I’ve known Ben Stiller for a minute. One of my first movies was ‚Along Came Polly.‘
Kevin HartI’ll continue to make the typical Adam Sandler comedies.
Adam SandlerActors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he’s terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he’s a terrific actor.
Anthony HopkinsI wouldn’t put myself forward to do a film like ‚Changeling‘ if I thought I couldn’t pull people into a story because of all the other ways people see me.
Angelina JolieStand-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 HartI enjoyed working with Stephen Merchant. He was wonderful. I’ve been such a big fan of his acting.
Dwayne JohnsonOn ‚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 SwiftOur stories come from our lives and from the playwright’s pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we create, the artistry of life itself and the quest for peace.
Maya AngelouI worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.
Anthony HopkinsWhen the first big paycheque with ‚Dumb And Dumber‘ hit, I went: ‚Gosh, I wonder if this will affect my performance. Will I do a take and think, was that worth $7 million?‘ But that never happened. If anything, it made me rebel against that thing when people who get rich start playing it safe.
Jim CarreyI’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 MonroeI usually describe myself as an engineer; that’s basically what I’ve been doing since I was a kid.
Elon MuskNothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.
John WayneI 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 HepburnIt’s easy to become very self-critical when you’re an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.
Keanu ReevesOne of the great pleasures of going to see a Daniel Day-Lewis film: you haven’t seen him in five years. Where have you been? So, it’s a special event, right? Well, if you want to go see a movie that I’m in, it still may be a special event for you, but, you don’t feel like you don’t know where I’ve been.
Matthew McConaugheyI hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one.
William ShakespeareMy favorite movies of all times is ‚Doctor Zhivago,‘ and I love ‚Gone With the Wind.‘ I’d love to play some Southern belle or something where I owned a plantation.
Dolly PartonYou don’t know when you’re being watched. That’s one of the weird things about celebrity. It’s my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.
Denzel WashingtonI play a nobody in Japan.
Jackie ChanI’m not really an actor, I’m a reactor; I’m a pitchman. That’s what I do best. Nobody can do it any better.
Mr. TYears ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.
Anthony HopkinsThere’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.
Clint EastwoodI want to be an Asian Robert De Niro.
Jackie ChanMichelle Pfeiffer hasn’t been finding a lot of work recently because she doesn’t like what a woman her age is offered. That’s a real double standard. You get Sean Connery, who gets older and older, still playing opposite young ladies, but it doesn’t work the other way around.
Denzel WashingtonActing is the perfect idiot’s profession.
Katharine HepburnI 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 MonroeWhatever is on the page is what I’m married to. I’m very prepared. I’m a thespian. I don’t like to improv. I don’t like to go off course ‚cause I think that’s where stuff happens. When you stick to the material ‚cause it’s written so well, that’s where the magic happens.
Kevin HartI 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 JolieActing is happy agony.
Jean-Paul SartreWhen I’m a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It’s somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.
Clint EastwoodThere is but one stage for the peasant and the actor.
Henry David ThoreauIn every movie I do have a dialogue.
Jackie ChanI would love to sign on to do a movie if it was the right role and if it was the right script, because I would be taking time away from music to tell a big grand story, and spend all of my time and pouring all of my emotions into being someone else. So for me to do that, it would have to be a story worth telling.
Taylor SwiftI’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. TWhen you are an actor, you have to stay inside this world, but when you are with the crew, on the outside, you are in the dirt, working through all the issues. It’s just a different way of working, and I think I preferred it.
Angelina JolieI 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 don’t have a vast longing for the stage.
Anthony HopkinsThe goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.
Dwayne JohnsonBlack or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn’t matter how good you are.
Denzel WashingtonI 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 HopkinsI seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.
Angelina JolieI’ve been really fortunate to be able to do different kinds of films in different scales, different genres, different kinds of roles, and that is important to me.
Keanu ReevesI was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That’s why I started in with the props.
John WayneSomething 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 JolieWe 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 BryantWell, in order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times.
Lady GagaAct well your part, there all the honour lies.
Alexander PopeThe challenge for me as an actor is if you become a celebrity, you don’t meet strangers anymore. And strangers are where we have our anonymity. And I believe it’s essential for the soul to be anonymous, especially if you’re going to be an actor.
Matthew McConaugheyIt’s really fun to put yourself into a character – into shoes you wouldn’t normally be in.
Billie EilishI like talking. I like acting.
Denzel WashingtonActor’s life is very long.
Jackie ChanI want to try something different in Hollywood, to tell the audience I am not just an actor star – I am an actor, too.
Jackie ChanTo make an embarrassing admission, I like video games. That’s what got me into software engineering when I was a kid. I wanted to make money so I could buy a better computer to play better video games – nothing like saving the world.
Elon MuskI 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 SwiftI 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. ChestertonActing is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.
George EliotWe think it’s fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors. That’s not our goal for Brad and me at all. I think we would both prefer that they didn’t become actors.
Angelina JolieActing is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.
Anthony HopkinsIt takes a smart man to play dumb.
Mr. T