I always say it takes three weeks to know a character and three months to own it. And I think that's probably true of every theater artist. If you really want to see a performance of the show, wait three months.
Interpretation
Understanding and embodying a character in acting requires time and dedication.
This quote emphasizes the importance of time in truly understanding and internalizing a character for a performance. Brian Stokes Mitchell suggests that while initial impressions can be formed in about three weeks, it takes much longer—around three months—to deeply connect with and authentically portray a character, highlighting the dedication and effort required in the art of acting.
In practice
In a workshop on acting techniques, this quote can be shared to encourage actors to commit to their roles.
That's the magic of art and the magic of theatre: it has the power to transform an audience, an individual, or en masse, to transform them and give them an epiphanal experience that changes their life, opens their hearts and their minds and the way they think.
There are some projects where you have to just start doing it, and, after a while, the show starts telling you what it wants to be. You put your spirit in and, after a while, something bigger takes over, and it turns out to be much more fun and creative than what it was at the beginning.
One of the interesting things an artist does is they keep rediscovering things, whether it's a jazz piece or a role you've done for 3,000 performances or a song you're singing for the 3,000th time. My job is to find that spark that keeps it fresh and alive.
The older I get, I realize, 'Man, I'm a very rare bird,' and that's not because of necessarily my talent or ability; it so much depends on luck and just the grace of the universe.
I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.
If you get hold of a head of hair on somebody you've never seen before, cut beautiful shapes, cut beautiful architectural angles and she walks out looking so different - I think that's masterful.
Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy - the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand - and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines. So long as the root lives, typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.
But it isn't easy,' said Pooh. 'Because Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.
I'm a conductor of revivals. The only minister in the whole package. Little Richard, the evangelist.
I'll be writing songs till I die. There's just no question.
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