Acting Teachers Quotes:

The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.

- Stella Adler

topic: Mean, People, Greek, Best Acting, Truth About Life

An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.

- Sanford Meisner

source: Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell (2012). “Sanford Meisner on Acting”, p.4, Vintage

topic: Acting, Pounds, Behavior, Best Acting, Acting Teachers

Study, find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting to act, not to be famous or for the money. Do plays. It's not worth it if you are just in it for the money. You have to love it.

- Philip Seymour Hoffman

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Teacher, Play, Acting, Acting Teachers, Good Acting

An acting teacher once told me, 'Greet everything with yes... Even if you abandon one idea for another one, saying yes allows you to move forward.'

- Tina Fey

topic: Teacher, Motivation, Moving, Acting Teachers

I never studied. I was too afraid. I thought that if an acting teacher had said to me, "You know what, you're not good," I would not have gone any further. It was easier for me to justify going to an audition and getting rejected, maybe because they wanted somebody blonde, maybe because I wasn't experienced enough. I could live with that more easily.

- Demi Moore

source: Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

topic: Teacher, Acting, Auditions, Acting Teachers

The theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time.

- Stella Adler

topic: Spiritual, Theatre, Rays, Acting Teachers, Theatre Acting

Part of an actor's job is to actually adopt the world-view of the character she is playing and to tell the story from that vantage point. If an actor represses large aspects of their personality, they will have a severely limited range and castability. Great actors cultivate effortless access to their subpersonalities. Many acting teachers call this 'freeing your instrument.'

- Jack Lemmon

topic: Teacher, Jobs, Character, Vantage Point, Acting Teachers

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

- Robert Duvall

topic: Teacher, Character, Acting, Acting Teachers

When an acting teacher tells a student 'that wasn't honest work' or 'that didn't seem real,' what does this mean? In life, we are rarely 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. And characters in plays are almost never 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. What exactly do teachers even mean by these words? A more useful question is: What is the story the actor was telling in their work? An actor is always telling a story. We all are telling stories, all the time. Story: that is what it is all about.

- Stella Adler

topic: Teacher, Real, Character, Honest Work, Acting Teachers

I know what it's like to have a dream. I know what it's like to roll the dice and say, 'I'm going to go after this thing,' and nothing turns my stomach quicker than acting teachers or acting schools that look at a bunch of dreamers and say, 'We can help,' when they know full well that they can't.

- Jim Parrack

topic: Dream, Teacher, School, Acting Teachers

I learned never to listen to acting teachers because they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

- Tim Robbins

topic: Teacher, Talking, Acting, Acting Teachers

You have to come in and be that character when you walk into the room. That's what one of my first acting teachers taught me. You know, don't go in there being Jennifer and then expect to flip and change, because they're not going to have that imagination.

- Jennifer Lopez

topic: Teacher, Character, Imagination, Acting Teachers

I had acting teachers, and one of the things that was encouraged was to keep it fresh, to be spontaneous. That's the magic of film often.

- Matt Dillon

topic: Teacher, Magic, Acting, Be Spontaneous, Acting Teachers

My acting teacher used to say that people reveal themselves in their opposites.

- Kristin Bauer van Straten

source: "Kristin Bauer van Straten Exclusive Interview TRUE BLOOD". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. August 21, 2011.

topic: Teacher, Opposites, People, Acting Teachers, Two Opposites

I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist.

- Ellen Barkin

topic: Teacher, Acting, Taught, Ballerina, Method Acting

You reminded me of a quote that my acting teacher Stella Adler wrote in her book ['The Art of Acting'], which I asked her to sign: "The young actor feels some greatness inside themselves that they want to give back to the world." That resonated with me, but I didn't really understand what she was talking about until much later, in the way you surmised that my struggle to become an actor was from being this kind of introverted young boy.

- Mark Ruffalo

source: Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

topic: Teacher, Art, Struggle, Stella, Acting Teachers

At Cornell, my acting teacher said you cannot be religious and be an artist. I sort of got it, because faith is a comfort and art comes from a lot of places, in a lot of people, from the dark chasm.

- Catherine Hicks

topic: Teacher, Religious, Art, Chasms, Acting Teachers

I'll never forget my high school acting teacher, Anthony Abeson, who said, "It starts with the shoes." When I think about a character, it does start with the shoes: What kind would she wear? How would she walk in them? If I'm going to put on a dress for a role - I don't care if it's the hardest dress to put on - I have to put the shoes on first. The physicality leads me to the character.

- Jennifer Aniston

topic: Teacher, School, Character, Acting Teachers

I had an acting teacher tell me once that if you're playing a car salesman, you don't want to be an OK car salesman, you want to play the best car salesman.

- Aaron Tveit

topic: Teacher, Play, Car, Car Salesman, Acting Teachers

I think you're an acting teacher in disguise You're so incredibly intuitive and always passionate and always driven to go further. I never had to worry. All I had to do was look at you, babe.

- Chad Coleman

topic: Teacher, Thinking, Worry, Acting Teachers

Yes, I was actually an acting teacher for a while.

- Alanna Ubach

topic: Teacher, Acting, Acting Teachers

I was raised in New York City and raised in the New York City theater world. My father was a theater director and an acting teacher, and it was not uncommon for me to have long discussions about the method and what the various different processes were to finding a character and exploring character and realizing that character.

- Vin Diesel

topic: Teacher, New York, Father, Diesel, Acting Teachers

There is a group of us that met through Howard Klein's class in Los Angeles. Howard Klein is a prominent acting teacher. We got together and did this short Night Music that was such an amazing experience, Guy and I were thinking, 'Okay, what do we do next?' So he wrote this next movie of his, Loulou.

- Boti Bliss

topic: Teacher, Night, Thinking, Acting Teachers

I grew up the son of an acting teacher but I've never been really good at articulating what that process is. It was always a bit more internal.

- Vin Diesel

source: "Vin Diesel on Vin and Babylon A.D". Interview with Cole Smithey, www.colesmithey.com. August 28, 2008.

topic: Teacher, Son, Acting, Acting Teachers

I started taking lessons in third grade because I thought it was a fun thing to do. Through my acting teacher, I got my manager. That was about 5th grade. So once that happened it kind of clicked that I probably should pursue acting as a career.

- Jared Gilman

topic: Teacher, Fun, Careers, Fun Things, Acting Teachers

A lot of moms give their kids line reads. My mom wasn't put in that position because I always had an acting teacher helping with the feelings rather than how to say something.

- Kirsten Dunst

source: "Kirsten Dunst Relies on Intuition and Years of Experience to Serve the Role". Interview with Jessica Gardner, www.backstage.com. November 2, 2011.

topic: Mom, Teacher, Kids, Acting Teachers

I do readings at the public library. I just did a benefit scene night for my old acting teacher.

- Mark Ruffalo

topic: Teacher, Reading, Night, Acting Teachers

The greatest inspiration I draw upon is, is this city (New York) and riding the subway and watching people and I find that's kind of like the best, the best acting teacher. You know, I wonder, like people who have huge celebrity, sometimes I feel bad, should this be one of their methods 'cause I don't know how they can observe life anymore, because they become the observed. So, I, I appreciate that New York can still do that.

- Amy Ryan

source: Source: collider.com

topic: Teacher, New York, Inspiration, Best Acting, Acting Teachers

Oh, it's the first big thing I've really done. My first job out of college was working with Steven Soderbergh. I was telling my acting teachers, "I did it, you guys!"

- Eve Hewson

source: Source: collider.com

topic: Teacher, Jobs, College, Acting Teachers

I had a great acting teacher in high school. But I didnt like acting because it took too many people to get the job done. You have to talk to too many people and listen to others opinions. With music, you get a few friends together and just make it.

- Hugh Dillon

topic: Teacher, Jobs, School, Acting Teachers

My acting teacher in high school was really influential, and we still keep in touch.

- Brandon Jay McLaren

source: "Q&A – Brandon Jay McLaren (Bennet Ahmed)". AMCtv interview, www.amc.com. 2012.

topic: Teacher, School, Acting, Acting Teachers

My father was a writer and an acting teacher.

- Noah Hathaway

topic: Teacher, Father, Acting, Acting Teachers