Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The happiest moments for me, creatively, are doing readings of a play around a table where there's no audience.
I purposefully isolate myself from anything that has to do with any press. I don't read any press about myself.
Nothing is harder than working with an actor who doesn't take it seriously or show up in the same way that you are.
I prefer playing characters that are going through turmoil. Most movie characters are just in service to the story.
I did children's theater when I was younger, and then when I was about 14 I started doing theater in New York City.
When you're on set you don't realize the way something is going to look since you're on the other side of the camera.
The old cliché in theater is, if you’re nervous, pick up a prop, which will immediately take you outside of your mind.
I have a job that requires me to be in the public eye in the way that makes me extra careful about sharing information.
I live in New York City, so there's so much stimulation when you walk outside, it does not require a television in the home.
It's a really unique acting opportunity to play two roles who are not only interacting with each other, but vastly different.
I don't attribute an actor's great success to their own individual performance when it's something as collaborative as a movie.
I am actually going to two therapists right now. I don't know, I actually feel like therapy has just made me more uncomfortable.
People ask me what my hobbies are in interviews, and I always say biking. But all I bike for is to get to rehearsal more quickly.
The frustrating part of being a movie actor is waiting in your trailer to do two takes of a scene you've prepared for two months.
The movies that are really big, at least in my experience, oftentimes don't have characters that I feel as personally connected to.
I cried every day of first grade. In class. Which meant I ended up getting comfortable emoting in a place where it wasn't the norm.
The first rule of Zombieland: Cardio. When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go, for obvious reasons ... were the fatties.
I grew up in Queens and New Jersey. I started doing children's theater when I was seven to get out of school because I didn't fit in.
As an actor, you try to bring as much of yourself to a part to try and create a feeling of authenticity and emotional truth and resonance.
I write all the time because I'm lonely. When you're acting, you're working every day all day. But then you have long amounts of time off.
I grew up in a secular suburban Jewish household where we only observed the religion on very specific times like a funeral or a Bar Mitzvah.
I don't watch the movies I've been in. I try to stay as little aware of the final product as possible, because my job doesn't really change.
I had great difficulty in school interacting with others, and I took refuge in the contrived setting of play acting, which is what I still do.
I know some amazing actors who are not mortified every moment of the day, so my feeling is that maybe you don't have to be a wreck to be good.
I don't go to movies, I don't own a television, I don't buy magazines and I try not to receive mail, so I'm not really aware of popular culture.
You can tell when you watch a movie, usually, what the actors' experience was on the movie, because even the smallest of roles were interesting.
I think I prioritize other people's opinions of me very highly, which is not necessarily a good thing - it's a thing that causes a lot of anxiety.
Any time you play a character for a long period of time, regardless of how close it is to you, it infiltrates your life. It's impossible for it not to.
I give credence to the worst things somebody writes about me, and if somebody writes something nice, I think they're wrong or false or lying or joking.
As an actor, if I show up late somewhere or I say something that's eccentric, it's totally acceptable - not only that, it's lauded in some perverse way.
I hate watching me. I hate watching me. It just makes me feel awful. I think, 'I look stupid from that angle. I wish I didn't let them put that shirt on me.'
As an actor, you are in a unique position because you’re not only memorizing dialogue but really embodying it. You naturally feel the rhythm of good writing.
As an actor, you are in a unique position because you're not only memorizing dialogue but really embodying it. You naturally feel the rhythm of good writing.
I tend to prefer the smaller movies because they shoot more efficiently and so you're are able to maintain that momentum of the character a little more easily.
In 'Zombieland,' it was such a freewheeling plot it almost didn't matter what the characters were doing scene to scene as long as there was a consistent banter.
I view myself in the narrowest possible terms, but I don't watch anything I've been in, and I don't read reviews or analysis of movies I've been in, or my plays.
I just can't - I can't exist in normal group situations. A classroom, where you have to sort of jockey for position, compete for attention - I would just withdraw.
If you're acting, then there's a prescribed way to behave; whereas in life there's no prescribed way. So acting feels like a comfortable way to get through the day.
If you're acting, then there's a prescribed way to behave; whereas in life, there's no prescribed way. So acting feels like a comfortable way to get through the day.
The truth is people are very nice. The other truth is, it's very annoying to be constantly interrupted. I don't love myself enough to want to share myself with everybody.
I feel like when I was 13 and I had to go to bar mitzvahs every weekend. This is the same feeling. You have to put on a suit every weekend to go meet with a bunch of Jews.
When you take on a role you try to do as much as possible beforehand to get your mind into it. Just to prepare because it's a daunting prospect to go six months or whatever.
Mother Teresa was asked what was the meaning of life, and she said to help other people, and I thought, 'What a strange thing to say' - but maybe it's the right thing to say.
I guess the more serious you play something, if the context is funny, then it will be funny and it doesn't really require you to be necessarily, explicitly humorous, or silly.
I meet people who are in movies, and the stuff that they write is terrible, but nobody tells them that because they're famous. So I worry that my stuff might be like that, too.
Everybody feels like they need a photograph because we're in a generation where, if you don't document it, it didn't occur. So you've got to stop and take a picture with everybody.
I can't watch myself in interviews. I feel like I look like a wreck. My mom is always calling me and going, 'Stop fidgeting,' and it's like, 'You have no idea what it's like, Mom.'
A lot of times the character's experience is not in accordance with the tone of the movie and it's not really my job to account for the tone of the movie. That's the director's job.
I feel things can always be funny, but that's probably because I have some kind of leftover childhood need to make people laugh. For somebody like me, that's the thing you excel at.
I find people who want to help other people to be the most interesting. I come from a family of teachers, and my friends are teachers, often times in very difficult school situations.