Top 17 Wes Bentley Quotes

I live to experience different things. Part of what I love about acting is to live the lives of others.

Sometimes when you’re doing fantasy, that’s the most important thing, is to be a blank space, because the last thing you want to do ever as an actor is judge yourself or the character or the movie that you’re in. You want to just play the moment as best you can. Juilliard helped me do that.

I wanted fame, but I thought it would be incremental, and I became afraid of the overnight-sensation thing.

A lot of actors like to get themselves worked up, and I think from what I saw from Mr. Redford, he goes the other way. He relaxes into it.

After ‘Four Feathers,’ I quit then because I just lost faith. I didn’t like how the business was.

Both my parents are Methodist preachers, I grew up in a church.

But as a kid, I loved ‘Monty Python.’ My Dad was a devout watcher. We used to watch it when we ate dinner!

You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors.

I still consider myself a very spiritual person but the structure of the church isn’t really for me.

I always think about stuff I learned, in any scene. Juilliard taught me a lot.

A reflection of an exact image is the closest thing to you-so that you can see it-but it’s far enough away so that you really understand it. There is real life in this movie, but it hovers just an inch above reality.

I went in and read for ‘Maleficent,’ and it was hard to get a concept of what the imagery would be like. So you have a hard time seeing how you’ll fit in to the movie through the visuals.

My imagination was really hyperactive as a child and animated. I had those elements, but as you live and go through the hardships, it fades. ‘Pete’s Dragon’ reawakened that. It rekindled the feeling of the invisible dragon.

I am aware of my film habits because I have for so long played guys who are darker or dealing with very complex issues, and they’re dealing with their darker sides.

The first year at Juilliard is, I think, the best. And partly why I left – I only went one year. Partly why I felt okay leaving is that the most important elements, I believe, happen in the first year. What they do is they tear down all your conceptions of acting, and they take away all your tricks that you’ve learned.

As an actor, you always want to reach back to being a child and having the spontaneity and the imagination of a child.

Everywhere you turn in New Zealand, there’s something exciting to do. It’s the gem of the world. It’s so far away from the madness, and so you get that element. It was just stunning.