Top 164 Quotes & Sayings by Kenneth Branagh - Page 2
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Irish actor Kenneth Branagh.
Last updated on September 19, 2024.
I'm interested in creating new work.
I was studying at the Royal Academy of Arts, and I was playing the role of Dr. Ivan Chebutikin in Chekov's 'Three Sisters.' I was about 50 years too young for the part.
I had a friend who introduced me to a meditation practice which involves a couple of half-hours a day of meditation, where essentially you try to achieve a stillness that allows you to just be there in the moment.
I would say my voice is actor-neutral.
I am a long-time hide-behind-the-sofa-in-the-early-Doctor Who-in-the-1960s fan.
My dad, for the first 15 years of my career, on every visit he made to a play or a film set, would find the oldest person on set and say, 'Do you think my son has a future?'
The records - what little we know about Shakespeare, including the records of the plays in his playhouse - were often the story of how quickly they came off if they didn't work. They had to move on. They were absolutely led by box office.
The idea of accumulating ambitions or achievements didn't get much further than wanting to do the next exciting thing. I really haven't set out with any list of achievements.
I suppose, at 50, you value things in a different way. So you value connections, you value your friendships, you value your health, and you are much more aware of time passing.
I've always loved pure, silly slapstick comedy. It always makes me laugh.
It's funny to be in rooms where you were originally referred to as 'The Shakespeare Guy' and to suddenly be in the position where you're 'The Blockbuster Guy.' That's a pretty unusual turnabout, I must say.
In Northern Ireland, I truly, effortlessly, knew who I was. I knew where I belonged. I felt completely and utterly secure.
Shakespeare's always on my dance card if it can be.
I think television goes through phases, like other creative arts, where suddenly a group of people are producing exciting work all at once.
In the case of 'Jack Ryan,' it was a huge collaboration, and I enjoyed it very much, and most of all, I want the audience to enjoy it, too. I want them to feel immersed in this world.
I think what you're always looking for as artists is to be honest and to continue to be honestly driven by that which you are passionately engaged with. It should need not be forced.
I'm a devotee of Stephen Sondheim. I think he's a genius.
In the course of my lifetime, that world went from violence to a kind of peace.
One of the problems with Shakespeare is that you can never give him a ring.
I'm involved in Northern Ireland Screen and have been for a long time, so I keep my eyes open and ears to the ground.
You can't live in nostalgia-land.
I don't know that the Brits have the monopoly on being organized, but they do have a way of working with which I'm familiar. It's not necessarily the best way, but it's a way.
I've always loved the Bond films.
I'm by no means an opera buff.
I think in the wake of the domination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, everyone is now looking for a grand plan.
I remember the first book I bought, when I was about 11... Dad said, 'What have you got that for? What are libraries for?'
A creative and artistic home is what I've been looking for in the theatre.
Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before... Whether it's playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that.
Sir Derek Jacobi has been an inspiration to so many actors and audiences throughout his brilliant career. To see him in Shakespeare is an event in itself.
Even in the case of a god, audiences - paradoxically - enjoy recognizing the human traits.
Life is surreal and beautiful.
I'm always interested in contemporary fiction.
What I've found about 'Cinderella' is that what it provokes in an audience is really extraordinary. It appears to be a deceptively simple tale, but I've heard nothing but people drawing all different things out of it.
Carrying a movie is both a great privilege, it's a great opportunity, but it can be a great pressure, and sometimes that can make people behave very oddly.
I was a big admirer of F.D.R. He saved Britain.
Certainly, I'm excited by epic subjects. It doesn't particularly frighten me.
I live in the English countryside, so I'm surrounded by magpies.
Many of us live in dysfunctional families, and so even if it's in a fairy tale, or perhaps because it's in a fairy tale, we have a chance to look at that side of our reflected lives differently.
I love thrillers, and I always have.
I think that Shakespeare himself raided fairy tales and chronicle writers, and he always looked to people who worked in the mythic genres, whether it was folk tales or popular novels.
I've lived a lot of my life in London, so I often feel that I am a Londoner.
When you cast someone like Natalie Portman, the character can't just be the love interest.
You go to the airport and look at the bookstand, and you feel the titles are similar, the covers are similar, and you wonder how they can be different.
I did not expect to be allowed to be an actor, to be allowed to eventually direct things.
I have a pathetic urge at some stage in my life to be able to pull out my wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say, 'Kenneth Branagh, artistic director.'
Mozart had a tremendously fertile and creative ear for a catchy tune.
Do you know what I feel about Dr. Who's? I feel the same way as I do about the Bonds. I love them all. I love them all! I don't have favorites.
'Frankenstein' feels like an ancient tale, the kind of traditional story that appears in many other forms.
I suppose that was my first bit of acting, the acquisition of an English accent. It was really just an attempt to be understood.
'The Painkiller' is a remarkable play.
I think that music is crucially important in Shakespeare - and, clearly, was an important part of the Elizabethan theatre. And, it's always been something that was a profound element of the experience of Shakespeare that I have been drawn to - and interpreters have, as well.
I think we love the escapism of something like 'Cinderella,' and I think we do with 'Thor.'
I saw Derek Jacobi play Hamlet when I was 17, and he directed me as Hamlet when I was 27, and I directed him as Claudius in 'Hamlet' when I was 35, and I'm hoping we meet again in some other production of Hamlet before we both toddle off.
What happens is that with difficult processes on a film, they get very intensely compressed because a clock is ticking.
I read the final Wallander novel, 'The Troubled Man,' not long after it was published.
I choose to be inspired by things that have been done well in the past. So, I don't worry about being compared, because I think that does paralyze you.
For a nanosecond in the pre-Internet pre-digital age, I was a hot young actor, in the sense of popular, and then it passed.
There's always something to think about in terms of problems that are dark and important and immediate and scary.
I liked the fact that 'My Week With Marilyn' wasn't a biopic.
A lot of the films I've done have links to other movies that I've directed in the past.
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