Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and acclaimed acting teacher. She founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and Los Angeles with longtime protégée, actress Joanne Linville, who continues to teach Adler's technique. Her grandson Tom Oppenheim now runs the school in New York City, which has produced alumni such as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Elaine Stritch, Kate Mulgrew, Kipp Hamilton, and Jenny Lumet...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionStage Actress
Date of Birth10 February 1901
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
The most important thing you can teach actors is to understand plays.
The best author is a dead author, because he's out of your way and you own the play. Take what he has given you and use it for what you need.
If you can't take both sides, it means you can only play yourself.
The ideas of the great playwrights are almost always larger than the experiences of even the best actors.
Life in the theatre isn't necessarily when you get money from performing. It isn't when you sign a contract. It isn't even when you are in a play. It's when you understand it. If you understand it, you'll know why you want to act.
The play is not in the words, it’s in you!
The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.
The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.
A junkie is someone who uses their body to tell society that something is wrong.
You cannot afford to confine your studies to the classroom. The universe and all of history is your classroom.
You have to do something. If you do something, you become somebody. Even a daffodil does something, has a profession. It gives off scent, professionally.
It's not important to know who you are. It's important to know what you do, and then to do it like hercules!
You have to get beyond your own precious inner experiences. The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings. The ideas of the great playwrights are almost always larger than the experiences of even the best actors.
No actor is a success unless he feels inside himself, as long as he lives, that he is good.