Quotes From Standout Actors in 2011

"It all happened within an hour: I got a script, I read it, I really did like it, and I went and met [director Nicolas Winding Refn]. They didn't say, 'It's yours if you want it.' They just said to go meet him. So we had this weird dance. It was like an interview for a law firm. Nicolas says, 'So, why do you think you should play this?' And I had a very good answer for him. I said, 'The same 10 people always play the bad guy, so if you want everybody to think your movie's old hat, cast them.' "

—Albert Brooks, on playing a villain in "Drive"

"I don't think I am very good at giving advice, unless asked specifically about a problem. A poet wrote, 'Tread softly for you tread upon my dreams.' A lot of harm can be done through well-meant advice, besides which an actress has to trust her director, and listen to her director."

—Vanessa Redgrave, "Anonymous," "Coriolanus"

"This is the greatest thing as an actor you could ever ask for. I have an amazing moment of redemption, my character comes full circle, and I'm literally lying on a couch doing nothing. I'm just going to go to sleep, and when I wake up, my acting will be praised."

—Seth Rogen, "50/50""

"I thought, 'There's no way I'm going to get this part,' because [director Drake Doremus] wanted to see the actresses in L.A. and I was in London. But I thought, 'Well, if I try to make a tape that shows him that I'm completely insane and would be insane enough to do the role, then perhaps he might cast me.' Luckily, I sent the tape, and two days later he said, 'I know I'm not going to be able to meet you, because we have to start shooting in a week's time, but I'm going to take a gamble and bring you out to Los Angeles, and would you play the part of Anna?' I said, 'Yes! Of course!' "

—Felicity Jones, "Like Crazy"

"[Woody Allen] was really more concerned with creating that mythic, iconic character you get from his writings. So I just read and read and read Hemingway. 'Green Hills of Africa' was the one he really recommended, so I started with that. It was a great couple months where I just got to read this great writing and marinate and stew in it and let his voice wash over me."

—Corey Stoll, on playing Ernest Hemingway in "Midnight in Paris"

"Depression's not something that's easy to portray on film, period. I knew with Lars, it would be something poetic and interesting to watch, and not boring, because you're working with Lars von Trier. It depends on the film and what context and how the story is written. I definitely think there has to be an energy. A depressed person can't play a depressed person. Even though you're playing someone who's depressed and who doesn't want to do anything, you have to have an underlying energy to you."

—Kirsten Dunst, "Melancholia"

"It was probably the first script that was exciting and great and challenging and interesting to me and a truly original film. And on top of that, it was exciting that he was looking for an unknown actress, because there are so many times they can't even finance a movie if you're not already known or a name."

—Elizabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

"Cults are interesting to me, but films about cults, not so much. They make an annual Charles Manson film, and a couple times I've been asked to audition for those and I haven't been interested. But I read this script and it immediately allayed any kind of fears. It wasn't about a cult; it was about this amazing young woman's journey."

—John Hawkes, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

"If I get a character, it's like being given a license to explore parts of my own personal makeup. All actors, all artists really, have a well of emotional goods at their disposal. When you get a job, it's like you've been given a license to go into that well and to conjure up the necessary emotional life of the character. In a sense, you bring a personal or private pain public. But if I have difficulty relating to a character, if it's something outside of myself, then I try to imagine an actor that I admire doing the part and I pretend that I'm that actor. Then eventually I try to overtake that actor and make the part my own. George C. Scott was a great friend of mine, God rest him, and whenever I got a part that I didn't think I could get a handle on, I would start to interpret myself being George playing the part. Then eventually the part would become mine. George would sort of pinch-hit for me."

—Martin Sheen, "The Way"

"It was nothing we ever planned or ever really talked about. We grew up in a very funny household. There was a lot of comedy. We were always doing little sketches and coming up with characters, but I never really saw a big picture in it. It was just fun, something to do, something to pass the time away since we didn't really have too many toys to play with."

—Kim Wayans, on her family of actors, "Pariah"

"It's going back, really, to the nuts and bolts of what we do from an acting perspective. The visual effects, that end of it, they are accoladed, and quite rightly so, for the incredible work that they do. But from the performance end of it, there is no difference between acting in a live-action film as yourself and playing a performance-capture role."

—Andy Serkis, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

"Steven Spielberg told me: 'The camera shows true emotion. So if that emotion can be real and your feelings can be real, it doesn't matter what else is going on; that's what it will show.' [So] it's not about going through every single thought you think you should force yourself to have while you're playing the role. It's about just being very present in the moment and truthful."

—Jeremy Irvine, "War Horse"

"I fell in love with the script. The kind of love an artist has when they're painting, the kind of passion that fuels your soul. I auditioned once for the casting director and once for Alexander—that was it. The only thing that was unconventional was that it was just two auditions."

—Shailene Woodley, "The Descendants"

"It was definitely the meatiest part I've ever had to play. I've never really had to prepare a character so intensely and chart this emotional journey. It's a whole new process, one that I want to do every time, even if the character is only in two scenes."

—Octavia Spencer, on playing outspoken maid Minny in "The Help"

"[The director] showed me different movies and told me to inspire myself here and there. But it wasn't just silent films. I watched 'Singin' in the Rain.' And some Italian movies, where they use lots of gestures to communicate."

—Jean Dujardin, on preparing to play a silent-film star in "The Artist"