The trick is to try and justify every word on the page and make sure my character is the man who would say that.
BEN KINGSLEYThe trick is to try and justify every word on the page and make sure my character is the man who would say that.
BEN KINGSLEYThere is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.
BEN KINGSLEYI think that various styles and methods and approaches are an invention of people who don’t understand the process of acting and who try very hard to label things.
BEN KINGSLEYI 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.
BEN KINGSLEYMillions of children are disempowered and we need to empower them.
BEN KINGSLEYI told myself that I would not go back to the camps as an actor ever again, that I was very frightened of wearing a yellow star. It was fear, it was cowardice, I was.
BEN KINGSLEYBut comedy I’d love to do as much as humanly possible.
BEN KINGSLEYI always try to find something I admire about every character I play.
BEN KINGSLEYIn order to inhabit a villain, you mustn’t care what the audience think of you. That’s not why you are there. You mustn’t care for a second whether the audience likes you or dislikes you. Your villain has to be way beyond that.
BEN KINGSLEYIf 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.
BEN KINGSLEYOne 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.
BEN KINGSLEYYou don’t go to a town to present the play and have applause at the end of it, but that’s benign conquest. It’s a glorious way of exploring other landscapes and other cultures in a very life-affirming way.
BEN KINGSLEYShock 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.
BEN KINGSLEYI 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.
BEN KINGSLEYIf 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.
BEN KINGSLEYYou cannot learn a lesson of profound forgiveness unless you understand what it is to be wounded and forgive that which has wounded you.
BEN KINGSLEY