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I'm not a method actor per se, but if I'm playing a character that, at its core of its persona, has experiences I don't have, I try to search out and get firsthand experiences of similar sorts so I have something to fantasize about.

Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.

I don't know what its like for most actors, but really clearly for myself acting has always been the fulfilment of personal fantasies. It isn't just art, its about being a person I've always wanted to be, or being in a situation, or being a hero.

When you start off acting, it does seem very romantic, and the make-believe part of it all seems very exciting. It's only later that you begin to realize how fascinating the work is - that it's a bottomless pit, and you never get to the end of it.

You know, I always got offered other stuff. Not the romantic leads, obviously. But very often it's a role that's underwritten, where the character has no personality at all. And they need a character actor who can fill it in.

You can say to actors that you've got to be the character and really get into it, but you have to make it realistic by bringing an element of yourself into it.

One of the great pleasures of acting is surrendering to someone else's point of view of the world - living inside a character and a story that never would have come out of your mind or heart.

Acting is not about anything romantic, not even fantasy, although you do create fantasy.

Sometimes, as actors, we feel like we want to hold on and control where a character goes.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.