I’m not an actor who consciously accesses bits of my life, in order to play parts. Obviously, you don’t need to have been a father to play one, otherwise everyone who’s been a father would be able to act.
BILL NIGHYIn life, if you have an enthusiasm for what they call ‘good manners,’ sometimes people don’t quite believe you. I’ve had that once or twice before, where they assume you can’t be for real.
More Bill Nighy Quotes
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I’m a jacket man. And if I’m without one, I am kind of seriously disabled. I don’t know how to operate in shirt sleeves.
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Actors always talk about taking their work home and I always think: ‘What are you on? You just turn it off. You are at work and then you go home.’
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You get older and you see yourself and say, ‘God, he’s old, who’s that?’
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If you ever see me in a social setting wearing any sort of sportswear, then you know I’m in crisis.
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I’m just aware of what I’m thinking and feeling but I do obviously have to get that to the back of the auditorium.
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I have never owned a computer. I am one of those weirdos. I’ve never needed a computer. I’m lucky that I have a job where I’m not required to use one.
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I quoted David Hare one of his lines the other day to illuminate whatever point we were trying to make in the conversation, and I said ‘What play was that?’ and he said ‘It was your line, you said it about a hundred and fifty times in The Vertical Hour.’
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You tell yourself that you’re not auditioning but of course you work like crazy, and you prepare like mad. And you think, “Well, I won’t get that job. But maybe they’ll have another job sometime, and they’ll remember that I was good.”
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If you ask any actor “What single thing would make you really, really happy?” Among the top five things they’d say is not having to audition anymore.
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All actors who have been around for a long time, which I have, and have been skint for long periods, which I have, find it difficult to turn down jobs. If I turn anything down my stomach turns over. I feel sick. It feels like gambling.
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Often in America people would assume that [as an English actor] you’ve had some sort of deep, classical training, or that you’re a Shakespeare enthusiast. I have zero interest in me performing Shakespeare.
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It’s more than usually possible that I won’t do a play again. But Skylight is one of the great plays in the English language.
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You can ruin your life wanting to be an actor.
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To be serious, the things you really want to relive are things like bedtime with your daughter when she becomes incredibly entertaining ’cause she doesn’t want to go to sleep.
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I learned far too late in life that a long list of letters after someone’s name is no guarantee of compassion, kindness, humour, all the far more relevant stuff.
BILL NIGHY