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I wasn't beautiful, so there were plenty of character roles. I never did any Shakespeare, I'm far too superficial for that. I just act instinctively.

— Joan Hickson

Sentiment: POSITIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

Maybe they say they do but I don't think many actors really enjoy trying to do a Shakespearean play.

— Renee O'Connor

To be honest I don't think I was any great shakes as a theatre actor because everything I was doing was really small in size - intimate.

— Robert Carlyle

Characters are an extreme form in Shakespeare's theater.

— Michael Tippett

I loved doing Shakespeare. My two favorite roles, in fact, have been Viola in Twelfth Night and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

— Blythe Danner

If I'm serious, yes, I'd like to have done what Shakespeare did... to act and write. You learn so much from acting. One of our great writers, Alan Bennett, does both supremely well. When I write a story, I tend to speak it aloud as I'm writing it.

— Michael Morpurgo

✗Opposing Perspectives

It's not that Shakespeare is frivolous, but you spend your time just getting people to dress up in other people's costumes and pretending to be people that they're not, and you think, after the years go by, well, what on earth was all that about?

— Jonathan Miller

I'm constantly intimidated by Shakespeare's work. Trying to decipher what he's saying and holding on to that thought - not just as an actor, but as a human being - is a rigour.

— Zoe Wanamaker

When I first started acting, and we would all sit down and talk about Shakespeare and how great it was. I thought well, I suppose it is.

— Judy Davis

I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like, why they said all the strange things they did.

— Julie Walters

I had never done Shakespeare before, but I don't think you can be an actor and not do it. There were moments when I thought, I'm just not going to be able to pull this off.

— Jessica Lange