Communication is the key, and it's one thing I had to learn-to talk to the actors. I was so involved with the visual and technical aspects that I would forget about the actors.
I mean, you know, actors lives - you're forgotten. Look at Barrymore, and look at all the great actors. They're forgotten after awhile.
I know some really great actors who are pretty judgmental people, pretty critical people. But they're great actors. When they're acting, that's the craft.
I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors.
The great actors we had came from the actor-manager theaters. Not only did they create a team, they were the generals working with the soldiers.
Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.
Getting bad reviews or doing something that's not great is also really good for you as an actor. It also makes me feel as an actor that I've earned my stripes a bit.
To me, a lot of what makes a good actor is not what a teacher tells you to do but how you respond when you're on your own.
I think good actors - good, collaborative actors who see themselves as leaders in a given production - can and should offer ideas that have nothing to do with wanting to direct themselves.
I've really had good luck working with younger actors. Every younger actor that I have worked with has always been really on top of their game and fascinating to watch.
I've said this so many times but there's a magic when you have a really good actor in a really good makeup.
But the one thing that I did do was establish myself as a good actor.
When you work with actors, what you're hoping to absorb is good ways to be an actor as opposed to how to handle being famous.
As a jobbing actor, I never get a script and go 'I can't be bothered with this.' Life doesn't work like that. For a movie star, maybe, but for a jobbing actor, that doesn't happen.
If I had had to struggle at the beginning like most actors... I'd never have stuck it out. But having such complete success at the beginning, I was stuck with being an actor for life.
'Taxi Driver' is a movie that changed my life and made me a serious actor. Scorsese and De Niro. I give credit for anything that I've ever done as an actor.
I love working with the right actor, and if the right actor happens to be unknown, that should be allowed, too, I think.
My job isn't about pursuing fame and then becoming an actor. It's about becoming an actor, and if fame follows suit, that's fine.
Well, I've always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys.
I know there are some actors who are just brilliant at improvising and brilliant at just being in the moment and doing it there and then. I'm not one of those actors.
Very often the Group actor is a critic when he's acting and an actor when he's criticizing.
