I was really into 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Friday the 13th.' But as I got older and started working as an actor, I did not really get scared by horror movies as much, so I am not as into them anymore.
Simon Rex
#45. Director of any film is very important, and an actor has to leave himself in his hands to mould.
Leander Paes
#46. Some people say to be an actor you've got to die to do it. I think it's healthy if you think, 'I'll do it if it works, and if I don't, I can do something else.' That way seems to work for me.
Kate Ashfield
#47. When you're a young actor, there's this pressure to rush. But I hope to be doing this into my sixties and seventies, so I'd prefer to take my time.
Felicity Jones
#48. As an actor you really want to push yourself, and there's no better way than to do an intense drama.
Matthew Lewis
#49. To be honest, as an actor, job security is not a trait.
Taylor Kinney
#50. It was actually a relief for me to play an actor who was scared, who didn't know where everything was, who didn't know what buttons to push, and for me to be able to play all that.
Sigourney Weaver
#51. At the time I was growing up in the business I was very well established within the industry as a child actor and as I grew up and turned into a teenager there was less and less work.
Morgan Brittany
#52. Sex in the City was a different kind of phenomenon because of the show itself is a phenomenon and to me that's successful because to resonate with women across the board for six years and have only one African-American actor pass through for one episode.
Blair Underwood
#53. My mother implanted in me as a young girl ... you can either be an actor in your own life, or a reactor in somebody else's.
Hillary Clinton
#54. I'm an actor who believes we all have triggers to any stage of emotion. It's not always easy to find but it's still there.
Hugh Jackman
#56. As an actor, no matter what, you're at the whim of so many other people all the time.
Jake Gyllenhaal
#57. Life was so easy before I became an actor. I could talk to anyone, and no one bothered. I keep thinking to myself, 'Should I not be myself,' but I won't do that.
Anushka Sharma
#58. That particular take was the one that ended up in the film. So when you see Westley fall to the ground and pass out, that's not acting. That's an overzealous actor actually losing consciousness.
Cary Elwes
#59. The plight of the actor, even if he's a star, is the plight of the women's movement. They're saying the same thing to us: get into bed, give me a good time, then give me something to eat, go get the laundry, be a good girl.
Dustin Hoffman
#60. I take pride in saying that I am an army officer's daughter even more than being an actor.
Anushka Sharma
#61. My father being in the movie business, I thought being an actor would be great. But when I started singing to people in coffeehouses, you know, singing folk music and then, later, singing songs that I started to write myself, I felt more than an affinity for it.
David Crosby
#62. My theory is that everything an actor does, from the way he looks at his watch to the way he moves across the stage, is in the service of advancing a story, and in that sense, it's all writing. In that sense we, while acting, write.
Bernard Sahlins
#63. As an actor, it doesn't happen often that somebody sends you a script that is first of all that good.
Patrick Huard
#64. I'm excited to flex my Broadway muscles - it keeps you alive as an actor.
Chandra Wilson
#65. It is joyous for any actor to enter other grounds of consciousness and thought. At the end of the day, we just all like dressing up and playing around.
Rhys Ifans
#66. I fell in love with film. I didn't start out to be a film actor. I wanted to be a theater actor.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
#67. I like my job and I want to do well at it but I think there's much more integrity to being a journalist maybe than being an actor.
Jessica Lucas
#68. However, I hope I am also judged on my accomplishments as an actor and not just on my pretty face!
Jonathan Brandis
#69. It's the hardest thing for an actor not to speak because you take away their main tool. So for an actor, it's very frustrating and very challenging, and very few people can pull it off. Some actors can say a thousand words with just a look, and it's a unique gift.
Nicolas Winding Refn
#70. I'm a stand-up comedian-turned-actor-turned-vampire at night.
Vir Das
#71. Now go. An actor should know when to leave the stage, a poet when the lay is finished, and a bard when it is time to put aside the lute.
Raymond E. Feist
#72. I love being an actor, and that's really the bottom line - in any medium, in any genre - and I want to do it.
Chris Klein
#73. So many actors get caught up in their technique, and to be honest, I see it really getting in the way. I see them forcing things. I definitely do my best work when I'm free of that. But I think as an actor, I work really hard in preparing the roles.
Gerard Butler
#74. The best thing an actor can bring to a role is himself - that's no secret.
Dean Winters
#75. No one ever sees the sleepless nights, the years of studying and 14-hour days earning your dues. I spent three years isolated in an academic environment to be the best actor I could.
Kunal Nayyar
#76. My biggest influences as an actor were Marlon Brando, and I really dug James Dean.
Larry Bishop
#77. I can remember when a good politician had to be 75 percent ability and
25 percent actor, but I can well see the day when the reverse could be
true.
Harry S. Truman
#78. Central to being an actor is pretending, and the adventure of it all. That's why you become a junkie for different kinds of situations.
Willem Dafoe
#79. There is no pure success. I am action actor. I have broken almost every piece of my body.
Jet Li
#80. People need to realise what real happiness and success is, because success as an actor is fleeting. You can be up there one day and gone the next.
Chuck Norris
#81. The marrying of an actor and his whimsical and theatrical vision is very enjoyable, because he wants it to be filled with something honest, truthful, human, soulful, substantial.
Jeff Goldblum
#82. Well, you know what? The actor still gets up in the morning, if he's still got something to work with, you go out there and you do it. Never quit!
Robert Forster
#83. You cannot hurt animals, so what do I do? I kill the dog first. Then I do it with the boy. You're not supposed to break the illusion of this being a film, so I make the actor talk to the audience. Provocation is the principle of the whole film [ Funny Games]. It is very ironic.
Michael Haneke
#84. I have definitely been curious and involved in the process; even as a young actor. I was always looking at where the camera was, what story it was telling. And as my experience grew, I wanted to know even more.
Keanu Reeves
#85. It's the way the business works, you're not just an actor, you're a diplomat and a publicist and a politician, and there are certain expectations.
Wentworth Miller
#86. It's important to have the right agent - people that are working hard for you. But an actor needs to be in control of their career no matter how good the representation is.
Joel McHale
#87. We ask the public to believe that every time they see an actress or actor that they are a different person.
Edith Head
#88. Every little thing that people know about you as a person impedes your ability to achieve that kind of terrific suspension of disbelief that happens when an audience goes with an actor and character he's playing.
Edward Norton
#89. One guy told me I was a great actor, I just would never be on the cover of a magazine.
Ben Affleck
#90. It used to be that you could do these nuggets of a movie and it would attach itself in terms of credibility to your work and the style of work that you did, that people would be interested and curious about you and your work as an actor.
Jared Harris
#91. The important bit for an actor is the actual shooting of it, because the minute the shoot ends, it's got nothing to do with you anymore.
Mark Strong
#92. There is always one person on the set who has a lot of anxiety, an actor who is really intense and has to stay in character and holds himself away from the rest of us.
Maria Bello
#93. Our school not only makes you an actor, it makes you understand who you actually are as well ... it gives you discipline and punctuality. It also teaches you a way of life.
Anupam Kher
#94. A struggle with shyness is in every actor more than anyone can imagine.
Marilyn Monroe
#95. I wasn't a trained actor, I was trained in musical comedy theater, and when you do that, the audience is completely part of the thing. It's like Elizabethan theater. You play the scene, and then you turn - the audience is part of it.
Christopher Walken
#96. I'm glad to have shown myself able to do other things rather than people thinking, 'Oh, he'll just do the same as his dad.' Dad was a brilliant actor, but it just so happened he was five foot five and a half, fat and bald.
Rory Kinnear
#97. 'Normal Heart' was my most transcendent moment as an actor.
Ellen Barkin
#98. You want a place where you can say that this is your show that you invested in with other actors, but there's also that flexibility of being a recurring actor.
Gbenga Akinnagbe
#99. I was a commercial artist when I left school, but luckily I became an actor. I've painted for many, many years. Now the last few years it's gotten more serious.
Pierce Brosnan
#100. I've been an actor for 14 years now and a lot of that time was spent in theatre and television. Then I moved to L.A. to try and build upon that and it's starting to pay off!
David Oyelowo
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