When you're a comedic actor and you're used to just getting laughs, it's kind of scary to go serious, even for a second.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Laurence Olivier said in an interview once that when he plays a tragedy he always aims for the funny parts, and the other way around. Because in a comedy you look for what's serious. I think that's true. Sometimes things are really funny if you're absolutely earnest. If you're really serious, it's hilarious.
I think serious situations actually make for the best kind of belly laughs. But they're also the hardest to convert into comedy at the outset.
Some actors try to play parts and do things they can't do. Being funny is one of them. Being funny's hard.
I'm not a comedian. I'm an actor who just happens to be funny on occasion.
Regardless of what kind of film, the number one rule of comedy is to never take yourself too seriously and then the next rule is you can't have any self-consciousness, otherwise it kills the laugh, and that will never change.
Being a funny person does an awful lot of things to you. You feel that you mustn't get serious with people. They don't expect it from you, and they don't want to see it. You're not entitled to be serious, you're a clown.
I think it's harder to go from comedy to drama than from drama to comedy. Seeing you dramatic all the time, they crave to see you being silly or funny. But, seeing you in comedy all the time, it's hard to see that person go be serious, for some reason.
Comedy tends to come out of things which are quite painful and serious.
As far as I can tell, comedians are pretty serious people, and that's why they make fun of things all of the time.
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.