Actors are responsible to the people we play.
Interpretation
Actors have a duty to authentically portray the characters and stories they bring to life on screen.
In this quote, Philip Seymour Hoffman emphasizes that actors hold a significant responsibility to the audience and the characters they embody. They must approach their roles with sincerity and integrity, as their performances can influence perceptions and understanding of the narratives they tell, ultimately connecting with the audience on a deeper level.
In practice
When discussing the ethical implications of storytelling in film classes.
I think I would have drank myself to death, literally, if I didn't just stop, once and for all when I did. I am not ever going to preach to anyone about drugs or drinking. But, for me, when they were around, I had no self control.
Study, find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting to act, not to be famous or for the money. Do plays. It's not worth it if you are just in it for the money. You have to love it.
Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.
I've had to make the transition from sweeping in for 15 minutes, doing my stuff and clearing out, to carrying a movie for the duration - in a dress.
I had insecurities and fears like everybody does, and I got over it. But I was interested in the parts of me that struggled with those things.
I didn't have any idea that I would be able to have a career in film.
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
In some century to come, when the school children will whistle popular tunes in quarter-tones--when the diatonic scale will be as obsolete as the pentatonic is now--perhaps then these borderland experiences may be both easily expressed and readily recognized. But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense
A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.
It is enough for a poet to be the guilty conscience of his age.
My dear sister! Iβm amazed to discover that you can compose so delightfully. In a word, your Lied is beautiful. You must compose more often.
People love talking about writers as storytellers, but I hate being called that: it suggests I got it from my grandmother or something, when my writing really comes out of silence. If a storyteller came up to me, I'd run away.
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