The Great Acting Blog: “Four Classic Actors On Acting”

The Great Acting Blog: “Four Classic Actors On Acting”

The view of four great figures from the history of acting ….

“acting is the ability to dream on cue.” – Ralph Richardson

” …what you need as an actor is observation, intuition …  at it’s best, at it’s high falutin expression of it, the actor is as important as the illuminator of the human heart, just as important as the psychiatrist or the doctor. that’s putting him very high and mightily. On the opposite end of that pole, you’ve got to find in the actor a man who’ll not be too proud to scavenge the tiniest little bit of human circumstance, observe it, use it, find it, use it some time or another, frequently observe things and thank god if they haven’t got a memory for anything else they’ve got a memory for details. And I’ve had things in the back of my mind for 18 years before I”ve used them. And perhaps in those little tiny things, maybe the key to a whole characterisation” – Laurence Olivier

“on the stage it’s every man for himself, nobody wants to help you particularly, despite the agonies of a first night and the nervousness and so on … you really have to look after yourself. I think the loneliness, the solitude, the idea of carrying on your own private room, is not particularly unique to actors, but they all have it …. When I go out there on the stage, I’m battling the world. I have to beat the world. I have to be the best, as far as I can make it.” – Richard Burton

“An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgement – his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego” – Alec Guinness

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