(on acting school) For a few years at school I tried to play the roles they wanted me to play, but it became less and less interesting to ponce around the place. Even now, when I sometimes think of doing a play, I think of rehearsal rooms and people hugging and everyone talking over cups of coffee because they are nervous. It`s both very touching and it makes me a little nauseous and claustrophobic. Too much talk. I don`t rehearse at all in film if I can help it. In talking a character through, you define it. And if you define it, you kill it dead.
- Daniel Day-LewisBut being a film actor is very different from, say, a theater actor. You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration. So I am very involved with the character, but I have to leave it as soon as it`s finished. And also, you always have to be at the right level when it`s time to shoot, which is not always the best time for the actor. Sometimes, if you`re shooting a complicated scene, you have to stay in a position and wait for the technician to do his job, and then you have to be where you`re supposed to be, right on the spot. You don`t rehearse all that much on films. If I think of the amount of time I spend on set compared with the time spent shooting, it`s ridiculously short.
- Catherine DeneuveDoing the second one was interesting, because I`d never had to go back to play a character again. It was three years between the two episodes. It was a bit easier because I was more used to the technical demands. In other films you rehearse, crack the scene and shoot it. In Star Wars, that`s not the case. It`s a very different process with an enormous amount of blue-screen work. It`s very difficult - you play scenes with people who aren`t there. (on `Attack of the Clones`)
- Ewan McGregorIn theatre, I have been able to take parts I didn`t think I could do - you have time to rehearse and learn. In movies, they want you to do what they know you can do - there isn`t the time.
- Ian McKellenI never understand with movie companies, why they don`t think of where to spend money. A lot of the time they throw money at things that don`t work. They just keep throwing money at it. `Well this movie, if it didn`t work with that much money, this will make it work!` But they don`t know that if they paid actors for a couple of weeks to rehearse, they would save hundreds of thousands of dollars on the set.
- Lance HenriksenIt was for one of his last Christmas specials. I remember I went to his hotel room to rehearse with him, and he was zoned out on medication or something, and I`m thinking, How is this going to happen?
- Macaulay CulkinI think theatre is by far the most rewarding experience for an actor. You get 4 weeks to rehearse your character and then at 7:30 pm you start acting and nobody stops you, acting with your entire soul.
- Christopher EcclestonI once did a role which I couldn`t rehearse in my street clothes, I had to have the character`s costume on before I could rehearse it. I just couldn`t think as the character unless I looked like him, or I knew that I looked like him.
- Tom WilkinsonHe just lets you go, really. When we were kind of supposed to rehearse, I don`t remember rehearsing at all. We just sort of gossiped and chatted.
- Albert FinneyWhen we get together and rehearse, which is always living with each other, we always talk about what would make it better, what would mean more, what would say more. So we`re always improving and growing.
- Alice CooperIn the film world you don`t often get much rehearsal time. Only on big-budget films do you have the opportunity to rehearse for a week or two.
- Debbie AllenWe had all week to rehearse. An audience would come in at the end of the week and we`d our little show. Most of the ad- libbing happened during the week on the show.
- Dick Van Dyke(On recording "Secret Love" for the movie Calamity Jane (1953)): When I first heard "Secret Love" I almost fainted, it was so beautiful. When we finally got around to doing the pre-recording, Ray Heindorf, the musical director at Warner`s, said he`d get the musicians in about 12:30 so they could rehearse. That morning I did my vocal warm-up, then jumped on my bike and rode over to Warner`s - we lived in Toluca Lake at the time, which was just minutes from the studio. When I got there I sang the song with the orchestra for the first time. When I`d finished, Ray called me into the sound booth, grinning from ear to ear, and said, "That`s it. You`re never going to do it better." That was the first and only take we did.
- Doris DayMy background with Cummings was rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, but Tuesday liked to walk in and do the scene. I must say that she was really wonderful. Aggravating, but wonderful.
- Dwayne Hickman(on John Ford) He was so egomaniacal. He would never rehearse, didn`t want to talk about a part. If an actor started to ask questions he`d either take those pages and tear them out of the script or insult him in an awful way. He loved getting his shot on the first take, which for him meant it was fresh. He would print the first take -- even if it wasn`t any good.
- Henry FondaI would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they`re such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words.
- Tom ArayaThose differences are what color the performance, but in the movies you don`t get a chance to rehearse.
- Wayne RogersHe`s a dream. He`s the greatest. We shoot about 14 pages a day, which is maybe seven different scenes, which is a lot for a TV show. And I don`t think we ever work over 12 hours. But that`s because we don`t really rehearse. We don`t. We get some notes and maybe Denis changes this bit of writing or that. He`s so present. He has a special talent in that he`s so truthful. Working with him, you just fly with the material. He`s very centred and very generous.
- Andrea RothI`ll read a script maybe twice, but I`ll think about the role more than I`ll rehearse lines.
- Patricia ClarksonI don`t rehearse films as much as opera or theatre. When I began directing films I thought a long rehearsal was a good idea. Experience showed me that the best performance was often left in a rehearsal room.
- Bruce BeresfordWell you know, Woody doesn`t rehearse, as opposed to my own method of directing where I really work with actors around a round table for weeks, examining the values of the material, so his technique is very different.
- Mark RydellWe didn`t have a garage to rehearse in. We had to aggravate the folks in the house. But I got a chance to play in a beer joint, and that`s how it started.
- Charlie DanielsI like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we`re really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.
- Jim JarmuschThe idea was to write the songs as they came to us, rehearse them, play them on the road, then, when there were 12, take them into the studio.
- Huey LewisActually, I`ve done it the other way so many times where you rehearse the band and you do the whole thing with lights, the show and the crew - everything. Then you see what happens and you`re already committed to dates. I`m just sort of putting out feelers this way.
- Paul WesterbergThe contract system at Hollywood studios like MGM was a very efficient system in that because we were at the studio all the time we could rehearse a lot. But it also really repressed people. There were no union regulations yet, and we were all indentured servants - you can call us slaves if you want - like ballplayers before free agency. We had seven-year contracts, but every six months the studio could decide to fire you if your picture wasn`t a hit. And if you turned down a role, they cut off your salary and simply added the time to your contract.
- Gene KellyWith Geoffrey, it was the first time we did music together, we understood that everything could be well, and without any problem. And we didn`t need to rehearse too much.
- Victoria de los ÁngelesThat`s what it is that you rehearse - the making of music, not the playing of notes as abstractions.
- Andrea GonzaloI actually sent them the piece, which they considered last year but didn`t have enough time (to rehearse),
- Antonio Moses