Top 100 Quotes About Good Actors
#1. Everyone brings their own particular skill set to the job, and acting training can work for a lot of actors, and it can't. I've seen a lot of really good actors go into acting schools and then come out a little bit corrupted.
Xavier Samuel
#2. More and more good actors are now transmigrating into the videogame space and playing roles there because it's where my generation of kids get stories from.
Andy Serkis
#3. When you've got good actors, they're going to come up with good stuff, but you're never quite sure how the dynamics are going to work between them.
Martin McDonagh
#4. It turns out that good actors can make anything believable.
Paul Haggis
#5. Only bad actors memorize lines. Good actors are perpetually writing them as they act.
Mark Helprin
#6. A theater is such a revealing form of art, such a transparent and good actors, they're such powerful individuals. I always kind of dreamt that one day I will open my mouth on stage.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
#7. If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare.
John Lithgow
#8. Good actors, especially when they know their character, will come in and either tell you in advance that they have an idea, or in the middle of the rehearsal or the scene they'll let it loose and you go, 'Ah that's great.'
Denis Leary
#9. There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can't make a bad script good - they can just make it bearable.
Mark Strickson
#10. I look up to actors. I look up to Robert DeNiro, I look up to Johnny Depp, I look up to Al Pacino, I look up to run-of-the-mill really good actors. I love watching movies, and I love watching other actors and learning from them.
Edward Furlong
#11. As for the Canadians - good actors and good directors are sometimes taken by the American market, you know, if they're good enough.
Karine Vanasse
#12. A lot of good actors tend to be quite introverted as people.
Antony Sher
#13. There are a lot of good actors who work forever and never make one good thing.
Henry Zebrowski
#14. I know a lot of really good actors - tons, just tons - who I still don't know why they don't work all the time because they're that good. It's just a weird business, and I know a lot of actors who shouldn't be working, but they work all the time.
Kevin Dillon
#15. I look for something that grabs me and that's heartfelt, and that's coming from a good place. I want to work with good actors and with directors that I can learn from.
Harry Treadaway
#17. I'm learning a lot about how to be one of the 'good' actors. You'd hope that it's natural to be a good person, and kind, but I'm learning how to deal with long, sometimes boring days.
Lily James
#18. I think good actors are born with a kind of native gift. When you study too much with an acting teacher, that gets taken away. You lose your sense of spontaneity.
Titus Welliver
#19. I think musicians oftentimes have the right skill set to be good actors. And with Rihanna, I noticed her and knew of her obviously, and was very taken with her charisma and her confidence.
Peter Berg
#20. Perhaps teachers must be good actors where lessons are concerned, but in life outside the class, we mustn't hide from our pupils our individual spirits.
Larisa Kuznetsova
#21. Good actors I've worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.
Bette Davis
#22. Good actors are a dime a dozen, but I want actors that are gonna be part of my team and collaborative.
Joe Pantoliano
#23. Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.
Gene Hackman
#24. There's a very small group of elite actresses who are my age, who people want to work with. It's not easy to get a good job with good actors.
Amanda Peet
#25. I love to watch good actors who surprise and amuse me.
John Malkovich
#26. I think a lot of good actors - for instance, Gary Sinise - have no training. His training was really entirely on his feet. I suppose you have to have an instinct for it.
Glenne Headly
#27. There are far more good actors than there are jobs for them, so it's a big question of luck.
Toby Jones
#28. I think good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess. You don't actually consummate it, but you get to pretend, imagine what it would be like.
John Cusack
#29. As long as there's really good actors that use their clout to support fringe films, whatever genre it is, they'll still get made.
John Curran
#30. Good actors go to emotional places where nobody else wants to go.
Arthur Penn
#31. I think all great actors - and I don't classify myself as one of them, incidentally - but I think all great actors listen well and I've learned that from a lot of the very good actors with whom I've worked - to really listen to what people say.
John Frankenheimer
#32. There are plenty of bad actors and there are plenty of bad directors. There are actors who will always be bad and there are good actors who you cry for because they're being badly directed or the material isn't good enough.
Mike Leigh
#33. It's more fun to play a good character with a good director and good actors around you. That's what makes it fun, and the more variety, the better.
Salma Hayek
#34. All good actors are very bright. You can't be stupid and a good actor. You may be inarticulate, you may not be highly educated, but all good actors are quick-witted, some of them dazzlingly so. All you do is guide them.
Richard Eyre
#35. All good actors are unpredictable, and a little crazy in a good way, because they feel more secure playing other people than themselves.
Sylvester Stallone
#36. Some stars like to hide behind the whole idea of acting. But really good actors are not hiding at all. They're not afraid to be disliked, to be a little unsavoury.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
#37. When you're working with really good actors, it raises your own game and you get better.
Richard Dormer
#38. There are two jobs. There is being an actor, and there is being a celebrity. Some people are really good at both. Some people are really good celebrities and terrible actors, and some people are really good actors and terrible celebrities. Hopefully, I am a really good actor and an OK celebrity.
Tim Daly
#39. All good actors are easy to work with. It's the ones that aren't very good who tend to be very difficult.
Tom Wilkinson
#40. The first thing I wrote was a one-act play that got accepted at a one-act play festival, and I was in it along with Nathan Lane and a couple of other very good actors.
Aaron Sorkin
#41. All FILM directors are good actors, because you have to understand actors in order to program them.
Henry Johnson Jr
#42. Good actors, you always know what they're thinking. That's why they're good actors.
Ron Livingston
#43. I've said before that the common perception that all good actors should be good liars is exactly the opposite; only bad actors lie when they act.
Rob Lowe
#44. I want to play everything. I want to be like Christian Bale: I want to be able to be Batman and then, like, his character in 'The Fighter.' That is what is so impressive about really good actors, that they can be character actors and leading men at the same time.
Ansel Elgort
#46. I've seen people with a tremendous amount of educational background in the field not turn out to be terribly good actors, and I've seen people with no education in the field turn out to be people that I admire quite a bit.
Ron Silver
#47. I think that you always learn something from working with good actors.
Marion Cotillard
#48. I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it.
Richard Gere
#49. I hear about actors being exterior actors and actors being instinctual actors and I always think it's crap. Anybody who knows anything about it knows that good actors do both - they do inside-outward and they do outside-inward. You can't not do both.
Edward Norton
#50. I think all good actors are personalities. If they're not, they're not stars. What makes you a star is horsepower.
Katharine Hepburn
#51. In a movie, you need good actors, whereas in a book, you don't, unless you have a really bad imagination. In a book, your imagination will do the acting for you. Also, the process of revelation is often different. Tension is achieved in a different way.
Yann Martel
#52. I'm an actor. I'll take a lead if it's offered. The really good actors can fill a character, no matter what the role is. A good leading man is a character actor; a good character actor can be a leading man.
Edward Herrmann
#53. Every other movie is one of those action things. I mean, 'Lost in Space'? A bunch of good actors running around shooting at special effects on a soundstage? I took my kids to see that and felt like I was on an acid trip.
Tom Berenger
#54. I've always written for actors, and if you want to write for good actors, you have to write parts that are surprising, that are human, and that allow them to go to a wide range of places.
Peter Hedges
#55. Most good actors have a huge intelligence about the human condition and a real open heart to different kinds of people and behavior.
Tim Robbins
#56. An awful lot of actors who are considered very good actors are not very good actors. There are people who just strike gold, they have intrinsic talent but the point is that if they did train ... it would only broaden them more.
Martin Landau
#57. I want to work with great directors. I want to work on good material with good actors. I've probably done 20 movies at this point and a lot of independents. It's been an incredible ride and I love it and I'm just going to keep going and doing what I'm doing.
Famke Janssen
#58. It's a constant learning process - not just what you need to learn for the character or as far as good actors - but as an actor, there's no limit. Every time now, you're learning so, I think that's a good thing though.
Paul Dano
#59. We are adjusters. We empathize, we change rhythm and above all we listen to our fellow actors-if they're good actors.
Ben Kingsley
#60. I think there's that weird bastardization where musical theatre actors are treated as almost like vaudevillians or circus performers - that we're somehow not good actors because we sing and dance.
Laura Benanti
#61. It's interesting - a lot of good actors are good mimes. But I'm terrible. If I tried to do an impression, nobody would know what I was doing.
Christopher Walken
#62. Actors are born, good actors are trained. Dancers are born, good dancers are trained.
Mithun Chakraborty
#63. Eighty percent of a picture is writing, the other twenty percent is the execution, such as having the camera on the right spot and being able to afford to have good actors in all parts.
Billy Wilder
#64. When someone who is known as a comedic actor goes to drama, it often doesn't work out, because they really just chose wrong, I think - or maybe they're just not good actors, I don't know.
Jonah Hill
#65. I think good actors - good, collaborative actors who see themselves as leaders in a given production - can and should offer ideas that have nothing to do with wanting to direct themselves.
Joe Mantello
#66. Good actors never use the script unless it's amazing writing. All the good actors I've worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.
Jessica Alba
#67. You cannot study acting in books. Do it, do it, do it. And watch good actors. See what they are doing and how they are doing it. You have to practically participate, I think, in order to develop yourself.
Max Von Sydow
#68. Good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess.
John Cusack
#69. There's no such thing as good voices. Because there's no such thing as bad voices. There are only good actors and bad actors ...
Bob Bergen
#70. I'm frequently surprised, sometimes bugged off, and sometimes happy, depending on the actor. It's a fact of life that just as often as not an actor can breathe life into a line as he can destroy it by misinterpretation, and I've been blessed frequently by having good actors.
Rod Serling
#71. In TV, sometimes you get lost in the fog of the scene, and when you're working with such good actors, they can bring you into the scene.
Adriano Giannini
#72. Ninety per cent of how you learn is watching great people. When you are surrounded by good actors it lifts your performance.
Natalie Portman
#73. It is hard to get good actors who also do television, ads and films. Theatre requires six weeks of rehearsal for a play.
Lillete Dubey
#74. I am very direct and I tend to treat everyone exactly the same, which sometimes gets me in trouble because some movie stars feel like they should be treated differently. But, when you're dealing with good actors, they really appreciate it.
John Landis
#75. I have directed good actors and have gone through the process which is more detailed in theater in a way. You have to get people to stay for two or three hours in a performance. They need more talk and rehearsal than in films.
Julie Taymor
#76. If you're a good actor, then you channel enough of yourself into the character so that you do get that other thing.
Henry Cavill
#77. The camera can move, you can make the shots, blah blah blah, but as long as the actors are good, you have something.
Julie Delpy
#78. I don't know if I'm embarrassed because I think it's a funny show, but I could imagine there being a snootiness about it, but I do find 'The Big Bang Theory' very funny. I think that's a good show. I think it's fun, I like the actors; I think they're all doing a great job.
Stephen Merchant
#79. As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are.
Bryan Cranston
#80. Mark Twain was so good with crowds that he became, in competition with singers and dancers and actors and acrobats, one of the most popular performers of his time. It is so unusual, and so psychologically unlikely, too, for a great writer to be a great performer, too ...
Kurt Vonnegut
#81. But I've always been hard to cast, I've never been an ingenue, I've never been the romantic lead. I'm an actor; give me the script and I do what I do and hope it's good.
Edie Falco
#82. I just want to do the best possible job with everything that I do. But I'm far more concerned with being a good father as opposed to being a good actor because that's what's really going to matter.
Mark Wahlberg
#83. I try to make all my work as honest as possible. I want the audience to feel like they're watching two people talking-having a conversation-as opposed to watching actors fake it. I want the audience to get lost in the fact that this is so good it could be real.
Danny Burstein
#84. It's very hard to find a good child actor. There are a lot of child actors out there, especially in America, and they're cute kids, but most child actors appear on sitcoms where their main role is to be cute and make funny little remarks.
George R R Martin
#85. One good thing about TV Land is you're always surrounded by people who know what they're doing, in terms of your fellow actors.
Wayne Knight
#86. I worked with fantastic actors, fantastic directors. People I would never otherwise have met. Was I limited? Yes. Did I use it as I could have? No. But I was always ambivalent about Hollywood and what I wanted. And ambivalence in our business is no good for success.
Valeria Golino
#87. I think people think I'm accessible. I'm never treated as a star, either by fans or other actors, and I like it like that. I don't get the star treatment. I think that means I'm a good actor. They acknowledge me as a human being, and to me, that's invalua.
Kate Mulgrew
#88. There are three stages of an actor's career. Young, old, and "You look good".
Burt Reynolds
#89. There are things that I would avoid, so I have the choice to say no, when I feel I'm repeating myself too much. But then there could be a reason to do that with a good director. So I think actors have to have a loose philosophy.
Toby Jones
#90. I really have the good fortune that the actors who work with me on 'The Leftovers' are thoughtful, hard working, open people and generous people.
Carrie Coon
#91. I don't really like directing. I've had a good relationship with actors, but I can do what I do and back off. I don't want that much romancing. I don't want them to call me up at two in the morning saying, 'I don't know who I am.
Gordon Willis
#92. I know a lot of actors don't watch themselves on TV, but I think it's good to see how else you can improve.
Michael Welch
#93. Actors can be many things - vain, venal, self-serving, obnoxious, bullies - but all of the good ones are great storytellers. I wanted to watch what my actors were doing and how they were telling the story.
Paul Bettany
#94. One of the greatest pleasures of working on shows is that I enjoy watching the actors - who are all younger than me now - and their careers. I love seeing how they're doing and seeing them getting good gigs and doing well.
Kelly Bishop
#95. I enjoy comedic things. People don't understand it's the hardest thing to do. We have a ratio of 25-to-1 between good dramatic actors and people who are considered good comic actors.
Charles Grodin
#96. When they're good, I like working with new actors.
John C. Reilly
#97. I'm a fan of movies and television shows, and I don't expect anything from actors and actresses, or anyone, but good work. What they do. I don't feel like I deserve a piece of their personal life, or even what they think about the work they do.
Kristen Stewart
#98. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.
W. H. Auden
#99. Actually I want to scare away method actors because it's a pain. It's like, 'Come on, what are you doing? It's not real. What are you doing? Oh, you're really brooding. Okay, good. Go to your trailer. I'll see you in an hour.'
Natalie Portman
#100. You always do good ones. We trust you, Mr. Duke," Says Dylan. Foolish lads, thinks Felix: never trust a professional ham.
Margaret Atwood
