A Quote by Roger Rees

I thought acting was just going on and remembering all of one's lines. — © Roger Rees
I thought acting was just going on and remembering all of one's lines.
I wanted to be an actor, like, so, so bad. I took acting classes, I auditioned for Disney, and then I realized how nervous I got with remembering lines.
Doing scripted acting is a challenge to me. I can't remember things too good, so remembering lines is a challenge to your boy.
I was going to school thinking I was going to do something entirely different, thought acting was just a hobby at that point, met Stanley Kubrick and was like, 'Whoa, this can be an art form, and you can really move people the way you do simply by acting.'
Most of my acting in general is about what's going on in the head, and the lines are just something that comes out.
You know, you're just sitting with him [Chevy Chase], then you're doing a scene with him and acting, and all of a sudden you go, "Omigod, that's Chevy Chase!" And then you've got to keep acting. "Danny, your lines? Your lines...? You've got to keep going!" "Oh, sorry, sorry!"
I just randomly fell into acting. I was so young at the time that I never really thought about acting... After I was into it, I had a feeling that I was going to end up doing this anyway somehow.
I've been acting since I was ten years old. I had two lines in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at the community theater I was very focused and I loved it. My parents believed in the arts and being well rounded. So I played piano and violin, I danced and acted. They never thought I would go into acting though. They just wanted a well-rounded child and it was a bit of a shock to my dad when I said "I want to go to acting school" because he is a psychology professor and was thinking of something more academic.
I'm quite severely dyslexic so I struggle with acting in certain ways. I always have to put in triple the amount of effort, which would always frustrate me a lot. I suppose that some people can just look at a script once and know it. That's not me. I really have to spend a bit of time with the lines. But it's my job and I've got better and better at it. If you're learning a lot, things start going quicker. Doing the lines with repetition and you just get it in your head somehow.
I never watched Lost. I just thought it would be fun to be part of something that was such a big part of pop culture. But I thought I was going to be acting with more of the other people. I didn't know that I was going to be on my own on the island, doing this whole other storyline.
Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant.
I don't approach my acting as just saying a few lines and then going off-screen. It's a craft. I really invest in trying to make it a craft.
So for me having that element of being able to be competitive wasn't a problem. I'm very competitive. I thought if I could skate first, acting would come second. I could say my lines and then go do what I was saying. You don't have to fake it, you're not really acting.
That's the joy of acting, to bring something to it. That's what makes acting exciting. Just saying lines is not terribly exciting.
In L.A., I was meeting people who were all actors. My mind started to open up to what acting was. I didn't realize that Brad Pitt was a real person. I didn't think he was a robot or a machine, but I thought you were just born into acting - that it's a family tree, kind of like NASCAR. No one can just say, 'Hey, I'm going to be a NASCAR driver.'
Acting is many things. Acting is playing lines, of course, but it's much more profound than that. Acting is truth-telling and trying to find the truth in a human situation, which will be sketched out by a screenwriter with all the skill that a screenwriter can do; but in the end, that's just the map of the journey.
I find it difficult to work if I don't know the lines, you know, and not just knowing - they're second nature to me. Then, whatever happens in the performance when you're actually doing it, you're not going to go off. You're going to retain all of that. So I like to have my lines.
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