On ‚Think Like a Man,‘ they got the best out of me because they allowed me to bring my own cadences and opinions to the character that I was playing. I think we got the best of that particular character.
Kevin HartI personally don’t like to go see romantic comedies. But people do want to see them, and they seem to want to see me in them.
Matthew McConaugheyI wouldn’t use the word ‚scared‘ for my role as Hitchcock, but it was my most insecure. Taking on such a formidable, giant personality such as Hitchcock; he was one of the great geniuses of world cinema. Sheer genius.
Anthony HopkinsPlaying big, heroic characters with heart is always a lot of fun. I enjoy making movies like that, and a lot of people love to live vicariously through those characters.
Dwayne JohnsonYou want to play another kind of character in another genre, and it’s been something I’ve been trying to do if I can in the career so far, and it’s something I hope to continue because it’s interesting to me and you get to do different things as an actor.
Keanu ReevesI live in Hollywood, but you can’t make me love Hollywood. I’ll never love Hollywood.
Lady GagaI once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.
Marilyn MonroePeople usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.
Francis BaconI’ve always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, ‚Hi,‘ that the people ought to get their money’s worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.
Marilyn MonroeMy role 14 years ago in Richard III – that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it – they have all the fun!
Denzel WashingtonEvery time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.
Anthony HopkinsActing is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.
Katharine HepburnStand-up can take you in so many different places, man. So many doors can be opened up from stand-up comedy, and the first one that was opened up for me was acting. But you can go from acting to being a TV personality to being a radio personality to being a writer to being a producer, to just being a visionary, to voiceover work.
Kevin HartThe dominant theory coming out of Hollywood is that peoples‘ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and they need more stimulation.
Brian EnoThere are a whole bunch of roles where people say, ‚Oh, you’re playing yourself.‘ I guess it’s kind of a compliment. Or people say, ‚Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.‘ The work is to make it look effortless. That’s the hard part.
Matthew McConaugheyIt’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.
Kevin HartI’ve been fortunate. I don’t pick scripts. Scripts pick me.
Denzel WashingtonThere is a need for aloneness, which I don’t think most people realise for an actor. It’s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you’ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you’re acting. But everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you.
Marilyn MonroeI was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.
Gilbert K. ChestertonMeryl Streep is exactly as awesome as you would imagine Meryl Streep to be.
Michelle ObamaActually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you’re going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can’t do it any other way. But you don’t carry it beyond the set.
Audrey HepburnI’ve done auditions where the casting director is taking the paper out of my hand in the middle of reading.
Kevin HartActing helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.
Angelina JolieI will never win an Oscar, and do you know why? First of all, because I’m not Jewish. Secondly, I make too much money for all those old farts in the Academy.
Clint EastwoodActors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.
Charlie ChaplinAt some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.
Kevin HartI was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.
Audrey HepburnI don’t know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people can’t stand to be invited someplace that isn’t full of other important people. They don’t mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.
Marilyn MonroeI want to play a fireman and a spy. I want to learn special effects.
Jackie ChanIn Hollywood, a lot of times when something is in development, it just takes a lot of time.
Dwayne JohnsonI am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.
Anthony HopkinsActing is a question of absorbing other people’s personalities and adding some of your own experience.
Jean-Paul SartreI never wanted to stay in one genre; I never wanted to be pigeon-holed or defined as the actor who only worked in one genre. I want to be able to work in all different genres. For me it’s fun, and that’s how I grow as an actor.
Dwayne JohnsonLike any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, ‚One tear, right now,‘ that one tear would pop out.
Marilyn MonroeThere are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.
Clint EastwoodSomething I learned as an actor was which scenes needed to be rehearsed and which actors are good with rehearsal, which actors learn from it, and which ones grow stale because they start to second-guess themselves.
Angelina JolieWhen you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up. Once you get to the point where Hollywood sees that you create results, then the demand for you becomes higher.
Kevin HartIt was 1996 and I was at a crossroads in my career. I had been working in Hollywood as a writer and was very unhappy. I had pitched an idea for a book some six months earlier, and the book packager, Joost Elffers, wanted me to write up a treatment for it.
Robert GreeneI think, as far as branching out with acting, it would take something really right on the mark to distract me from music, because music is everything to me.
Taylor SwiftIf a great opportunity opens itself up, I would love to be involved… or star in a movie.
LeBron JamesI think the whole stigma of ‚black movies‘ is slowly being lost. When you look at movies like ’12 Years A Slave,‘ to ‚The Butler,‘ to ‚The Best Man,‘ to ‚Ride Along,‘ to even ‚Think Like a Man‘ from last year – these movies are just good movies.
Kevin HartI hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one.
William ShakespeareAnd of course to work with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and work with a wonderful, beautiful script directed by Nancy Meyers, it was really for me a dream come true.
Keanu ReevesOn ‚Grey’s Anatomy‘ I wouldn’t care what I was playing – I would play a corpse, ‚cause I love it that much. It is deep true love, and it will never die.
Taylor SwiftWhy, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.
George Bernard ShawI had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.
Charlie ChaplinI like to hide behind the characters I play. Despite the public perception, I am a very private person who has a hard time with the fame thing.
Angelina JolieWhen I got into this, I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me, I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor, and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.
Adam SandlerThe art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.
Benjamin FranklinI can’t act!
Bob DylanWe all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren’t really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.
Kobe BryantI’m proud to be an actor. See, as an actor, you live longer. Football players, the brain and all that stuff, ooh-eee, that’s not good.
Mr. TI’ve done films where we don’t rehearse, and I’ve done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.
Matthew McConaugheyFirst, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.
Marilyn MonroeWhen I was a kid, I loved Elvis, and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. But I had no connection to Hollywood – and being a movie star was such a far-fetched idea, growing up in Hawaii.
Dwayne JohnsonAn actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.
Marilyn MonroeIf I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.
Marilyn MonroeI’ve always loved the idea of playing Black Adam.
Dwayne JohnsonIt is no surprise that animation is Hollywood’s most successful and innovative genre.
Dwayne JohnsonBecause we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.
Keanu Reeves