Adrian Lester Quotes

Adrian Lester is a British actor and director. He has appeared in television series such as "Hustle" and "Trauma," as well as films like "Primary Colors" and "The Day After Tomorrow." Lester's performances and his versatility as an actor have made him a recognized figure in the world of acting, particularly in British productions.

As an actor, having to portray a real-life person of extreme talent is fine as long as you're not playing the part on stage and forced to demonstrate that talent to a live audience. If you're in a play portraying an incredible dancer? All well and good, just... don't dance.

You have to promote yourself. And the only way you do that is by saying no to the things you would have said yes to beforehand, and wait for the next thing to come. The only power you have as an actor is to say no.

Never lie to yourself.... -Adrian Lester

Never lie to yourself.

If your endgame as an actor is that you want as many people as possible to look at you then that's fine, go do your thing. But we have a greater role - every musician, dancer, singer and actor - and that is to hold a mirror up to society.

The appeal of 'Hustle' has always been that the con artists are actually very moral - we've simply made the villains the heroes, and the good guys always come out on top.

Love is love, even in its platonic, unromantic sense. Once you have that connection between two people, the only thing that gets in the way is circumstance, history, what each person has gone through.

There is always more work to do.... -Adrian Lester

There is always more work to do.

What we think about certain characters and plays c... -Adrian Lester

What we think about certain characters and plays changes depending on our current awareness.

If you stop to think how nice everything is even for a moment, you're already going backwards again. You have to keep walking. I'm constantly worrying about what I'm going to do next.

If talent exists, and it's very young, it needs to be nurtured and given a pathway to walk along before you ask it to support itself. That's how any great society should work.

For me, learning stuff has always been a voyage of discovery and if it isn't, then I didn't see the point of it.

The arts safeguard our culture.... -Adrian Lester

The arts safeguard our culture.

I think the best characters are people you're not sure of, that you keep on going: 'God, I hate that person,' but you can see why they do what they do. Overall, it's much more interesting to play someone who's not nice.

At heart, I'm analogue. I'm one of those people who has to buy something if they walk past a stationery shop.

Being a dad made me really see what love was.... -Adrian Lester

Being a dad made me really see what love was.

It's always good to go back and remind ourselves just how earth shattering it is just to have a baby, or to lose a loved one. And every now and again, we need scripts that remind us just how powerful those moments are.

I love doing theatre and musicals, but when we start shooting 'Hustle' we film two episodes concurrently, with the scenes out of sequence. Knowing where you are in the intricate plots at any one moment is quite - how shall I put this? - challenging.

With a theatre audience, the suspension of disbelief is much, much greater than on television. With television, people feel much more like they're a fly on the wall.

Sometimes, as an actor, you'll get to do work that... -Adrian Lester

Sometimes, as an actor, you'll get to do work that's purely entertainment, and that's great.

What marks me getting home is when I've completely... -Adrian Lester

What marks me getting home is when I've completely unpacked.

Producers are too ready to second-guess an audienc... -Adrian Lester

Producers are too ready to second-guess an audience, and they always play it very safe.

I'm not a good cook.... -Adrian Lester

I'm not a good cook.

I'm great at children's parties! Card tricks, cons... -Adrian Lester

I'm great at children's parties! Card tricks, cons, the lingo, the whole misdirection thing.

When someone of colour does something out of the ordinary in this business, we hear everyone trumpeting: 'Isn't it wonderful?' but it happens so often now that it's just not newsworthy.

Never mind that British history is liberally dotted with ethnic minorities; to most scriptwriters they simply don't exist.

I like to do a bit of snorkelling, diving and swim... -Adrian Lester

I like to do a bit of snorkelling, diving and swimming or just hanging out on a beach.

A lot of writers will take a character at the beginning of a story. And that character will stay the same all the way through, but what happens to them becomes the interesting factor.

When you take on a character you try and lose yourself into it because you want to be less self-conscious.

I know some actors don't want to see faces out there; they prefer to perform to a black wall. But I like knowing I'm talking to people.

I was in a show called 'Undercover,' which did one season for the BBC. It was really well written and it was brilliant to be on screen with Sophie Okonedo - I've always wanted a second season of that.

Popular Topic