You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognizes something about themselves or they don't -- You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking that was nice...now where's the cab?'
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the authenticity of acting and the connection between the performer and the audience's personal reflections.
In this quote, Alan Rickman discusses the essence of truthfulness in performance, suggesting that a genuine portrayal in acting allows the audience to connect deeply with their own experiences. The hope is that the audience leaves with a sense of introspection rather than merely enjoying a surface-level entertainment experience without further thought.
In practice
In a theater class, to inspire students about the importance of being genuine in their performances.
Film has to be reflecting the world that we live in, and that's all you want to be a part of. Actors inhabit the same planet as everyone else. It's a weird thing that happens when you're an actor because people hold you up because you somehow embody in parts groups of people or people's hopes or something.
I'm a lot less serious than people think, it's probably because the way my face is put together.
Those of you who are not aware of my brilliant career as a stand up comic, I'm not aware of it either so we might well wonder what we're doing here.
Acting is mostly about listening. If you just focus in on what the other person is saying, acting takes care of itself to quite a large extent.
When I am asked about influences, I always say I bow down to Fred Astaire, because when you look at him dancing you never look at his extremities, do you? You look at his centre. What you never see is the hours of work that went into the routines, you just see the breathtaking spirit and freedom.
I'm always aware of the camera and it feels like that's the audience.
To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
Small acts of decency ripple in ways we could never imagine.
The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism.
All problems are illusions of the mind.
Out of our first century of national life we evolved the ethical principle that it was not right or just that an honest and industrious man should live and die in misery. He was entitled to some degree of sympathy and security. Our conscience declared against the honest workman's becoming a pauper, but our eyes told us that he very often did.
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