Being An Actor Quotes

#1. I'm just an actor, but if the extra part of it is that I'm helping people or people are being helped by the virtue of what we're doing, then that's just a really nice added extra.

Christopher Meloni

#2. One of the fun things about being an actor is stepping outside yourself and outside of your own experience. It's challenging yourself to totally commit to something that in your core is so wrong.

Jason Priestley

#3. The most intoxicating thing about being an actor is to surrender to a story that you never would have come up with.

Brit Marling

#4. I think of being an actor as a blue-collar profession.

Joe Mantegna

#5. I wasn't aware of my dad being an actor when I was young. I remember there was an Australian children's entertainer on television called Ralph Harris and when I'd say my father was an actor, kids would say, you know, 'oh, is he Ralph Harris?' And I had to say no and then they would lose interest.

Jared Harris

#6. Being on a Paul Thomas Anderson film, the best decision an actor can make is to listen to Paul Thomas Anderson. Because he's probably not going to steer anyone in the wrong direction. I would always say go with your gut on any other movie set, but with Paul, I would say go with Paul's gut.

Rami Malek

#7. My advice has always been to study the craft of acting if you want to be an actor. There are many great schools that teach acting. NYU being one of them.

Peter Facinelli

#8. When you first start out as an actor, you're just looking for a good part. As time goes on, if you're being held responsible for the movies themselves, you're looking for a good script all around.

George Clooney

#9. There are many ups and downs in everyone's life and when you're an actor usually you're a very sensitive human being.

Melanie Griffith

#10. I'm an actor, and I like having attention, I guess. There's a reason I like being on stage. There's a reason I like being in front of a camera. It's that interaction.

Tatiana Maslany

#11. I think the greatest thing about being an actor is that you can become other people ... You have the opportunity to explore ... alternative ways of living for a brief time.

Ian McDiarmid

#12. We ask actors to come to work ready to open a vein, to be emotionally thin-skinned. If someone screams, 'What about my coffee?' it's not about the coffee; it's because they're working in an emotional state. It ain't easy being an actor.

Don Scardino

#13. Part of being an actor is almost self-hypnosis during those brief moments when the cameras are rolling. You want to actually believe you're Chris Gardner or Muhammad Ali.

Will Smith

#14. Being an actor somehow can be a perverse extension of that feeling we generally all have as children, that feeling of wanting to please. Of course you're looking for affirmation, encouragement.

Gina McKee

#15. I think meeting someone like, meeting Sam Shepard, that was someone who was kind of important for me, because I'd read so much of his work and watched him as an actor since I was a kid, then being on set doing a scene with him and thinking, 'This is really surreal.'

Richard Madden

#16. As an actor, what you dream of is being able to portray people that people empathize with and understand and really feel for.

Daniel Sharman

#17. Whenever I've been asked to be in a film, directors only want me to play myself ... I'm fascinated by the thought of being an actor, but it's too hard. And I think Shakespeare-which has been suggested to me-might be a bit of a stretch.

Tom Jones

#18. I think I'm a better collaborator, in seeing the bigger picture and trying to just help that, and not be so self-centered in whatever my task is, which is being an actor.

Ray McKinnon

#19. My film school is making movies. But, I do think that being an actor has served me immensely, as both a writer and director, in terms of knowing what is playable and what will be fun to play, for actors, and also how to communicate to actors on set, and not screw them up and get them in their head.

Josh Radnor

#20. Although just being employed as an actor is a big thing, I'm not sure I'd be satisfied playing the same character for 30 years; it's not why I want to do this for a living.

Jamie Dornan

#21. I learned so much by being an actor, and part of my sort-of development as a writer is big thanks to the scripts I read in my acting life.

Joel Edgerton

#22. There's nothing I dislike more than being in a photo shoot where they say, 'Be yourself.' That's not why I became an actress. That's what I find so funny: that you become an actor, and all of a sudden, everyone wants to know about you. But I didn't become an actor so I could show you me.

Margot Robbie

#23. I had been a ballet dancer and never could make a living, and just being so excited that I got to, all of a sudden, live as an actor.

Lea Thompson

#24. I'm glad that I'm being acclaimed as an actor. Today, when my hard work has paid off I can chill out about it.

Akshay Kumar

#25. It's bizarre, that feeling as an actor, at being in the mecca of the film world and seeing billboards for a TV show that you're in pretty much everywhere.

Joe Dempsie

#26. Most times when people pitch you as being perfect for a part ... they don't look at you as an actor who can transform. A lot of people are so literal.

Catherine Keener

#27. I know that I am one and I've made a living as an actor and I enjoy being an actor, but when I'm not actually doing it, I forget that I do it.

Wallace Shawn

#28. The good thing about being an actor, and the gift of being an actor, is that you are beautifully forced to see the world with different eyes.

Javier Bardem

#29. There are ways of avoiding becoming tabloid fodder and therefore giving people license to pry into your private life. And there's a distinction between being an actor and being a celebrity. You may become a celebrity through acting, but you don't need to do so.

Damian Lewis

#30. I am really attracted to films. It's nice to do something new, all the time. That's why I like being an actor.

Jane Levy

#31. There's the most resistance to an actor singing. It's like I'm being disloyal to my industry.

Kevin Bacon

#32. I think the hardest thing about being an actor is between jobs when you don't know and wondering if you'll ever work again. It's kind of a crazy business.

Michael Vartan

#33. There's something so wonderful about being an actor in New York.

Karen Allen

#34. Being a star is an agent's dream, not an actor's.

Robert Duvall

#35. I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn't understand what being an actor meant anymore.

Liam Neeson

#36. It's funny - when I first started as an actor, obviously there were long periods of being idle and all you want to do is work. So if I ever get the compulsion to feel like I should complain or feel like I want to take a break, I just remember how I was before and be very grateful for it.

Neil Jackson

#37. As an actor, I'm attracted to drama; as a director, it's humor - because it's the story of my life, and I can't be that serious about it. Being alone is a big theme in all my movies, both as a director and as an actress.

Jodie Foster

#38. That's one of the difficult things of being an actor that I'm still not used to. You have to go, you have to show up at these places where you know nobody, and sometimes with really impressive, high stakes people like Roman Polanski.

John C. Reilly

#39. People attach too much to the idea of being a model, that you can only be a certain way to have done it. You will always be dealing with it. You're an actor who used to be a model who never trained; there are not many directors queuing up.

Jamie Dornan

#40. Work is fun to me. All those years of being an actor and a director and not being able to get a job - two weeks is too long to not know what my next job will be.

Dennis Hopper

#41. I don't think a lot of people really understand the commitment it takes to being a character that an actor in Hollywood would take to approaching a role that they're doing.

Misty Copeland

#42. Mike Leigh taught me about making choices - as an actor, you choose between being honest and clever, and with Mike, it's always about being honest. I learned how to behave on a film set from Jim Broadbent. He was a great example of someone with a fantastic career who kept his feet on the ground.

Eddie Marsan

#43. The best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you don't have to shave or hold your stomach in anymore.

Dick Powell

#44. For me, the political part of being an actor is very tough. To sit somewhere and tell somebody why you should feel this way or that way about my character does not feel like my responsibility. It feels like the responsibility of the writer and the person who created it.

Emma Stone

#45. Being an actor is well paid, but it's a bit like being a circus traveler.

Ben Chaplin

#46. One of the best things about being an actor is that it's a meritocracy.

Benedict Cumberbatch

#47. I think when your image becomes so big that it's hard for a viewer to see a character, then I think you're in danger as an actor of being unable to perform what you should be doing.

Hugo Weaving

#48. Being misunderstood is not a bad thing as an actor. I know the truth.

Christian Bale

#49. I don't hate being an actor. But if there's a choice, I prefer to direct.

Stephen Chow

#50. Even in my dreams of being an actor, my dream was not in the celebrity. My dream was in the work that I wanted to do.

Lupita Nyong'o

#51. It's a long struggle being an actor; I don't know if I'd ever recommend it to anybody!

Marc Warren

#52. My brother, who's a violinist now, was the real ham, the real performer of the family. His passion for the violin is the only thing that kept him from being an actor.

Peter Dinklage

#53. The out-of-work actor wears out more than shoe leather. The very sensibilities that make him an artist are shattered by the disregard he is shown as a human being.

Bette Davis

#54. As an actor, being on autopilot is the worst thing possible.

Matthew Perry

#55. What's monotonous about being an actor and often makes me want to throw in the towel or drive a car off a bridge is the auditioning - the waiting around.

Chris Messina

#56. Being an actor is about having the courage to follow your instincts, and also having the discipline and dedication to sacrifice the things in your life that you need to sacrifice to get the best out of yourself artistically.

Matt Smith

#57. Being referred to as a hunk or a heartthrob makes me nervous, but it's flattering. But I'm more interested in being an actor than a heartthrob.

Orlando Bloom

#58. I want to be the best actor that I can be; I want to be working in this business absolutely, and if that means being a movie star, then OK, that's fine. But to me, movie star, celebrity, all that stuff means something very different than being an actor.

Bryce Dallas Howard

#59. I think that among my friends I'm known as being a hard worker; I think if you want to be an actor, there can't be any compromise. You have to work all day, every day. It's not a 9-5 job. There's always something to learn.

Jeremy Irvine

#60. Being an actor is looked at like a prolonged game of dress-up. America puts movie stars on pedestals. In college, it's the flip side. I sometimes have to justify my job to my professors because they're focused on intellect and ideas.

Julia Stiles

#61. I'm really enjoying being an actor right now, at this point in my life. It's a great job, it's a huge responsibility, and I just want to do it more.

Shannyn Sossamon

#62. I'm hoping that maybe I'll start getting a reputation for being a guy who can be pretty versatile. That's the challenge and the fun of being an actor. I love getting to play and do different things.

Tyler Labine

#63. If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a moody folk singer, sitting on stools and being very depressing.

Stephen Mangan

#64. I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.

Peter Dinklage

#65. New York is a great place to be as an unrepresented actor because there are so many 'open auditions' that you can show up for without being submitted by an agent.

Catherine Mary Stewart

#66. I grew up in East Germany, so we had to learn Russian in school ... everybody hated it. I never thought it would come in handy ... And being an actor, I've been able to use it quite a bit.

Tom Wlaschiha

#67. I was fortunate as a young actor, to go straight to the RSC, where I learned that being an actor can bring with it wonderful responsibilities.

Ben Kingsley

#68. My brother's an aerospace engineer who works for Boeing, and I started thinking, 'Well, my brother works nine hours a day at his job ... What if I worked nine hours a day at being an actor?'

Brent Sexton

#69. I think I am looking as an actor to find ways to push myself into places I haven't been before as a human being.

Brit Marling

#70. I was dissatisfied just being an actor.

Stanley Tucci

#71. Hollywood didn't know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.

Nicolas Cage

#72. I had the privilege of being able to choose, or at least have the opportunity to work at, being anything but an actor.

Benedict Cumberbatch

#73. I think there is a difference between being a celebrity and being an actor.

Michelle Gomez

#74. I thought I was going to go back to Stanford, and then I got Election. I loved being an actor.

Reese Witherspoon

#75. The thing about being an actor is that you turn into other people. You have to hide yourself a bit in order to let that other person come out.

Penelope Wilton

#76. You can be really weird, and people will still accept you if you're in movies. I'm not actually weird, but if I feel like being weird, then I can do it, and they accept it because you're an actor.

Ansel Elgort

#77. I had no intention of being an actor. I was quite good at it. I was pretty capable at other things but never any good at anything.

Sean Bean

#78. So fast you couldn't realise it, from one face to another - that's called an actor. Then what happens??
Victim a killer, victim a killer wow. One time be a part of a victim, other being a part of a killer - awesome just awesome.

Deyth Banger

#79. One of the tough things about being an actor, probably the hardest thing, is getting your foot in the door, and my father handled that for me at a very early age.

Jeff Bridges

#80. The problem with being an actor is that you have to be reactive to what other people want.

Marisa Coughlan

#81. Being an actor is a lot more involved than many people realize; there are hundreds of ways to play any character. Even for a stylized bad guy, there are 4 or 5 different personalities I can play off the top of my head without thinking - better and more experienced actors can do dozens or hundreds.

Conan Stevens

#82. I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.

Robert De Niro

#83. After I directed, when I went back to being an actor, I was like, 'God, this is the life!' Because you only have to concentrate on one thing.

Campbell Scott

#84. You have to find it in the moment, and that's one of the challenges of being an actor - especially a film actor - is that you have to maintain these heightened emotions for long periods of time. There's no trick to it. You just have to do.

Aaron Stanford

#85. By being an actor, one can explore various personalities of a human being, be that person, behave and live that person's life, and then you are back to your normal life.

Terence Lewis

#86. The difference between being an actor and a director is simple. The director has to hide his panic; the actor doesn't.

Alan Rickman

#87. One of the perks of being an actor is to get to meet athletes that you respect. Especially who played before my time. Brooks Robinson is one of those athletes; they just don't make them any nicer.

Josh Charles

#88. My biggest fear as an actor is being involved in something mediocre, or being mediocre myself.

Jonathan Brandis

#89. I really enjoy being an actor!

Vincent Cassel

#90. I criticize those critics. The reason being that they're doing one of the worst things that ever can be done to an actor, which is to say, Look, you do what we like you to do or else.

James Lipton

#91. I was friends with President Ronald Reagan and he once said to me, 'I don't know how anybody can serve in public office without being an actor.'

Warren Beatty

#92. I do build my own backstory as an actor. It's important to know where your characters have come from in order to know where they're going - in order to exist in that state of being.

Sarah Gadon

#93. That has been one of the best, most rewarding things about being an actor - traveling throughout the world, meeting all kinds of different people and learning about other cultures.

Michael Ansara

#94. Being an actor in Hollywood involves lots of things beyond acting. Charm really helps.

Pierce Brosnan

#95. As an actor, you can really play the intensity and gravity and seriousness of the moment, and just rely on the circumstances being funny. The joke is kind of the situation you're in, or the way you're reacting to something, as opposed to the characters just saying something witty.

Ed Helms

#96. All I know is that when I go somewhere, I'm not an autobot. I am a human being. I am not an actor.

Shane Smith

#97. There's always been something about Jeffrey Tambor, not only as an actor but as a person, where his ability to embody a sort of very dignified feminine way of being just - this was just very clear to me.

Jill Soloway

#98. I like to be a lot of different things at once and dress different ways and I change my hair all the time, so being an actor lets me live out the fantasy of living out 100,000 different lifetimes in one, without all of the repercussions.

Mae Whitman

#99. You know, the character of Isabelle in 'Love Crime' is the only character I feel the furthest from. I have nothing to share with her, so it was really difficult. Being an actor of composition is something, but you always base yourself on something you know about.

Ludivine Sagnier

#100. If I had had to struggle at the beginning like most actors ... I'd never have stuck it out. But having such complete success at the beginning, I was stuck with being an actor for life.

Harry Morgan