I want to play a man in uniform. I've got tremendous respect for that life that they lead. We know so little about it. It's never discussed or talked about, when they come back from battle. I want to examine the choices that have to be made in those terrible times. [...] I'll get to wear a uniform.

Ben Kingsley

Categorized in : Men Play Choices

I think the cinema you like has more to do with silence, and the theater you like has more to do with language.

Ben Kingsley

cinema silence thinking

One of the greatest things drama can do, at it's best, is to redefine the words we use every day such as love, home, family, loyalty and envy. Tragedy need not be a downer.

Ben Kingsley

loyalty home drama

I think the actor has a tribal role as the archetypal story teller. I think there was a time when the storyteller, the priest, the healer, were all one person in one body. That person used to weave stories at night around a small fire to keep the tribe from being terrified that sun had gone down.

Ben Kingsley

healing night thinking

Equal partners aren't always what we envision as being manifestly equal. Equality can come in many different shapes and sizes and combinations.

Ben Kingsley

size shapes different

Family is family over the internet, over Skype, over the telephone. Love is love. You don't have to actually go through some ritual to prove that you love somebody.

Ben Kingsley

skype love-you love-is

You cannot learn a lesson of profound forgiveness unless you understand what it is to be wounded and forgive that which has wounded you.

Ben Kingsley

forgiving lessons profound

Sometimes it's right to do the wrong things and right now is one of those times.

Ben Kingsley

truth sometimes reality

You can throw away the privilege of acting, but that would be such a shame. The tribe has elected you to tell its story. You are the shaman/healer, that's what the storyteller is, and I think it's important for actors to appreciate that. Too often actors think it's all about them, when in reality it's all about the audience being able to recognize themselves in you. The more you pull away from the public, the less power you have on screen.

Ben Kingsley

appreciate reality thinking

I love storytelling. If you strip all the bits away, what you'll find at the center is a storyteller. As I warm to my career and love it more, I have a sense that storytelling is healing, in many ways. You can reach an audience and heal, and by heal, I mean entertain and provoke. It's a wonderful life.

Ben Kingsley

careers healing mean

They're a very strange lot actors, very strange people.

Ben Kingsley

actors acting people

I think that all of us either lose touch with the child inside us or try and hold onto it because it so precious to us and it's such an extraordinary part of our lives.

Ben Kingsley

trying children thinking

If your best friend has stolen your girlfriend, it does become life and death.

Ben Kingsley

life-and-death girlfriend friendship

I honestly have no strategy whatsoever. I'm waiting for that script to pop through the letterbox and completely surprise me.

Ben Kingsley

scripts honest waiting

Hopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn't going to work.

Ben Kingsley

scripts choices firsts

Fifteen years before I became a screen actor, I was in the theatre. A lot of my work was comedy, which I loved doing. It's harder.

Ben Kingsley

theatre actors years

I do remember, as a child, that I always imagined, when I was maybe 6 or 7, my fantasy was that everywhere I went I was being followed by an invisible film crew.

Ben Kingsley

fantasy remember children

In cinema, the leading player is the director.

Ben Kingsley

cinema player directors

Filming is so much to do with rhythm, as is music, and if it isn't there then you know in the end nobody can save it really, they can't.

Ben Kingsley

rhythm ends knows

If I were to play somebody who ran a fish and chip shop, I would not work in a fish and chip shop for three months. Staring at chips is not going to help me in my performance.

Ben Kingsley

fish-tanks three play

I'm convinced that had I not changed my name, I don't think I would have had quite the same career curve that I eventually had.

Ben Kingsley

curves names thinking