Quotes About Good Actors

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. 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

#5. 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

#6. As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are.

Bryan Cranston

#7. 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

#8. 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

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. 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

#12. It turns out that good actors can make anything believable.

Paul Haggis

#13. 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

#14. 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

#15. 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

#16. 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

#17. There are three stages of an actor's career. Young, old, and "You look good".

Burt Reynolds

#18. 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

#19. Only bad actors memorize lines. Good actors are perpetually writing them as they act.

Mark Helprin

#20. 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

#21. 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

#22. 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

#23. 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

#24. 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

#25. 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

#26. When they're good, I like working with new actors.

John C. Reilly

#27. 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

#28. 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

#29. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.

W. H. Auden

#30. 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

#31. You always do good ones. We trust you, Mr. Duke," Says Dylan. Foolish lads, thinks Felix: never trust a professional ham.

Margaret Atwood

#32. On a simple level, you need directors who are good at action and can choreograph an action scene, but you need them to also have that sense of fun and that sense of movement and that ability to get the actors to really respond to the material in the way that you want them to. It's a very big thing.

Adrian Hodges

#33. If you got a good imagination, a lot of confidence and you kind of know what you are saying, then you might be able to do it. I know a lot of colorful characters at home that would make great actors.

Jason Statham

#34. I'm not one of these actors who can make a bad script good. Some actors, a script can be terrible, and they can bring something to it and make it really special. I can't.

Eddie Marsan

#35. I've been called a funny person, for a long time. I don't know that I know anything about comedic acting. I'm not a good improver, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.

John Cho

#36. I think it's always good when you're able to, as an actor, allow your work to be some kind of a conduit for social discourse, and an examination of where we are, as a society.

Zachary Quinto

#37. It's turned into a world of amateurs. There are amateur actors making millions of dollars, amateur cinematographers, amateur directors ... Jesus, these amateur directors can get deals for anything. Another comic book? Oh, very good.

James Coburn

#38. I always tell Asian actors, especially Filipinos wanting to break into Hollywood, to study, study and study and show their best. I haven't stopped studying. There's an abundance of roles, and all you have to do is prove to them that you are good for the role.

Reggie Lee

#39. 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

#40. Every film by Will Smith, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Ruby Dee, Don Cheadle will have great acting and carry good messages in the film. The films starring those actors are the films I tell young people to watch for good acting and to view for quality movies.

Brian J. White

#41. Some actors really like to do only a few, some like Casey [Affleck] will do as many takes as there is electrical power. At some point, you'll say, "Listen, I think it's really good." And he'll say, "You sure? You sure? There's not some other way we should try it?"

Kenneth Lonergan

#42. When we were young people, all we ever wanted was to be good working actors. We didn't think of fame or money because, honestly, money was never part of the dream.

Sarah Jessica Parker

#43. Some deeply untrusting actors - the kind that need to know exactly what's what and are completely insecure - might be quite good within the parameters of a certain sort of acting.

Mike Leigh

#44. John Doyle just knows how to feed actors, and what comes out of us, good, bad, right, wrong, doesn't matter. There's no fear or censure. He opens up the creative goo and all of the actor vessel stuff. He knows how to do it. It's just incredible.

Patti LuPone

#45. 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

#46. I think my experience as an actor helps me to write anything. It certainly helped me to write 'August Osage County.' It helps me to write any play that I'm working on because I think one of the things I do well is write good roles for actors.

Tracy Letts

#47. I'm good with dialect. Some actors do it immediately; other actors never quite get it. It's something I've always really enjoyed and something I've always been pretty fast with.

Scarlett Johansson

#48. There are certain actors who are very good at improvising, like Dustin Hoffman and Glenda Jackson.

John Schlesinger

#49. I had just arrived in New York from California. I was nineteen years old and excited beyond belief. I was an art student and an acting student and behaved as most young actors did - meaning that there was no such thing as a good actor, 'cause you yourself hadn't shown up yet.

Robert Redford

#50. Actors in general are pretty good bullshit artists; we're good at just chewing the fat, interacting with people. So we're good ambassadors for movies.

John C. Reilly

#51. If President Reagan could be an actor and become president, maybe I could become an actor. I've got a good pension. I can work for cheap.

William J. Clinton

#52. Do we have good writers, producers and actors in the U.K.? Yes we do.

Eric Fellner

#53. I don't want to infantilize the actor; I want to empower the actor. Actors can be many things, but all of the really good ones are really great storytellers, and I'm interested in that. If you're not interested in that as a director then you better be Stanley Kurbrick.

Paul Bettany

#54. Many an actor does the stage more ham than good.

Evan Esar

#55. They didn't act like people and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good.

J.D. Salinger

#56. The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living.

Ian McKellen

#57. But it's interesting being directed by someone who is a very good actor. There's nothing like it. It might sound like a territorial thing about what I do, but I don't think you can understand what it is until you've done it. I know that to be a fact.

Colin Firth

#58. So I think it's fair to say it's even more of a challenge for some of these actors that are coming up, because there's such a pressure to look good, to be sexy and be palatable to people on whatever level.

Anthony Michael Hall

#59. Working on a set and working with actors, that's all the same. The moment you're doing it and you're in the moment, you don't have time to think about it. You just have to make it as good as you possibly can on the moment.

Matthijs Van Heijningen Jr.

#60. I'm probably my own harshest critic. If I get a hundred good reviews and one really bad one, it's that one out of a hundred that I remember. I think we actors are hard on ourselves, and I don't know why that is.

Tim Daly

#61. I won't buy into the Hollywood thing...I want to be in good movies.

Ewan McGregor

#62. I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.

Jim Jarmusch

#63. I think any good singer needs to be a good actor. You have to be able to tell the story.

Erica Schroeder

#64. 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

#65. I don't think actors get good training today. I put my training to use in everything I do.

Don Knotts

#66. Ill never be as good an actor as I want to be ... but I'll be good.

Steve McQueen

#67. I don't like the way some actors, when playing a nasty character, will try to grab hold of something good about them.

Peter Mullan

#68. 'The Fight Club' DVD is great. I like anything that has really good extras because as an actor, it's really great to see the behind-the-scenes stuff and see how different actors approach their particular project.

A. J. Cook

#69. 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

#70. The good thing about not being drop-dead gorgeous is that as time passes, I don't have much to worry about. I have friends who are actors and every day they look in the mirror with trepidation.

Moby

#71. 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

#72. Jealous of the actors now, are we?" "What, of some fancy boy on the screen? Inconceivable." Oh, this was going to be good.

Ilona Andrews

#73. I know actors who have had to turn down good roles because they just don't pay enough. It's hard.

Ian McKellen

#74. I think a good actor will always know the character better than anybody.

Fede Alvarez

#75. Bart The Bear was fantastic to work with. Absolutely brilliant and so, so good. The things that that bear could do to order! He was one of the best actors I've ever worked with.

Gwendoline Christie

#76. You can't be a good actor if you get too affected by fame. Because then you're not real, and you're not really wanting more. You look at a lot of actors who, before they were famous, did a lot of amazing work, and once they got too big, it just got off.

Ansel Elgort

#77. As a director/writer/producer, all you ever want is to work with actors who make you look better, who make the work you do seem as good as it can be and even better than it is.

J.J. Abrams

#78. I don't need a director who's 'good with actors.' ... A master manipulator is heaven.

Frances McDormand

#79. I feel very fortunate, I've been exposed to a lot of different cultures. If I wasn't from a multi-ethnic background, I wouldn't have had these great experiences. And one of the things that makes me a good actor is life experience.

Navi Rawat

#80. I've learned 90 percent of what I know from watching and listening to actors. A good leading actor is the rock of the show. Their energy and their tone really sets the groundwork for how everything is going to work. I've been lucky to deal with stars who are very giving and generous.

Finn Wittrock

#81. A lot of good actors tend to be quite introverted as people.

Antony Sher

#82. The good writer and the good actor are always searching for what is essential. It is a never-ending task because what is essential is always elusive and, therefore, fascinating.

Glenda Jackson

#83. As an actor, and especially as a young woman, there's so much pressure to look good all the time and it really detracts from what our job really is about, which is portraying a different person.

Emmy Rossum

#84. Seems to me that this business, for actors anyway, is not so much about whether or not you do good work. It's about whether or not you get the chance to do good work.

Hugh Laurie

#85. I don't think many actors are the best judge of careers. I think generally we have good instincts about what we can do in terms of acting. And often they become directors, which I don't want to be.

Hugh Jackman

#86. What was good was that I had friends who were actors and in theatre who were really good, because I think my strengths were visual, like pictorial.

Rob Urbinati

#87. It's great, it's a creative process! It's something that I've been hungry for and I feel like I'm getting fed every day! We've got Adam and Joe in the room, and it's intense but it's a good intensity, you know? It's kind of like an actor's dream.

Kendra Kassebaum

#88. If you have a great part, you have the opportunity to give a good performance. The greatest actors get the best parts, and the best parts make the greatest actors. There are plenty of people who are as talented, who just never got the part.

Tom Hollander

#89. There's no big splashy renaissance in Italian films. We have good young actors and directors. What we lack are screenwriters. It's hard to write about Italy.

Valeria Golino

#90. You just worry that your time is up. It's not that people suddenly go, 'Oh, actually they're not very good any more,' but sometimes, well, your time is up. There are a lot of actors out there who just disappear.

Rupert Penry-Jones

#91. I'm a fool for a good role in a creative piece where there are really such talented writers and wonderful actors.

Sissy Spacek

#92. I want to keep doing different things. I'd like to do a more personal, dramatic movie next, I think. But as long as it's about characters and good writing and good parts for actors, that's what's important.

Tony Goldwyn

#93. There's a lot of great stuff on television and that's very appealing to actors who want to work, who do good quality and high quality work. But you're always concerned that the time demands on television will interrupt or interfere with your film work.

Wesley Snipes

#94. Actors need a kind of aggression, a kind of inner force. Don't be only one-sided, sweet, nice, good. Get rid of being average. Find the killer in you.

Stella Adler

#95. I really feel that the best actors out there are very centric. They're really connected. They're not in a, 'What about me' state, and I think that's a good lesson in life.

Cameron Mathison

#96. I'm not a comedian. I'm what you call a good, old-fashioned working actor who has had delusions of grandeur for my entire career and has known what I want to do.

Chris Diamantopoulos

#97. Magic Johnson, former basketball player, may run for mayor of L.A. in the next election. Remember the good 'ol days when only qualified people ran for office like actors and professional wrestlers.

Jay Leno

#98. What I really mean is that actors do the interview process because they have to. It's a good bargain: If I can do this part then I'll sell it. I just wish it wasn't me who had to do it because it feels very unnatural.

Kristen Stewart

#99. There are a lot of good actors who work forever and never make one good thing.

Henry Zebrowski

#100. This particular film highlights Ben and Owen's strengths which is that they are great comedic actors with tremendous chemistry and they do a really good job.

Paul Michael Glaser