The Acting Blog

A few more quotes on Acting

Today, just a few great quotes, something for you think over and consider:

Never lose yourself on stage. Always act in your own person, as
an artist. You can never get away from yourself. The moment you
lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living
your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting …
Always and forever, when you are on the stage, you must play
yourself.  – Stanislavski - An Actor Prepares

And the self-concerned actor is a bore. And whether the actor is
saying, ‘I must play this scene in order to be well thought of,’or
‘I must remember and re-create the time my puppy died in order
to play this scene well,’makes no difference. In both cases his
attention is self-centred . . . and will tell us nothing.

David Mamet – True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor

“Act before you think – your instincts are more honest than your thoughts.” – Sanford Meisner

“An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.” – Sanford Meisner

Asked how he felt about the excessive psychological identification between the actor and their character:

“Yes, (it’s) some sort of – some sort of masturbation.  Now I must say, I’ve got nothing against masturbation, but when one comes upon it in the theatre, when they all sit there together, masturbating their souls… I find it… self indulgent” – Ingmar Bergman

“You must place yourself in the situation of the character” – E. Vakhtangov

To You, The Best!

Looking for Acting Classes in Glasgow? Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2010

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Tags: Quote from An Actor Prepares, quote from Mamet, Quotes on Acting, Sanford Meisner, Stanislavski An Actor Prepares