Top 100 Quotes About Play Acting
#1. I don't think a man has to go around shouting and play-acting to prove he is something. And a real man don't go around putting other guys down, trampling their feelings in the dirt, making out they're nothing.
Joe Frazier
#2. I love acting. I love play-acting. I love pretending. I love telling stories so whether they be comedic or serious or whatever, it doesn't really matter to me. I enjoy telling a good story. I have it all in me.
Jim Carrey
#3. I love nothing better than to get all the nuts and bolts out of the way - show up on time, with lines learned, clear on what the director expects of me, with my buttons buttoned and my jewelry on correctly - and then I completely commit to play acting.
Jane Elliot
#4. The very fact of being human panics us into the most grotesque play-acting imaginable; and we deal in absurdities to keep life from being a total waste, like one constant jacking-off party.
Hal Bennett
#5. And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don't have genuine souls.
Gillian Flynn
#6. By confusing life with play-acting and play-acting with life, one may perhaps construct a tolerable moral world from shattered fragments of the past
William Hardy McNeill
#7. I am impressed and distressed at how passive hierarchical organizations make people. There's often a lot of overt activity, but it's not going anywhere, it's game-playing. It's play-acting at work.
Judith M Bardwick
#8. I understood why war zones are called 'theaters' because they frame a kind of play acting or, worse, deceit, that can stain a human life forever: the deceit of hate on hearsay - hating an enemy one doesn't know ...
Gretel Ehrlich
#9. I find myself, wearing a mask, pretend play acting when I go out, it's the only way I can cope with it, then when I'm home I'm exhausted and stressed from trying to be someone I'm not. I over analyze the conversations I had, thinking about what I have said and done.
Tina J. Richardson
#10. Any good marriage involves a certain amount of play-acting.
Margaret Millar
#11. The others were conspicuously silent, or talked among themselves, elaborately play-acting that they were unaware of the fact that Quentin was conversing with a drunk magic bear.
Lev Grossman
#12. I had great difficulty in school interacting with others, and I took refuge in the contrived setting of play acting, which is what I still do.
Jesse Eisenberg
#13. When I was a model, I started with an opinion, but was encouraged to lose it. It began as play-acting, but then I lost sight of myself a bit: so when I did the audition for 'Popworld' and they asked my opinion, I felt like crying with happiness.
Alexa Chung
#14. My first thought about acting, growing up here in New York, was theater, and I feel like I need to force myself to go get my ass kicked in a rehearsal room and do one of those plays at some point.
Paul Dano
#15. It's very different. You do so many things in this play. You can't just focus on acting or singing. You have to be good at both. I'm very glad I did this play.
Will Davis
#16. I need to work with great directors and actors, people who are better than me, so that I am challenged. It is like playing sports - surfing, basketball, it doesn't matter what it is, if you play with people who are better than you, then you get better too. It is the same thing with acting.
Paul Walker
#17. I've always wanted to get into acting, ever since I was younger. I'd put on shows for my family and run around play dress-up all the time. I think I was 4 when I told them I wanted to do movies.
Emma Roberts
#18. When my turn on the program comes, I am not nervous at all - because all this is happening out of time, out of space. I am, for a moment, a figure of my own fantasy, and I play my appointed role as if I were in the movies.
Eva Hoffman
#19. It's easy to play a bad girl: You just do everything you've been told not to do, and you don't have to deal with the consequences, because it's only acting.
Eliza Dushku
#20. I think acting has helped me come out of my shell because when I play a character, I can't be self-conscious.
Joan Cusack
#21. That's the joy of acting - you get to play people who are not you; you get to explore the dark, hidden sides of yourself.
Julie Kavner
#22. I secretly liked acting, but I wanted to play football. It was an enormous dream.
Jamie Sives
#23. Quite often in acting, you have to play a certain part; you cannot speak as much as you want to speak.
Sylvester Stallone
#24. I'm kind of thinking that I might start trying to do some acting. I really enjoy role play.
Santigold
#25. With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.
Johnny Depp
#26. As it is with a play, so it is with life - what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.
Seneca.
#27. I started acting in second grade - my first role was in the Thanksgiving play. I was the Indian chasing the turkey. All the other mom's encouraged my mom to get me into acting after that. Also, when I saw 'The Sound of Music' at Music Circus, I knew I wanted to act.
Brie Larson
#28. The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
Carl Jung
#29. I had given thought to acting, but I never really had a good enough opportunity or a character who made sense and paralleled my life a little bit. I feel like I'm one of the poster boys for a bad guy in a movie. I feel like I'm a good person to play a bad guy in a movie. I can say that.
Gucci Mane
#30. I don't do method acting. If I play a farmer, I'm not gonna spend 3 weeks on a chicken farm. That's a bit too much for me.
Carice Van Houten
#31. Olivia Newton-John was our first choice to play Sandy, but she was nervous about acting, whether she would feel comfortable with us and could pull it off at all.
Randal Kleiser
#32. In Chicago it's really a case of the play's the thing - people are just so happy to be acting, you know? We were all actors - not like in New York or Los Angeles, where everyone says they are actors but they are actually waiting tables and hustling for spots in commercials.
John C. Reilly
#33. I went to a lot of theatre schools, got a lot of training, did a lot of repertory where you do a different play every night. I took a lot of voice, movement, and acting classes.
Jeffrey Combs
#34. One day, when I was 33, I shifted. I suddenly saw acting as a higher calling. I understood that my goal was to serve the play. And I realized if an actor can make audiences' hearts resonate or make them question their values - that's an important thing to do!
Laila Robins
#35. I love the process of acting, simply because I like to play make believe. But for me, it is purely make believe and it is a process of playing.
Anson Mount
#36. When it comes to our Constitution, judges perform, certainly, an important role. But the people, acting through their elected representatives, should play an even more important role.
Mike DeWine
#37. So what's so enticing about doing a play is that you get to do that thing that got you into acting in the first place ... There's a real attraction to being able to play, to just play. And that's something that theater affords you.
Rich Sommer
#38. I've been acting for a while, but theater is pretty different. I've never been in a play.
Miranda Cosgrove
#39. Acting is sort of an extension of childhood. You get to play all of these roles and have so much fun. Playing an athlete would be so cool. Or where you get to shoot guns, ride horses. I wouldn't turn down any of that.
Jon Hamm
#40. Using clothes to transform was a huge part of my childhood. But also, I've been acting forever, and wardrobe changes the way you feel, so it totally indicates the character you're going to play.
Allison Mack
#41. Totus mundus agit histrionem. (All the World's a Stage.)
[Motto of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (f. 1599) and its acting company, The King's Men; taken from the first play to be performed on the new stage.]
William Shakespeare
#42. I love trying to play the not-confident guy, the guy against my normal character, because that's when real acting comes into play.
Kellan Lutz
#43. If you play it safe every time, then you're missing the best part of acting. You haven't learned anything about your humanity.
Brit Marling
#44. Playing with guns you revert to a little boy sometimes. But they're not great things to play with, so it's just making them look real. When it comes to shooting guns or using any prop, you've got to make it look like you know what you're doing with them. It's called acting.
Ray Winstone
#45. Acting is like music and you improvise. It's like jazz, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's not a plan. You practice to music and you just play it.
Denzel Washington
#46. That's what's so satisfying about acting. You can come as prepared as you like, but there's no accounting for what's going to come at you from the other actor. That's part of the joy and the play of it. If you don't have that it's a different kind of performance.
David Oyelowo
#47. Acting-wise, I did a web series. I play a music agent in a series called 'Keeping Up with the Downs.'
James Michael Tyler
#48. If you want to play the good roles, spend more time in in college and in acting class than you do in the gym, and you'll have the career you want.
Wendi McLendon-Covey
#49. I think the beauty of working with young people is they remind you of the spirit of acting and it's just a big play.
Eric Bana
#50. Sometimes I am kind of the opposite of my character. But that's the thing about acting, you get to play people who are not like you at all.
Dakota Fanning
#51. I have seen no men in life loving their profession so much as painters, except, perhaps, actors, who, when not engaged themselves, always go to the play.
William Makepeace Thackeray
#53. Acting is a sport, like a game of tennis, and you and your opponent take turns setting the level of play.
Shawnee Smith
#54. The first acting thing I ever did was my senior year I decided not to play a sport in the Spring and, in that Spring B.J. Novak who went to school with me, asked if I'd be in this show that was a parody of all the teachers in the school, 'sure!' That was the first acting thing I did.
John Krasinski
#55. People often ask me, was it hard to play this person or that person? Well, no, not really. Acting is what I do. It's my job.
Samantha Morton
#56. I used to like Barbra Streisand films. It was 'Funny Girl' that really turned me on, in a sense, to acting. I remember it specifically being a rainy Saturday afternoon. I couldn't play football, so I stayed in, and I watched 'Funny Girl.'
Sean Harris
#57. I do not want actors and actresses to understand my plays. That is not necessary. If they will only pronounce the correct sounds I can guarantee the results.
George Bernard Shaw
#58. I just want to keep working, really. I just want to keep acting. Playing one part for a very long time builds up in you a desire to play as many different things as you can.
Daniel Radcliffe
#59. Making a film or doing a play are completely different experiences and entirely fulfilling, but completely unique. I also think one complements the other. People often say that theater is about flexing your muscles, and is actually real acting, whereas I sort of disagree.
Eddie Redmayne
#60. I play guitar and sing when I'm not busy with school and acting.
Kaitlyn Dever
#61. Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy.
Viola Spolin
#62. I don't know how to play myself. I'm not interested enough in myself. That's just not how I was educated. That's not how I learned to become an actor. Acting is creating a character.
Corey Stoll
#63. I love when I am not typecast. I've been acting for 50 years. I was such a baby face; I was playing children until I was in my 30s, which frustrated me enormously. Now that I am 65 and getting to play women in their 50s, I am getting paid back for having to play children for so long.
Jacki Weaver
#64. Potentially, you do inhabit different worlds. And while there are no specific roles I'm burning to play, as far as acting in the future goes, I'd really like to have done searing work.
Raquel Cassidy
#65. I didn't want to get into acting just to play bystanders. I feel a bystander enough in my own life. And I do think that theatre can contribute to a certain analysis and commentary on our own world.
Elliot Cowan
#66. That's the beautiful part about acting - you get to play somebody other than yourself. So, I'm open to people who can't sing, people who can, people that sing a little bit, or people that sing a lot.
Brandy Norwood
#67. I play guitar; you'll find me at home strumming 'Vincent' on the guitar. I also read a lot of poetry, and Shakespeare was my first love, which was why I got into acting. A lot of the fighters are intelligent!
Dave Legeno
#68. I've been acting since I was 8 - I used to play hockey and there was a kids' theatre down the street from my house and one day I just walked in and signed up for auditions for 'The Wizard Of Oz.'
Nico Tortorella
#69. I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.
Ian McKellen
#70. ...as an actor there's nothing better than a great moody moment to play with nothing to say. It's so much easier to do because you can really get inside your head.
Ewan McGregor
#71. Actor training should be broadly humanistic, involving the study not just of dramatic literature and theatre history, but of languages, literature, and history generally, and should be centered on acting in plays rather than just exercises, improvisations, monologues, or even scenes.
Richard Hornby
#72. I never studied acting, yet the first time I auditioned and did a cold reading, I surprised everyone for my honesty and limpidity. They told me I could play any role because I have no walls, I don't put anything between me and the character I have to play.
Jennifer Lawrence
#73. My acting's very understated. I think my sad and happy don't play that differently onscreen.
Bret McKenzie
#74. It's interesting how you can blur the line between acting and living and learn from your performances. I'm just trying to keep learning as much as I can and not get caught up in all the distractions that can play havoc with your mind.
Kristen Stewart
#75. With proper acting, I don't know what I would play - I got sent a script for a play, and it said in the notes that my proposed character was 'hideously fat and ugly'. That made my day. I mean, I do know I am no oil painting.
Jo Brand
#76. When I first started acting, I started in opera and had a great desire to play grand, tragic characters. I got sidetracked in musical theater and ended up doing a lot of comedy.
Leslie Easterbrook
#77. I wanted to play a TV detective because it's a rite of passage; I wanted to experience every area of acting. I haven't done comedy or as much Shakespeare as I had intended.
Olivia Williams
#78. For me, acting is play. It's just play and it's playing make believe really, really well.
Anson Mount
#79. I didn't have to do too much "research" or acting to play this guy. (laughs) It is actually very difficult to manage all the time. The Community schedule is crushing and it kills me because I don't get to be with my family as much as I'd like.
Joel McHale
#80. My whole career has been fulfilling my childhood fantasies, playing characters that are larger than life, getting to play a knight, an elf, a prince and a soldier.
Orlando Bloom
#81. The point of acting is to hide yourself and get lost in character. To play the same character in eighteen movies would be defeating the purpose I believe so I try to keep a little bit of diversity.
Columbus Short
#82. I pretty much spent my twenties as a musician and taking acting classes. I loved it. I was at UCLA getting As and Bs in English and creative writing, basically trying to stay out of the Army. All I really wanted to do was play music.
Robert David Hall
#83. The first time my parents found out I was acting was when a friend told them they had just come back from a play I was in.
Poorna Jagannathan
#84. The trick to being smart is knowing when to play dumb.
V. Alexander
#85. People who work in offices are crazy, they create an environment they hate, write rules they want to break, cast each other in roles they despise. It's like they're sixth formers in an end of term drama acting out the agony of everything they fear most in their life but they forget to end the play.
Helen Smith
#86. It's interesting to play a role where you don't really have to preoccupy yourself with any need to convince yourself that you're not acting.
Michael C. Hall
#87. The great thing about acting is the longer you do it, the more you realize that all those realities are inside you. No matter how crazy they are, you can pretend that they are a part of you. The great thing about this job is you get to play with every aspect of your id and who you are.
Matthew Lillard
#88. If you can't take both sides, it means you can only play yourself.
Stella Adler
#89. I was like the class clown in school so I guess I would say I did like the attention. In church I did a lot of plays, my mother made me play characters, do a lot of drama and acting, trying to become someone else. So it helped me create who I am, to create Snoop Dogg.
Snoop Dogg
#90. Acting in a stage play is like working the evening shift in an office.
Arthur Smith
#91. It's not so much that I'd like to play a raunchy character, but I would like to play someone my own age. I'm always playing down, but I guess it's good because it means I've got a longer life in my acting career.
Julia Sawalha
#92. It strikes me that these days, clubs don't even want players who can truly play any more; they just want athletes, quick guys who don't have a football brain, can just run and run; some of them, Jesus. I can never imagine acting like that.
Robbie Fowler
#93. A big moment for me was when I did a play that was a new adaptation of Dostojevskij's 'Crime and Punishment,' and I played Raskolnikov. It was actually the first thing I did when I got out of acting school.
Joel Kinnaman
#95. It was always theater for me. But part of that came out of the fact that I was always acting out as a kid. I was the kid who didn't play well with others.
Chris Eigeman
#96. I love acting, but directing and writing have always been just as important. I started to write so many things when I was even a child. I wrote my first play when I was, like, seven years old. That was me - a writer - for years.
Melanie Laurent
#97. In a way, making Martin Ellingham the way he is was a corrective exercise for my acting - to keep a bit still and show a little control. I do like it - it's like having an instrument that you can play and that you can pick up and enjoy playing.
Martin Clunes
#98. I've stopped showing actors what to actually do. I rather just talk to them about it. Then I usually play music. That's a great way to convey inner emotion, bring the power of style and acting together. That's really what it is, very good acting without talking.
Nicolas Winding Refn
#99. That's what I love about acting, you get to find little pieces of yourself in every character you play.
Julianna Margulies
#100. I discovered that I wanted to be an actor back when I did my first play in junior high. I've been doing theater in junior high and high school, and I just kept feeding the fire, kept wanting to pursue acting full-on.
Michael Steger
