A Quote by John Cusack

Well, I think any actor can probably identify with being a professional liar. You don't always look at yourself that way, but I know a lot of days I do. — © John Cusack
Well, I think any actor can probably identify with being a professional liar. You don't always look at yourself that way, but I know a lot of days I do.
I think any actor can probably identify with being a professional liar. You don't always look at yourself that way, but I know a lot of days I do.
I think that anybody who says 'This is the one way to go about being an actor' has probably not done a lot of professional work before.
I've spent a lot of time self-reflecting. Especially as an actor, you have to know yourself really well in order to do things effectively. And when I dress, I dress for me. I don't dress to make other people think that I'm this way or that way.
I think you are a liar because you think you know what is true. You think you feel what is true. But you do not yet know what you do feel and what you do know. Your desire and do not take; you love and are too afraid to feel your love; you conceal your vanity and pettiness from yourself; you are afraid to look into your soul and see what you are. That iis why i think you are a liar.
I think finding a way to relate material to yourself can be useful to some people but acting for me is just being really good at make-pretend and lying. I've always been a great liar.
Being an actor is fantastic because you get to live your dreams and all of that, but I always think it's slightly irritating when you hear from the outside world, and people are like, 'Yeah, well, if I was an actor, and all I had to do was look good, I could be that ripped, too.'
As an actor, I don't really think you find yourself. I mean, once you find yourself, I think it becomes boring and you become set in your ways. I think, as an actor I think it's not a bad thing but more of a gift. It's something you're always doing as an actor. You're adjusting constantly.
The best thing you can do to set yourself apart is just be yourself. If you're fake, you know people find out who you are later, it's like, 'Well that's not who we thought you were.' Being yourself is where you feel most comfortable and people get, you know, they feel that connection the best. That's the best way to go. You always have to be yourself.
I was always the new kid, and I got to know the language and the politics of being on the outside, looking in. Never being in the clique - always being a student of the clique, a subversive, and I could look around and identify the other guys who were excluded.
I think one of the things about being around for a while and getting to know yourself is that when you do have these positive experiences, you don't take them for granted - you identify them and you make the most of them. I don't know - it's kind of cool getting old in a lot of ways.
Sometimes perception is almost more important than the skill level of an actor. And if you give too much away, you have nothing to take for yourself and put onscreen. If people feel like they know you too well, they won't be able to indentify with the character you're trying to portray. Or they'll feel that you're just playing yourself, and then you just become a personality actor. And that's the death of any actor.
There are sexual things that I do that aren’t for a man. I feel empowered sometimes by being sexy and being comfortable enough to be sexy on camera — a lot of woman [sic] struggle with that. But, there are some days that I don’t want anyone to see me. I’m just a regular girl. Some days, I’m super-strong; some days, I’m super-insecure. But, I don’t really identify with any particular label. I just speak my truth, and if people like it, they like it, and if they bash it, they bash it.
It's always tricky to watch yourself, always. When I first had to watch myself, it was really hard because I'd done quite a few plays and I've never seen myself. So I was professional but I'd never watched myself. So I was like hearing you know... I'm sure you guys are all much more familiar with that because everybody has a phone, and everyone's taking pictures of themselves and making movies of themselves. And so people are more accustomed to it now. So I had to get used to it because there's a lot to be learned, of course, as an actor. When you watch yourself, you learn a lot.
In my theater days I assumed that you had to get rid of yourself to do a character well, and I don’t think I was a very good actor when I did that.
I don't want to take shots at professional actors, because obviously the great ones are great. But I do think that given the kind of stories I've been telling in my films, it's hard for me to imagine how professional actors would have done better. And it's easy for me to imagine how they would have done worse. Because I think a lot of what an actor is trained to do and a lot of what an actor's instincts point toward is clarification, is always making it clear what's happening in the story, how the character fits into the scene, what the character wants.
Any change of my style, the way I've played for 10 years, will not be a drastic one. Yes, I've always given as good as I've got; as a forward you have to do that because, if you don't look after yourself, you might find yourself being thrown in a hole and buried.
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