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Method actors give you a photograph. Real actors give you an oil painting.

— Charles Laughton Jack Gleason in Playboy (1962)

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Attributed by Jack Gleason in Playboy (1962). Reported in Tony Crawley (ed.) Chambers Film Quotes (1991) p. 178
Work: Jack Gleason in Playboy, 1962
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

More by Charles Laughton

They can't censor a gleam in the eye.

[I have a face that would] stop a sundial and frighten small children into fits.

Hollywood is a goofy place. But I like it. It's the perfect mummers' home. If one weren't a little mad one wouldn't be there.

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More quotes by Charles Laughton

They can't censor the gleam in my eye.

On the revised script of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)

It's got so that every time I walk into a restaurant, I get not only soup but an impersonation of Captain Bligh.

On the influence of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

I have a face like the behind of an elephant.

All his tough talk is a blind, you know. He's a literate, gracious, kind man, with wonderful manners, and he speaks beautifully — when he wants to.

I knew in a flash Gary had something I should never have. It is something pure and he doesn't know it's there. In truth, that boy hasn't the least idea how well he acts.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Laughton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.