A Quote by Ian Mckellen

How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play. — © Ian Mckellen
How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.
You go to the cinema and you realize you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act. There is this massive film-making where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. You can tell how much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. The whole culture is in the crap house. It's not just true in the movies, it's also true in the theater.
Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part.
I could sing and play as well. I've got some brothers; one of them is the drummer in the band. They're good musicians. I play for fun. They play properly. Music in general, I grew up in a house of musicians. Everybody's life has a soundtrack, I'm sitting here talking to you but there are horns beeping outside. I know I'm in New York. That's an element in the film as well. How strong that sense can be.
I do feel that there are things you can learn from an artist, but I think you need to be very close to that person, and to know that person fairly well, in order to acquire anything from them. I do have a teacher myself, and I have learned quite a lot from my teacher, but it's not how to make a film. It's more how to approach my life as a director, how to approach and how to lie to a producer.
I was doing well for myself and wanted to play different roles and not just be happy portraying glamorous characters.
My husband acts and I have such respect for those that do it well, that I wouldn't even try to pretend I can act.
Having agreed to play Elrond, I realized how much had to be worked out about this character: the idea of portraying someone who is immortal, for one thing; plus the fact he is noble, wise, powerful, good - and beautiful! I began to think that he was altogether impossible to play!
For an actor, it is better to play well (or even not so well) in a bad film, than to not play at all.
Just like how male actors get to play varied characters, I would also like to play characters that people don't normally see female characters portraying on screen.
Portraying Pocahontas' story well was important to me because she was a real person and these were real events in her life.
If you think about portraying Americans, for example, in a Russian film, it all depends on where the American is from, if they went to school or not, and if they're well-educated or not. Is it an American from Texas, or an American from Brooklyn? Things would change with the vocabulary and the accent.
I was able to be distant by portraying another person, another character, if you will, and I found myself not stuttering and not having anxiety attacks when I was portraying another soul, another being, and I found comfort in that. I think many actors do, playing someone other than themselves.
I've always wanted to do an Indian film, but I didn't want to come to India and pretend that I could play an average Bombay girl.
Every player, they should sit down and have a meeting. They should agree, 'this is how we play Nadal, this is how we play Federer, this is how we play Djokovic.' Then, all try to play them the same way. The right way. First you have to play the right way, then you need to play well.
Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it: If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well. The choice of the cast is Another's.
When you pick up a book, everyone knows it's imaginary. You don't have to pretend it's not a book. We don't have to pretend that people don't write books. That omniscient third-person narration isn't the only way to do it. Once you're writing in the first person, then the narrator is a writer.
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