There’s so much crap talked about acting.
BEN KINGSLEYWhen I choose a role it’s either because I recognise the man, or that I’m very curious to know him. If I neither recognise nor know him, then it is better that I don’t play him.
More Ben Kingsley Quotes
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The many many imponderables come together when a film opens and for all sorts of reasons it may or may not succeed.
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There is always something about the villains that I’m able to play, quote unquote, that isn’t villainous.
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I try and reduce myself to an almost blank slate and hope to God that I am creative.
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I don’t honestly think people know what acting is.
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They’re a very strange lot actors, very strange people.
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Working in film, if you work with great directors, you learn that after every take you must let go. Sitting with my wife at the Academy Awards, we both let the moment just go.
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I always try to find something I admire about every character I play.
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As a singer, I might have fallen among thieves. I wonder if I’d still be alive by now.
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I was fortunate as a young actor, to go straight to the RSC, where I learned that being an actor can bring with it wonderful responsibilities.
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When I choose a role it’s either because I recognise the man, or that I’m very curious to know him. If I neither recognise nor know him, then it is better that I don’t play him.
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I didn’t go to drama school because, from the first refusal I then, as I said, a couple of weeks later, was offered a professional job, where I am immensely grateful to the journey.
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Sometimes it’s right to do the wrong things and right now is one of those times.
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In England, it’s now Sir Ben. Mister has just disappeared. It’s not even on my passport anymore. They’ve taken Mister away from me.
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As an actor there’s no autonomy, unless you’re prepared to risk the possibility of starving.
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I just loved playing a man who was unafraid of making an idiot of himself in the process of falling in love. I found that admirable.
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Shock is shock. Your body goes into shock, regardless of it being real blood or fake blood. The mind sends powerful messages to all the various glands and secretions in the body. It’s impossible trying to act it; it just happens. It’s a very important question: no acting.
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I think the cinema you like has more to do with silence, and the theater you like has more to do with language.
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I hope I’m able to achieve more on camera through stillness, through focus, through being quite careful to do less on every take, rather than more. So I’m reducing, rather than adding. Which hopefully is a good exercise. That’s what I’d like to do.
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If I were to play somebody who ran a fish and chip shop, I would not work in a fish and chip shop for three months. Staring at chips is not going to help me in my performance.
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One of the greatest things drama can do, at it’s best, is to redefine the words we use every day such as love, home, family, loyalty and envy. Tragedy need not be a downer.
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I’m so dependent on reacting to the other actors on the set, and to the director. I’m very responsive. I react. And I treasure the energy that reaction gives.
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Hamlet is an astonishing intelligence.
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I do remember, as a child, that I always imagined, when I was maybe 6 or 7, my fantasy was that everywhere I went I was being followed by an invisible film crew.
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If you are a libertine, if you’re not given to long-term faithful relationships, you tend to project your behavior onto everyone else. It’s like the person who knows they’re not trustworthy; they tend to mistrust everyone else.
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I think that all of us either lose touch with the child inside us or try and hold onto it because it so precious to us and it’s such an extraordinary part of our lives.
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Filming is so much to do with rhythm, as is music, and if it isn’t there then you know in the end nobody can save it really, they can’t.
BEN KINGSLEY