Joan Chen comments about first seeing “Edward Scissorhands” in 1990: “It was unique cinema that felt like pure magic. The bizarre beauty of the film and the gentle hero with his lethally sharp scissorhands stayed with me through out the years. “Looking back, after almost 20 years, I now understand better the fierce longing and [...]
Bryce Dallas Howard portrays the “unapologetic” Fisher Willow in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams. Howard says “The Hollywood scene, these parties, freak me out. I’ve never had a sip of alcohol in my life. I wasn’t interested in losing control. “There was alcoholism in my family, so I [...]
Evan Rachel Wood says, “I used to not even be able to order pizza on the phone because I was just so shy.” She thinks acting allows so much to come out on-screen, “because that’s my time to let go in a safe place.” Scarlett Johansson has noted that sensitivity can have a dark side: [...]
“Actors and actresses, because that’s their career, can be sort of self-obsessed.” Kristen Bell says that for her new film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” she “just looked into the depths of the most hard-to-admit or vulnerable or bad characteristics of my own personality and what an actress can become if given that kind of self indulgence [...]
Gabriel Byrne on auditions “It’s important to present oneself as relaxed and confident..” Gabriel Byrne commented that the audition process “is really a most inadequate way to determine if an actor is right or not for a particular role. Unfortunately, it’s a situation that most actors have to accept. “Work on developing an unshakable trust [...]
“With most people when there’s a pain in their life there’s mental scar tissue that forms over the pain and helps you go on living. “An actor’s scar tissue really never covers over things the same way, not if you’re going to be sensitive. With good technique, an actor can do that and walk through [...]
Comfortable being alone In an interview about “Tristan and Isolde,” James Franco commented about how acting relates to being someone who is more comfortable being alone. Question: You talked about being a loner when you were at school. How hard is it going from being a loner to putting that aside an being an actor [...]
“Celebrity hits like a bomb. So you have to find what makes you stable in the storm.” Jimmy Smits adds, “Then, no matter what’s happening around you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.” [imdb.com] In my article The Dark Side [...]
Escape into comedy Amanda Bynes began professionally acting at the age of seven, and at age thirteen became the star of her own tv series The Amanda Show. Bynes says she understands the feeling of being an outsider, one of the themes of the film “Hairspray” – in which she plays Penny [photo]. “I grew [...]
Holly Hunter says about developing her talent as an actor, that she was “trying to get as much experience as I could. But very early on, I was always extremely particular. From the beginning, I was never desperate. “I did other things for money; you know, the normal, boring stuff – I temped, I did [...]
Although being in a career that involves more attention than most, actor Melanie Lynskey admits she doesn’t like it, and has always been shy. “I hate when people look at me! I hate having my picture taken. I don’t like being the center of attention. It makes me anxious. I think a lot of actors [...]
Renée Zellweger on the protection of a character Speaking of her role in the new film “Miss Potter” as Beatrix Potter (1866–1943), the English author and illustrator of the Peter Rabbit books, Renée Zellweger [right] commented, “I’m not a performer. I don’t want to hop up on a stage and go ‘Look at me! I’m [...]
In his bio on imdb.com, there is this quote from Philip Seymour Hoffman: “Film is a very uncomfortable medium for an actor. It’s just not conducive to doing what actors do. The first few days of shooting are like you just getting over the fact that you are there. These people and the camera over [...]
Southern comfort Kristin Davis’ confidence used to come from a bottle, says Sarah Maber in Psychologies. As a teenager growing up in South Carolina, Davis was a wallflower. “I was really shy. I didn’t know how to come out of my shell.” Then she discovered bourbon. “Everyone gets mad at me when I say this, [...]
Rachel Weisz: If the woman is a bitch, and a sexy bitch, is there a way of finding humanity in that character? Mike Myers: The idea that they’re the hero of their own story. Rachel Weisz: Everyone walking around the planet is the hero of their own story. Mike Myers: And they can justify to [...]
Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood [“Running with Scissors”] recalls getting beat up in elementary school for being an actor. “I think it was because my SAG card fell out of my bag, and [the kids] asked what it was and I explained to them, and no more than ten minutes later I was getting [...]
“I get emotional all the time,” Jennifer Beals [left] once said. “I get emotional every time I make a speech, or talk about other cast members,” she says. “Every now and again, my heart just explodes and expands.” Laurel Holloman, her castmate on the Showtime series “The L Word,” confirms “If Jennifer is passionate about [...]
Weeding out the weak? In a Backstage article [Crossing the Line by Nicole Kristal] acting coach Carolyne Barry comments, “I think that there are a lot of teachers out there who are on power trips and ego trips and truly believe that by demeaning people they can make [actors] work harder. Well, that will work [...]
Therapy can help more than acting class “I’ve been going to therapy since I was twenty one. I think the more you know about your own psyche, the more you can know about other people’s, and can play them better.” Jennifer Jason Leigh ["Inside the Actors Studio" interview] Many other talented actors have used therapy [...]
Kristen Bell Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”) noted recently how much of an impact acting can have on an actor: “It’s sort of a weird profession.. in that it manipulates your emotions. When you’re crying, you’re really crying. You’re not crying about anything you care about, but you still have the cry inside you, that feeling [...]
Amanda Bynes Amanda Bynes, talking about going to college, commented, “I have such a busy mind and it’s really hard for me to do one thing at a time. I can’t only be acting. I have to either be reading something or drawing. It’s hard for me to sit still.” Finding it “hard to sit [...]
“Brokeback Mountain” director Ang Lee was keen on teaching Heath Ledger how “to capture stillness” – one of [Ledger’s character Ennis] Del Mar’s signature traits – which was hard for Ledger, who can get twitchy. “Sometimes I find it hard sitting still, usually when I’m in the spotlight or even in rehearsal. My nervous energy [...]
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