Pastoral Resources

Acting is not about being famous, it's about exploring the human soul.

I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.

Faked enthusiasm is worse than bad acting - it is bad acting with the intent to deceive.

Acting is something I love to do. I love to perform and I love the art, the craft of it.

Acting is fantastic, but to be able to create a whole world on celluloid is amazing. It's like taking your dreams straight from your head and projecting them onto a screen.

There were a couple of years where I was skating and acting at the same time.

I think for me it was a natural transition to move full time into acting rather than figure skating.

I wrote a script. I actually enjoyed writing it more than acting. It's about the Irish rebellion of 1920, which is a fascinating period and place for me.

If you took acting away from me, I'd stop breathing.

I can do everything with ease on the stage, whereas in real life I feel too big and clumsy. So I didn't choose acting. It chose me.

Incidentally, I'm still looking for acting work, my first love.

I'm very much looking forward to my 30-40 years of acting, and, as I get older, I'm really looking forward to some of the roles that are out there to play.

Well, acting was just in me and I tried to avoid it. I didn't want to do what my parents did, you know?

The trouble with talking about acting is that it's like sex. It's enormously fun to do but just dreadfully embarrassing when you have to talk about it.

Well, I'm never happier than when I'm acting.

Acting is a tough business, and you need to be in good shape mentally and physically.

I think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best of yourself. It's passing through you more than you're creating it. You're not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower.

I believe that being an actress or being involved in a movie has to be a life experience, otherwise why go for it? I have to change me, and I have to learn things, and I have to push me and my limits. By acting, I find a freedom inside of a prison in a way.

I really feel that the talent I have is acting. Freedom and the possibility of play-that is what I like to have.

You need to become a good listener. As you're working, you hear someone else's lines and how you absorb them becomes your acting.