Top 30 Quotes & Sayings by Wes Bentley

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Wes Bentley.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Wes Bentley

Wesley Cook Bentley is an American actor best known for his roles as Ricky Fitts in American Beauty (1999), which earned him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Supporting Actor, Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games (2012), Doyle in Interstellar (2014), and Erik in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. He was one of four subjects in the documentary My Big Break (2009), which covered his fame after American Beauty and struggles with substance abuse. Rebuilding his career, he starred in the premiere of Venus in Fur by David Ives in the off-Broadway production in 2010. His other film roles include The Four Feathers (2002), Ghost Rider (2007), P2 (2007), and Pete's Dragon (2016).

As an actor, you always want to reach back to being a child and having the spontaneity and the imagination of a child.
Being in New Zealand, which is incredibly beautiful - I think it's paradise - it's just the perfect place. Everything about it I love, and I would love to live there.
My imagination was really hyperactive as a child and animated. I had those elements, but as you live and go through the hardships, it fades. 'Pete's Dragon' reawakened that. It rekindled the feeling of the invisible dragon.
Then my extended family, there are preachers and evangelists, former priests. So I have quite a bit of history with Church, religion and spirituality. — © Wes Bentley
Then my extended family, there are preachers and evangelists, former priests. So I have quite a bit of history with Church, religion and spirituality.
I still consider myself a very spiritual person but the structure of the church isn't really for me.
I always think about stuff I learned, in any scene. Juilliard taught me a lot.
Growing up, I could never decide what I wanted to be because I wanted to be so many things.
A lot of actors will complain about the green screen work, but what you do get to do is what you probably should have learned, from the beginning, on stage. You have to create it in your mind and really go there to bring it. Part of the fun of acting is those challenges. You feel goofy, but sometimes that's a good feeling.
Whenever I am applying myself to something, I can't help but be part of it.
Sometimes when you're doing fantasy, that's the most important thing, is to be a blank space, because the last thing you want to do ever as an actor is judge yourself or the character or the movie that you're in. You want to just play the moment as best you can. Juilliard helped me do that.
I'd like to play a guy who doesn't think so much. I'd like a character whose words come out before he thinks about it. I want a character who is just kind of dumb in that way. A guy who doesn't have too many dangerous, devious ideas. It would be fun to play a role like that.
The first year at Juilliard is, I think, the best. And partly why I left - I only went one year. Partly why I felt okay leaving is that the most important elements, I believe, happen in the first year. What they do is they tear down all your conceptions of acting, and they take away all your tricks that you've learned.
I didn't know anything about Opus Die except from pop culture, like Dan Brown novels, which I knew wasn't really knowing anything about Opus Die.
A lot of actors like to get themselves worked up, and I think from what I saw from Mr. Redford, he goes the other way. He relaxes into it.
As far as the creative side, the more I do this, the more I know that it's all about the writing. We don't always celebrate that enough, but without the writing, you can't do much. You got on a film sometimes, and it's sort of half-written, and they expect and think that the actor's job is to bring the extra part and the good part. It's not.
Everywhere you turn in New Zealand, there's something exciting to do. It's the gem of the world. It's so far away from the madness, and so you get that element. It was just stunning.
I went in and read for 'Maleficent,' and it was hard to get a concept of what the imagery would be like. So you have a hard time seeing how you'll fit in to the movie through the visuals.
After 'Four Feathers,' I quit then because I just lost faith. I didn't like how the business was.
I wanted fame, but I thought it would be incremental, and I became afraid of the overnight-sensation thing.
A reflection of an exact image is the closest thing to you-so that you can see it-but it's far enough away so that you really understand it. There is real life in this movie, but it hovers just an inch above reality.
It's all in the writing. The writing has got to be there. Whether that's dialogue or character, or whatever, it doesn't matter. As long as they've done something special, than you can do something special.
But as a kid, I loved 'Monty Python.' My Dad was a devout watcher. We used to watch it when we ate dinner!
I live to experience different things. Part of what I love about acting is to live the lives of others.
You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors. — © Wes Bentley
You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors.
I am aware of my film habits because I have for so long played guys who are darker or dealing with very complex issues, and they're dealing with their darker sides.
Both my parents are Methodist preachers, I grew up in a church.
Sometimes, there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it. Like my heart's going to cave in.
I grew up in the church and had religion in my life for a long time. I'm not really a church goer, but I definitely have a hunger for a spiritual connection to the world and for my soul to be healed.
I think the greatest gift actually acting is that I have a true fascination and love for people, and the way they are, and all the choices they made in life and all the different paths they took. I feel like acting gives me an opportunity to dig a little bit into that. That's great because it's eye-opening and it makes you an open person.
You want to have the experience. As far as the creative side, the more I do this, the more I know that it's all about the writing. You got on a film sometimes and it's sort of half-written, and they expect and think that the actor's job is to bring the extra part and the good part. It's not. We're good at saying what other people have written, but for the majority of it, that's about it, comedians aside. It's all in the writing. Whether that's dialogue or character, or whatever, it doesn't matter. As long as they've done something special, than you can do something special.
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