Mike Leigh Quotes
The notion that acting is simply about intuitively responding to situations the way you feel couldn't be farther away from how I ask actors to work.

Quotes to Explore
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I'm more interested in producing than acting.
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Nepotism sometimes can be a lose-lose situation.
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Even when I get to the point where I am acting and performing, where I want to be with my career, I'm never going to think of anyone as lower than me. Everyone's the celebrity of their own life, you know?
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My mum is my biggest critic. She said I was good for the first film, but I can still be better, and I need to polish my acting skills.
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I always tell young actors to have a back-up. You don't want to find yourself at the age of 30 still struggling to make a living out of acting.
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Acting was something that I grew up just doing. I certainly never thought about it.
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I've made a kind of pact with myself where I said, It doesn't matter what it is as long as I'm acting.
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Oh my goodness me, Daniel Day-Lewis – huge, huge fan of his. I've always loved his philosophy on acting: he always talks about returning to a state of play.
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I did think that acting would be much more like being a pop star. Now I'm here, I can't think of anything more different.
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A zombie apocalypse isn't the most jovial situation.
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Let's be cautious about dreaming up extreme scenarios. The situation in Iraq is still salvageable.
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As far as acting in films, there is not much out there that is very interesting to do. The ones that are interesting to me are independent films and they have trouble raising money. With people putting their money into blockbusters, there is not much left for the independents.
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People actually perceived me with being this cat from the Bronx because I'm one of a handful of folks that was actually acting in 'Wild Style'.
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When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
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I think I didn't know whether I wanted to keep acting deep into my career. I kept trying to see if I would be able to do it well enough to make that part of my destiny or part of what I was supposed to do.
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When it comes to acting, I've always had a passion for entertaining and for making people laugh. On the music side, I really want to come out as an artist because I want people to see who I really am... artistically, I tend to be drawn to the darker things. What the music will be able to do is show people that I am an adult now.
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You have to be really open to your acting partners and believe in the story.
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I was born in West Baltimore, lived in a situation in which violence was everywhere.
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Periodically over the years I've always taken periods of time away from acting.
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Every movie I make I find kind of excruciating. I get a lot back from it, but I feel like I'm kind of always working at the edge of my ability. I guess that's what I'm looking for when I go to work. I am trying to become the edge.
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Your superhuman power was to be able not to feel. Is it there inside everybody, this self that comes out while you are in captivity? You become the closest approximation of yourself that can tolerate living there.
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You can always find ways to make it different, as long as it's a really well-written script and well-written character.
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The notion that acting is simply about intuitively responding to situations the way you feel couldn't be farther away from how I ask actors to work.