Quotes About Young Actors

“There were certain young actors I had trained with at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art who had always got the big parts and I was always the spear-carrier. Suddenly the roles were reversed and I couldn't understand why, and nor could they.”

— David Warner

“I really appreciate an actor who has paid their dues and who has learned hard knocks and has been rewarded in the end. I don't understand young actors who get off the turnip truck and land in Hollywood and get a great job. They do not realize how fortunate they are.”

— Enrico Colantoni

“Most actors nowadays are models turned actors. That's why a lot of young actors are terrible. You have to learn how to act. It is not something that you can just do.”

— Ansel Elgort

“What impresses me is the young actors with terrific talent arriving on the scene. They'd have blown us all away in the old days. Guys like Brad Pitt.”

— Robert Wagner

“I think it's even harder because I think as always, Hollywood is sort of glamour central for the world, and the entire world looks to it for not only entertainment, but the whole idea of the youth factor and youth being sold to our culture via young actors and actresses.”

— Anthony Michael Hall

“There are many ways to be a mother. I have a lot of young actors I mentor, and my nieces and my nephews need a lot of love.”

— Kim Cattrall

“I feel so sorry for younger actors who aren't able to have the opportunities that I had, starting out in repertory theatre. It's really tough on young actors now.”

— Antony Sher

“I always tell other young actors to go to school, or at least watch movies to learn as much as you can.”

— Rutina Wesley

“It is unfortunate that the poor judgment shown by a small group of young actors has tarnished the reputation of every child who has ever appeared before a camera.”

— Fred Savage

“My advice to young actors is to push yourself and to aspire to be great.”

— Adriane Lenox

“I always tell young actors to have a back-up. You don't want to find yourself at the age of 30 still struggling to make a living out of acting.”

— Rachel Ward

“Young actors often ask me how do you get an agent, how do you get started, how do you get to audition, and I don't know what to tell them because my story is so fluky.”

— Liane Balaban

“The heat around young actors burns out. Natural ability and magnetism only get you so far. The rest is hard work.”

— Ben Foster

“I go to the gym a lot, and I see these guys, these young actors or models there, really punishing themselves - I mean, just killing themselves. And then I'll see one of them on a billboard, with the artfully messy hair, looking as though it's just natural and easy to have a body like that.”

— Bronson Pinchot

“People use the Method as a shield; it shields them from being vulnerable. I hear all these young actors who are like, 'I'm Method, I'm gonna go live in the house, you know, I totally get it, I've done it, I've been there', but one thing I know is it kills spontaneity.”

— Mark Ruffalo

“They can't make any of these talented young actors Fletch. You might as well make a movie called Chevy Chase.”

— Chevy Chase

“I rarely meet other young actors.”

— Mia Wasikowska

“It's a wonderful thing working with young actors. I know a lot of people don't like working with children. I actually adore it, because you watch their imagination open up and you watch them start to learn this job that I've been doing for so long. They come with such a lack of cynicism.”

— Michelle Forbes

“The young actors coming out of the Universities are well trained.”

— Tony Randall

“I have a lot of respect for my fellow young actors. It takes a lot to push forward after being told no a million times, and that was what we all have to go through. So those who push deserve respect.”

— Colton Haynes

“Oh absolutely. I had the pleasure to get to know a lot of really talented young actors before they even really hit it big. And yet what we all had and shared in common was a love for movies.”

— Chad Lowe

“See, the thing that bothers me with young actors, young actors of color specifically, is that they see movies and television, and they figure that's all it is to it. They have no respect for the craft. They want to be, you know, movie stars or whatever. And I worry that we're losing a certain quality, you know?”

— James Avery

“You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'”

— David Mamet

“Heart of America is a movie I'm very proud of. The young actors are great and the story has impact.”

— Uwe Boll

“I tell young actors to do anything that will sustain them.”

— Vic Tayback

“'Skins' had been a brilliant breeding ground for young actors, young directors and young writers. It was a safe environment to experiment; it tried new things, and it was an amazing time and amazing to be part of it.”

— Joe Dempsie

“My advice to young actors is probably to do some theatre; definitely do that. I keep running into these actors who have never been on stage, and it's invaluable for an actor. What you will learn about yourself is huge.”

— Yul Vazquez

“Gene Siskel used to describe old-age makeup as making young actors look like turtles.”

— Roger Ebert

“I always love working with young actors, because there's always something to learn. It's always exciting to see the next generation and how they approach things and what's great about them and what's not so great about them.”

— Helen Mirren

“I have only really gotten by with playing versions of myself as most young actors do.”

— Amanda Seyfried

“Performance capture is a tool that young actors will need in the next 10, 20 years. It's on the increase, as you say. It's not going away.”

— Andy Serkis

“I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they're beautiful and famous and rich. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'd be dead.'”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I would hate to be thrust into the middle of a big film and not deliver. There's young actors and they're put into these central roles and they're commanding armies - but they can't quite pull it off. I'd much rather do it in small steps and build it from there.”

— Paddy Considine

“I had just arrived in New York from California. I was nineteen years old and excited beyond belief. I was an art student and an acting student and behaved as most young actors did - meaning that there was no such thing as a good actor, 'cause you yourself hadn't shown up yet.”

— Robert Redford

“A lot of young actors will do a scene and then run off and look at themselves. I don't believe in that at all.”

— Charlotte Rampling

“One of the things that I cannot fathom is young actors who will not audition and won't read.”

— Daniel Radcliffe

“I think it's a shame when you come across young actors and musicians who haven't had the time to learn their craft. It doesn't matter if it's acting or music; you really have to learn how to do it from the bottom up because unless you have a great work ethic ... fame is a terrible thing to have.”

— Denis Leary

“There's a lot of young actors and people who have success very quickly who kind of expect it or don't have the experience to really appreciate it.”

— David Walton

“The thing about film-making is I give it everything, that's why I work so hard. I always tell young actors to take charge. It's not that hard. Sign your own cheques, be responsible.”

— Tom Cruise

“I had this sort of idolatry for certain actors who preceded me, people who inspired me, so I'm honored to be that way for young actors.”

— Meryl Streep

“I would later discover it was a bad idea to gather more than two of these people in an enclosed area for any length of time. The stage was not only a physical place but also a state of mind, and the word audience was defined as anyone forced to suffer your company. We young actors were a string of lightbulbs left burning 24 hours a day, exhausting ourselves and others with our self-proclaimed brilliance.”

— David Sedaris

“Every day, every scene, you were like, "My god. I'm doing a scene with Brian Cox today and then I'm onto a scene with Stephen Rea." For us young actors, I think we were all very, very star-struck and impressed by the caliber of everyone who came out.”

— James Norton

“If you want to be a theater actor, where do you live now? Young actors struggle on a Broadway salary. A lot of them live in shoe boxes; some of them are literally three to a shoebox. New York has gotten prohibitively expensive.”

— Stephen Spinella

“The two things that will defeat a lot of young actors are fear of failure and lack of preparation. With acting, I didn't have a problem with either one - but somehow I didn't equate either one of them to the academic world.”

— Tom Selleck

“Being the actors of the craft, the trade, one of the big things you do and you learn is about repeating. There is something to the repeats. I think that is part of what is healthy to young actors. Get out and learn something just through doing that, repeating.”

— Al Pacino

“That's what I tell young actors. "You don't have to compromise. Go do some theater and wait for an appropriate role."”

— Denzel Washington

“I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well, but is intensely rewarding. Particularly the chance to help draw out the best in young actors.”

— Angelina Jolie

“On many young actors that don't give their parents proper credit: I'm still waiting for some actor to win, say, an Oscar ... and deliver the following acceptance speech: I would like to thank my parents, first of all, for letting me live.”

— Bill Cosby

“A lot of young actors have the idea that, "I've got to do this right. There's a right way to do this." But there's no right or wrong. There's only good and bad. And "bad" usually happens when you're trying too hard to do it right. There's a very broad spectrum of things that can inhibit you. The most important thing for actors - and not just actors, but everybody - is to feel loose enough to create what you want to create, and be free to try anything. To have choices.”

— Robert De Niro

“I have this fantasy that the second movie would begin with a brief statement by all of the young actors who had played the children in the first movie, explaining how it had ruined their lives, so we would catch up with Emily Browning drinking heavily in the back of a burlesque bar, and maybe Liam Aiken would be living underneath a bridge, and then instead of the twins who played Sunny, we would just try to find the oldest woman in the world, and get an interview with her sitting in a trailer park.”

— Daniel Handler