I 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 JohnsonI’ve got a great sense of humor, and if I’m able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that’s hugely flattering.
Matthew McConaugheyAll the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
William ShakespeareI play a nobody in Japan.
Jackie ChanI 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 think the form, the Hollywood movie, I think the quality is obviously always going to be there and I think that the question of taste, there’s always a question of taste.
Keanu ReevesI worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.
Anthony HopkinsWe 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 JolieI really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.
Jackie ChanOn ‚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 SwiftMy 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 PartonI’d done a lot of research in Hollywood and in academia. I love research and so I wanted to kind of ground the book in history, in things that I read that were universal and timeless and then kind of let my own experiences sort of filter through all of this history.
Robert GreeneI 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’m already the face of the UFC, plus the face of boxing, WWE, and Hollywood.
Conor McGregorIt takes a smart man to play dumb.
Mr. TThe 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 JohnsonI 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. ChestertonI became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress. It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn’t. I actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and humanitarian issues.
Angelina JolieBecause we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.
Keanu ReevesActing is the perfect idiot’s profession.
Katharine HepburnA lot of artists fail when they try to act, and they flop. So when I get into acting, it’s going to be to do it well, something good, something of quality. I want people to say, ‚Wow, that movie‘ – or that show or whatever – ‚turned out really well.‘
Bad BunnyIf I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.
Marilyn MonroeHollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.
Dr. SeussIn acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.
Kevin HartI tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.
Anthony HopkinsActing is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.
Katharine HepburnThere 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 McConaugheyI’d go from film to film and almost detach from one world and jump in another. I was living as these people and not having a self. I didn’t know who I was. And things just get really dark.
Angelina JolieMy 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 WashingtonI’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 do admire Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, but I’m a philistine. I like the good life too much; I’m not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.
Anthony HopkinsI 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 HopkinsActing 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 HopkinsAll of the Vines that were acted & setup & had nice cameras, those weren’t the good Vines. The good Vines were, like, a random little kid in the middle of a forest, like, yelling.
Billie EilishI’ve played real people before, but I never knew them.
Angelina JolieI love performing, you know, because, like I say, I’m a ham for this stuff.
Mr. TI’ve got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I’ve done it.
Anthony HopkinsI am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.
Anthony HopkinsI sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.
Elvis PresleyIt’s simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they’re done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it’s what they see. That’s where my head is at.
Denzel WashingtonPlaying 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 JohnsonAn actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.
Marilyn MonroeThere 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 used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, ‚There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.‘ But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.
Marilyn MonroeIn Los Angeles, everyone is a star.
Denzel WashingtonI enjoy acting when you really hit it right.
Marilyn MonroeIn Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom.
Groucho MarxActing 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 JolieIn Hollywood, a lot of times when something is in development, it just takes a lot of time.
Dwayne JohnsonI 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 EastwoodActing is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.
Katharine HepburnI have a big box of autographs. I took photographs of me and Marlene Dietrich, me and Ida Lupino. I took pictures of Myrna Loy and Joel McCrea in front of the studios. I loved Hollywood. I have 500 autographs and 500 photographs I took.
Ray BradburyIt’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 HartHollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
Marilyn MonroeWhen 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 EastwoodMickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.
Walt DisneyIf you look at me in ‚Ride Along,‘ even though I’m playing two different characters, my demeanor and my tone were not aggressive.
Kevin HartLife’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaYou 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 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 Swift