When actors have the opportunity to play a larger-than-life icon - my wife did it with Tina Turner, and Jamie Foxx did it with Ray Charles - you have to make a decision how you go in. What do you start with? Where do you begin? Courtney B. Vance More Quotes by Courtney B. Vance More Quotes From Courtney B. Vance You learn your lines as well as you can and you go in there and go with whatever is thrown at you. Sometimes you don't know whether or not they're going to break the scene up, so you don't have to do it all at one time. Courtney B. Vance lines scene sometimes Ive done a lot of movies, but my favorite was Blind Faith. Courtney B. Vance my-favorite blind done When I got out of Yale Drama School, I was completely broke. Courtney B. Vance yale drama school Sometimes there are four or five cameras in front of your face moving all over the place, and you have to try to see the person in between the cameras, and a sane person would go, "I can't do this." Courtney B. Vance cameras trying moving You need great actors in this one, because there are moments where there's no way to get around it, you just need to come up with it. They have no time; they can't help you with coaches: "We've got to have it now!" Whether it's tears, whether it's a five-page scene. You can't put it off tomorrow because we're already behind; you've got to have it. I'm just amazed at the casting and how wonderful everybody was. Courtney B. Vance actors tears needs I didn't know anything about acting at all. I was completely green. I got into it to meet people, to try and figure out what I wanted to do. Courtney B. Vance meet know green people I've done a lot of theater, and I know that it's a different audience each time who doesn't know the story, and we have to tell it. Courtney B. Vance story know done time The life of an editor is not a glamorous one. You're a fixer; you make things better. Courtney B. Vance better things you life I've done a lot of Shakespeare as a young man; I was involved with Shakespeare and Company. Courtney B. Vance young-man man company done I think if you just hang in there long enough and keep doing what you know is your sweet spot, I think the world eventually catches up to you. Courtney B. Vance you sweet long world I love Tom Cruise. I've been a Tom Cruise fan for a long time. Courtney B. Vance long-time time love long I would love to take a crack at 'Long Day's Journey Into Night.' Courtney B. Vance day journey love night Eventually, you know the rhythm of your character, of the set of the piece. It takes less energy for you to hit that point, and then everything resonates. But initially, it takes a tremendous amount of energy. You just hope it's gonna be okay and you don't forget your lines and those cameras. Courtney B. Vance you hope forget character There's a lot going on in the Bassett-Vance household, a lot of balls in the air. Courtney B. Vance going lot balls air We were raised in the black community not to trust the police, and I believe, in the white community, they were raised to actually be a policeman. Courtney B. Vance trust black community believe We have to give people dreams; we have to give people hope. In terms of government, in terms of society, that's our goal. You can't have a group of people that don't dream, that see themselves as dead or in jail. Courtney B. Vance dreams you hope people It goes back in the black community that the police are not your friends. That's an old, old, deep understanding that we have, that it's going to take a lot to undo that in our minds. Courtney B. Vance friends police black community Around 1969, my family had just bought a house in a lower-middle-class white neighborhood two blocks away from school. Then, all of a sudden, all the white people left the neighborhood and the school. Courtney B. Vance family white people school Our parents didn't let us watch a lot of television growing up. We had Disney on Sunday nights, and at 8:30, they were like, 'Turn it off! Go to bed!' Courtney B. Vance parents growing-up sunday television Wes Anderson is a perfectionist, so you have to just be ready to try it this way, try it this way, try it that way, and then try it this way. And then, once you think you've got it all and it's done, then you're going to be called back in two or three months so you can try it that way and try it this way. You've got to give him all of it. Courtney B. Vance back think you way
