Michael Shurtleff Quotes About Acting

• Creating relationship is the heart of acting. It is basic. It is essential.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Heart, Creating, Acting

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.23, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

• Conflict is what creates drama. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Drama, Interesting, Acting

• Competition is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first-rate actors. The good actor is the one who competes, willingly, who enjoys competing. An actor must compete, or die...Peacefulness and the avoidance of trouble won't help in his acting. It is just the opposite he must seek.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Opposites, Competition, Healthy

• Consistency is the death of good acting.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Consistency, Acting, Good Acting

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.103, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

• Listening is not merely hearing, it is receiving the message that is being sent to you. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is letting it land before you react. Listening is letting your reaction make a difference. Listening is active.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Listening, Acting, Hearing

  "Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part".

• An expression of feeling isn't worth anything unless it interferes with what the other actor in the scene wants.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Expression, Feelings, Acting

• The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Giving Up, Character, Acting

• Acting in theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Choices, Theatre, Acting

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.134, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

• Whatever you decide is your motivation in the scene, the opposite of that is also true and should be in it.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Motivation, Opposites, Acting

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.55, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

• We don't live for realities, but for the fantasies, the dreams of what might be. If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going...When you are acting, don't settle for anything less than the biggest dream for your character's future.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Dream, Character, Reality

• An actor is looking for conflict. Conflict is what creates drama. We are taught to avoid trouble [so] actors don't realize they must go looking for it. Plays are written about...the extraordinary, the unusual, the climaxes. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Drama, Play, Interesting

• Humor [in a scene] is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped off the 59th Street Bridge.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Attitude, Long Ago, Bridges

• Competition [in a scene] is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first-rate actors.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Competition, Healthy, Acting

• To go into acting is like asking for admission to an insane asylum. Anyone may apply, but only the certifiably insane are admitted.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Funny, Humorous, Insane

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.3, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

• Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes before.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Acting, Up To You, Actors

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.48, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

• Take nothing for granted. Make an emotional discovery as often as you can find one in every scene. Ask yourself: What is new?

  Michael Shurtleff

  Emotional, Discovery, Acting

• There's only one reason why a character drinks: to seek confrontation. To fight for what they want in ways normally denied them.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Character, Fighting, Acting

• An actor must make his needs (goals, wants, objectives) so strong that he is willing to interfere with the other actor in order to get what he needs. Interfering means getting in their way so that what you want is stronger than what they want.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Strong, Mean, Order

• Often actors ask me if I think they should go on trying to be an actor.
  I have the same answer for everyone who asks: If you have a choice and could reasonably be happy doing something else, by all means go at once and do something else.
  Acting or writing or directing in the theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those who are so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Writing, Mean, Thinking

• If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going.

  Michael Shurtleff

  Dream, Reality, Acting

  Michael Shurtleff (2009). “Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part”, p.33, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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