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Opening A Play Is Just Tough. The Idea That Actors Are Weirdly Protected From It Is A Myth. If You Imagine Yourself Having To Spend Two And A Bit Hours Cooking Bolognaise, Remembering A Whole Major Work By David Hare And Speaking It At The Correct Moment Between Chopping Carrots And Stirring The Onions In Front Of An Audience - The Normal Human Response Is 'please, Can I Go To The Airport?'

-Bill Nighy

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Opening A Play Is

Bill Nighy

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Opening A Play Is Just Tough. The Idea That Actors Are Weirdly Protected From It Is A Myth. If You Imagine Yourself Having To Spend Two And A Bit Hours Cooking Bolognaise, Remembering A Whole Major Work By David Hare And Speaking It At The Correct Moment Between Chopping Carrots And Stirring The Onions In Front Of An Audience - The Normal Human Response Is 'please, Can I Go To The Airport?'

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With Stage, You Feel Completely Like You're Just In A Bubble. I Love Not Being Able To See Anything. I Love Coming Out And I Can't See Anything Because The Lights Are So Bright And It's Pitch Black. That's Ideal For Me, That's When I Have The Best Time.

My Dad Had A Personal Style Which Was Very Attractive. It Was Quite Reserved And Quite Elegant, And It Was Infectious.

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In The Street, People Talk To You About All Kinds Of Things, But By Far, The Most Number Of People Talk To Me About Love, Actually.

Opening A Play Is Just Tough. The Idea That Actors Are Weirdly Protected From It Is A Myth. If You Imagine Yourself Having To Spend Two And A Bit Hours Cooking Bolognaise, Remembering A Whole Major Work By David Hare And Speaking It At The Correct Moment Between Chopping Carrots And Stirring The Onions In Front Of An Audience - The Normal Human Response Is 'please, Can I Go To The Airport?'

There Are Only Three Men In The World Who Are Licensed To Wear Shorts: Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp And Tom Cruise.

I Don't Think There's An Improvised Word In The Movie. I Hope Not Because I Admire Writing. Improvising Is Kind Of Gambling. It's Just That You're Standing Up.

I Have No Memory, Any At All, Of Actually Performing The Play, No Recall In Terms Of The Lines. I Can't Tell You Any Line From Any Play I've Ever Done.

I Don't Spend A Lot Of Time With Anybody.

The Job Is The Same - To Attempt To Make It Sound Like You've Never Said It Before And As If It's Just Occurred To You. And That's The Same Whether You're On Camera Or Whether You're On Stage In A Room Full Of People.

I Quoted David Hare One Of His Lines The Other Day To Illuminate Whatever Point We Were Trying To Make In The Conversation, And I Said 'what Play Was That?' And He Said 'it Was Your Line, You Said It About A Hundred And Fifty Times In The Vertical Hour.'

To Be Serious, The Things You Really Want To Relive Are Things Like Bedtime With Your Daughter When She Becomes Incredibly Entertaining 'cause She Doesn't Want To Go To Sleep. They're At Their Most Enchanting 'cause They Just Want To Put It Off, So They Do A Cabaret For You. You Sit There Thinking, "please Don't Let This End."

I Guess Part Of The Hit-man Appeal Is The Solitude. Everybody Is Lured To The Idea Of The Solitary Life.

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A Way Of Describing Performances That I Admire Is That There Is An Absence Of Careerism. It's A Clumsy Way Of Describing It But It Sort Of Does It For Me.

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One Is That You Legislate According To Natural Selection, The Other Is That You Don't. You Have Compassion, You Try And Help People. It's A Fundamental Clash Between Two People Who Happen To Love Each Other, Which Complicates Everything.

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