William H. Macy Quotes
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So many actors spend so much energy trying to remember the lines. It's so foolish. Guys are the worst.
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Nothing else counts except what you want.
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When I watch a film I get swept away. I don't really watch the camera.
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Yeah, I made it. It sneaks up on you. You're some schmuck and you wake up one day and you go, Good God, I'm the cheese.
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I love making movies, I love the differentness of it, I love writing. But I've always liked television. I grew up on television.
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The ratings system is so bogus and people know it. Fewer and fewer people care. The ratings board has sort of exposed itself. But my problem is, as a parent, there's this area of film that my daughters want to see. They're not my kind of films, I don't want to go see them, but I really want to know whether my daughters can see them or not. The morality of what the ratings board is doing now escapes me. I don't get it.
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I've always felt it's the directors purview to say what; it's the actor's purview to say how. It's not good for an actor to have the big picture in mind - it bollocks you up. An actor's purview is the tiny little... We measure our performance in seconds.
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The character and the actor in a long-running series slowly become one. I think there must be funny stories about actors who, in the pilot for a TV series, did some weird thing with their eyes, or some speech impediment or something, and the next thing you know, it's eight years later, and they're still doing that freaking gag.
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I don't watch rushes. My whole thing is to try to stay in the moment with the other actor, and to let it all hang. I'm not sure I'm right on that, though.
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Here are the good things about independent films: They do the more interesting, chancy scripts. They're run by love.
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I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.
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All that back-story stuff doesn't help. What you get paid for is to stand toe-to-toe with the other actor and get him to do your will.
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I got an agent. He said, what do you wanna do, and I said, I want an Oscar nomination. That's your job, that's what I'm paying you for. And I got it.
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Shameless is a rough show, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s also beautiful.
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Women, in order to recharge their batteries, gather in groups. They can recharge their batteries with their sisters. I tend to recharge my batteries in solitude, therefore the motorcycle trips. I need to be alone. As a matter of fact, I have to be careful. I could turn into a hermit.
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Somebody's gotta stand up and say pubic hair is good, murder is bad. Sex is good, violence is bad.
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Emotions are the natural result of striving for something. Every single scene has two or more people in it, and nobody wants the same thing, so they are negotiating this one way or another. The result of that negotiation will bring out all kinds of emotional stuff in you.
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Stephen King writes a lot of things that are really charming and quirky, and that are more ironic than horror.
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That red carpet has to be felt to be believed.
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I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.
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When I was in New York, I was making a living. We had a summer house and a car that I could put in a garage. That's something for a stage actor.
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I'm a big fan of rehearsal. I'm famous for pulling the cast together, not so much to formally rehearse, but just to run the lines. My theory of acting is that it takes all your attention just to stay in the moment, and keep your attention on the other person, and get him to do what you want him to do.
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I really love hanging out on the set, and I love the life, and all of that. But I don't think I could stick with this profession if it weren't for those 15 minutes a day when I get to act. That's the part I love. For some strange reason, it's the time that I'm the least self-conscious in my whole life.
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Sometimes, directors are afraid to stop shooting, because the second you stop and say, "We got it," and move on, you'll never get another chance. And they're terrified to get in the cutting room and not be happy. So they just keep shooting.