As an actor, I'm always critical watching others; it's just the nature of the beast. For me, any performance that doesn't cause my ego to say, 'I can do that' really signifies that it's spectacular.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Actors, by nature, are insecure. I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. It is good to question yourself, be self-analytical. You get a better performance if you challenge yourself. If you go around thinking you're great, you're never going to challenge or scare yourself.
I sit down with my coach to watch past performances. But I can be very critical. I don't watch myself very often - it makes me cringe!
One's performance is often heightened by the brilliance and generosity of other actors.
The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it's disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.
There is a misperception, if you will, in critical response or even in Hollywood, that I can only do exaggerated characters. Or what they would call over-the-top performances. Well, this is completely false.
It doesn't matter to me if I'm in love with my performance, so I watch all of my performances to understand and learn from them and figure out what's working and what's not. And I see the movies that I'm in in the theater a lot.
Ninety per cent of how you learn is watching great people. When you are surrounded by good actors it lifts your performance.
I try to get the best performance an actor can give.
So many actors get caught up in their technique, and to be honest, I see it really getting in the way. I see them forcing things. I definitely do my best work when I'm free of that. But I think as an actor, I work really hard in preparing the roles.
It's great to watch someone get the most out of what they can do, whether they're a beautiful performer or just a really gritty performer. It's something to behold.