Kenneth Branagh Quotes & Sayings

I have a pathetic urge at some stage in my life to be able to pull out my wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say, 'Kenneth Branagh, artistic director.' — Kenneth Branagh

Don't stand up when you can sit down and don't sit down when you can lie down. — Kenneth Branagh

Sir Derek Jacobi has been an inspiration to so many actors and audiences throughout his brilliant career. To see him in Shakespeare is an event in itself. — Kenneth Branagh

I don't find myself so exercised by a desperation to be new. — Kenneth Branagh

My experience of great storytelling, working with classics, is just finding a way to present it simply but let the story do its own work, or be an invite to the audience's imagination. — Kenneth Branagh

If you've been to Moscow, it's a really exciting and great city, but it still feels like you should be a little careful about which way you're going to step. — Kenneth Branagh

I went to a comprehensive school and didn't go to university. — Kenneth Branagh

The elasticity of Shakespeare is extraordinary. — Kenneth Branagh

You go to the airport and look at the bookstand, and you feel the titles are similar, the covers are similar, and you wonder how they can be different. — Kenneth Branagh

I do think that, for instance, we've been very lucky to have theatrical careers and be associated with Shakespeare which sometimes gives you a kind of bogus kudos. — Kenneth Branagh

I think television goes through phases, like other creative arts, where suddenly a group of people are producing exciting work all at once. — Kenneth Branagh

Sometimes I used to think to myself, 'Have I lost a sense of humor?' but I don't think that I have. I think one can be as snarky and sarcastic as lots of people, but I have never found that it makes me particularly happy. — Kenneth Branagh

If you've done a brilliant version it becomes something else. — Kenneth Branagh

Life is about making plans from which you deviate, almost always. If you are lucky, you do come up with a plan. — Kenneth Branagh

Certainly, I'm excited by epic subjects. It doesn't particularly frighten me. — Kenneth Branagh

I did 'Love's Labour's Lost' in the theater and found it to be riotously funny. — Kenneth Branagh

I think I do have a way of predicting - not always accurately - what is a nerve-wracking day for actors, what may be a difficult scene or a difficult moment, how small - and it may be down to one line - a thing maybe that is upsetting or undermining a performance. — Kenneth Branagh

How many times do you read about 'the Cinderella story,' the story of the underdog, the story of the ordinary human being, often subjected to cruelty and ignorance and neglect, who somehow triumphs? — Kenneth Branagh

For a nanosecond in the pre-Internet pre-digital age, I was a hot young actor, in the sense of popular, and then it passed. — Kenneth Branagh

'Frankenstein' feels like an ancient tale, the kind of traditional story that appears in many other forms. — Kenneth Branagh

What happens is that with difficult processes on a film, they get very intensely compressed because a clock is ticking. — Kenneth Branagh

I saw Derek Jacobi play Hamlet when I was 17, and he directed me as Hamlet when I was 27, and I directed him as Claudius in 'Hamlet' when I was 35, and I'm hoping we meet again in some other production of Hamlet before we both toddle off. — Kenneth Branagh

Even in the case of a god, audiences - paradoxically - enjoy recognizing the human traits. — Kenneth Branagh

Being Irish, I always had this love of words. — Kenneth Branagh

It doesn't mean old or younger. I've learned a lot from people much younger than me as well as people much older than me. So I think it's about honesty and generosity. — Kenneth Branagh

At the end of every stage performance, the audience all applaud me for doing my job, but I have friends who work in offices who don't get that. — Kenneth Branagh

I would say my voice is actor-neutral. — Kenneth Branagh

I guess I've done a couple of boys-y movies and on the whole you get bracketed into things you've just done, so it was an imaginative surprise from my Disney family to pull me out of the hat, as it were [in Cinderella]. — Kenneth Branagh

The idea of accumulating ambitions or achievements didn't get much further than wanting to do the next exciting thing. I really haven't set out with any list of achievements. — Kenneth Branagh

In the course of my lifetime, that world went from violence to a kind of peace. — Kenneth Branagh

A creative and artistic home is what I've been looking for in the theatre. — Kenneth Branagh

Many of us live in dysfunctional families, and so even if it's in a fairy tale, or perhaps because it's in a fairy tale, we have a chance to look at that side of our reflected lives differently. — Kenneth Branagh

Shakespeare's always on my dance card if it can be. — Kenneth Branagh

I don't feel one could even remotely touch the idea of intimidating others, but because I've understood the other side of the experience, I will occasionally, if I smell that could even be in the air for a few minutes, say to the director, "Please, you must tell me anything you want. Please say all the things you think might be terribly hurtful like, 'That was boring.'" — Kenneth Branagh

I think A Midsummer Night's Dream would be terrific because of the transformations that occur. Or The Tempest, things like that. Extraordinary larger than life or supernatural element. — Kenneth Branagh

I was studying at the Royal Academy of Arts, and I was playing the role of Dr. Ivan Chebutikin in Chekov's 'Three Sisters.' I was about 50 years too young for the part. — Kenneth Branagh

I only got 'War and Peace' on the third attempt. — Kenneth Branagh

My definition of success is control. — Kenneth Branagh

Actors are the best and the worst of people. They're like kids. When they're good, they're very very good. When they're bad they're very very naughty. — Kenneth Branagh

In the hands of a great poet, words have ways of affecting us in ways we don't understand. — Kenneth Branagh

There's always something to think about in terms of problems that are dark and important and immediate and scary. — Kenneth Branagh

I think the truth is the Marvel fiefdom exists very independently inside the Disney world, inside the Disney universe. They're not resistant to that kind of thing but they have their, you know there is a whole sort of machine energy and momentum that is the sort of creative drive behind the whole universe that has a big impact on the individual films. I'm glad those scenes got out there. And we've got a few interesting deleted scenes on this. — Kenneth Branagh

I went to Moscow and met some slightly powerful and scary people. — Kenneth Branagh

Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein are each obsessed with death. Hamlet's whole story is a philosophical preparation for death; Victor's is an intellectual refusal to accept it. — Kenneth Branagh

It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory. — Kenneth Branagh

I only really cast people who are desperate to be in it - who were dying to be in it, whose talent I believed in and were dead ready to do the work that was necessary. — Kenneth Branagh

There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them. — Kenneth Branagh

My parents are the reason I wanted to make Shakespeare available to ordinary people. — Kenneth Branagh

I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be. — Kenneth Branagh

I did not make this a long film for its own sake. I wanted to make an entertaining film and offer it out there for those who want to see it. If word of mouth suggests there is an audience out there, hopefully their cinema will show it. — Kenneth Branagh

After Frankenstein, I feel as if I want to make a film about somebody having a nice cup of tea. — Kenneth Branagh

There are some amazing stories from all over this country, where people's work and contribution has been acknowledged. To be part of that is an absolutely fantastic feeling. — Kenneth Branagh

I read the final Wallander novel, 'The Troubled Man,' not long after it was published. — Kenneth Branagh

Two billion people watched the royal wedding. Clearly, they're interested in that - the outside of what appears to be lives that have a certain amount of privilege. They have gifts, they have history, they have a sort of unusual and separate position, which maybe involves paying a price. — Kenneth Branagh

When I'm acting, I'm in the director's hands. I'm very happy to be. I like to be focused on what I'm doing. — Kenneth Branagh

Somehow I know there was something so right about my doing Frankenstein and taking so long over it that I've probably been laying some ghost inside myself. It was a very necessary job for me to do, but it'll take some time to recover from it. — Kenneth Branagh

Actually I think 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' could sit very very perfectly in the middle of a Disney world I think. — Kenneth Branagh

I don't know that the Brits have the monopoly on being organized, but they do have a way of working with which I'm familiar. It's not necessarily the best way, but it's a way. — Kenneth Branagh

I've heard from quite a few people, you sense that there is an ownership of the [ Cinderella], it was so personal for so many people, so I was interested in trying to work out why that was. — Kenneth Branagh

The Chinese say, 'It's good to live in interesting times.' — Kenneth Branagh

Even when a film is finished, when I direct a film, sometimes it's a dark profession, but it requires a peculiar form of courage that I admire. — Kenneth Branagh

I'm very conscious of the fact the directing career has taken some odd turns. Maybe there's enough bulk where I'm now pigeonholed in the 'eclectic box.' — Kenneth Branagh

One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality. — Kenneth Branagh

I'll tell you what I'm grateful for, and that's the clarity of understanding that the most important things in life are health, family and friends, and the time to spend on them. — Kenneth Branagh

Carrying a movie is both a great privilege, it's a great opportunity, but it can be a great pressure, and sometimes that can make people behave very oddly. — Kenneth Branagh

Life is surreal and beautiful. — Kenneth Branagh

I've always loved the Bond films. — Kenneth Branagh

A brother who is unhappy is a dangerous relative to have. — Kenneth Branagh

I'm involved in Northern Ireland Screen and have been for a long time, so I keep my eyes open and ears to the ground. — Kenneth Branagh

I think that Shakespeare himself raided fairy tales and chronicle writers, and he always looked to people who worked in the mythic genres, whether it was folk tales or popular novels. — Kenneth Branagh

Variety is very, very good. Going from medium to medium, if you get the chance to do it, from theater to television to film, which are all distinctly different, keeps me sharp. What works in one doesn't work in the other, and you have to be looking for the truth of the performance, whatever way that medium might demand. — Kenneth Branagh

With people in corsets you need, an hour and a half in you have to give somebody something, you have to have those trays with a little bit of fruit going around or something because you get that blood sugar [dropping] thing, so it's curious because that's in your mind at the same time as you're about to say, 'I think it's about the humanity and the depth of feeling and we need to feel [Cinderella] soul expand and by the way, more cheese for the people in the back.' — Kenneth Branagh

I've always loved pure, silly slapstick comedy. It always makes me laugh. — Kenneth Branagh

We're self obsessed and mad and stupid - not that other people can't be the same way - but the extremes are kind of honest in some mad way. Anyway, I like them. — Kenneth Branagh

For what it's worth, I enjoy 'Dexter,' 'Modern Family,' 'True Blood' and 'Breaking Bad.' I've enjoyed the wonderful 'The Pacific.' — Kenneth Branagh

I noted about Cate Blanchett was her very positive lack of concern for how she turns out in [Cinderella]. She is happy to be a villainess and very pleased to be encouraged as I did with her to reveal this backstory and feel as though this was very human, that this broken heart of hers, if you might regard it that way, would be visible, but she never played for sympathy and I really admired that about her, so she's just there, she just is and uncompromisingly. — Kenneth Branagh

Helena Bonham-Carter and I sat down to talk about [Cinderella movie] and she said, 'I really want to do it but only one thing I insist on and that's wings.' She had to have wings and [costume designer] Sandy Powell didn't want wings to begin with but had to be talked around, but that was fun. — Kenneth Branagh

Everything is important, but there is a weight to these big or expected things and then there is the logistics of them and it's trying to find, while you worry about for instance the ballroom scene, how do you get 500 people to go to the loo in corsets and don't cost you an hour and how do you remember while you're organizing all that to take a breath and say, 'Well the scene is about all of that and it's about [Prince] hand on the small of [Cinderella] back as well' and we need time to do that properly as well. — Kenneth Branagh

I think that short films often contain an originality, a creative freedom, an energy and an invention that is inspiring and entertaining. I think they are, as Shakespeare put it, a good deed in a naughty world. — Kenneth Branagh

Even if people are all from the same place, there can be very, very different approaches. It's one of the things I'm fascinated by. It's why I like directing. I like to see how different people approach trying to be truthful, on camera or in the theater, and whether you can make them match up. — Kenneth Branagh

I'm a devotee of Stephen Sondheim. I think he's a genius. — Kenneth Branagh

It's no accident that Cinderella has been in the culture for thousands of years, and in cross cultures. I've traveled a bit recently, and in Russia, they completely believe they own this tale. And in Italy, they feel it absolutely is part of who they are. There is a timeless web to it. — Kenneth Branagh

I am a long-time hide-behind-the-sofa-in-the-early-Doctor Who-in-the-1960s fan. — Kenneth Branagh

It's funny to be in rooms where you were originally referred to as 'The Shakespeare Guy' and to suddenly be in the position where you're 'The Blockbuster Guy.' That's a pretty unusual turnabout, I must say. — Kenneth Branagh

I like to cast actors I admire, one's that are talented. Each one will bring something new to the part. This play has been done thousands of times and now certain characters are too familiar. — Kenneth Branagh

I was stuck in a wheelchair playing this deranged villain. I felt this mass amount of rage at being so confined. I thought, 'What can I do that is the direct opposite of this situation?' The only thing I could think of was that I could sing and dance. — Kenneth Branagh

So many plays with magic in them that would be a terrific invitation to an imaginative animation team. — Kenneth Branagh

Adults are just children who earn money. — Kenneth Branagh

I liked the fact that 'My Week With Marilyn' wasn't a biopic. — Kenneth Branagh

I'm interested in creating new work. — Kenneth Branagh

I had a friend who introduced me to a meditation practice which involves a couple of half-hours a day of meditation, where essentially you try to achieve a stillness that allows you to just be there in the moment. — Kenneth Branagh

What I've found about 'Cinderella' is that what it provokes in an audience is really extraordinary. It appears to be a deceptively simple tale, but I've heard nothing but people drawing all different things out of it. — Kenneth Branagh

I come from the theatre; my bones are in the theatre. It's as natural as breathing to want to be in the theatre. — Kenneth Branagh

For all the cynicism that the world contains, people are a little more open to those things that maybe are to do with returning you to some kind of simpler, happier state. — Kenneth Branagh

I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet. — Kenneth Branagh

I think what you're always looking for as artists is to be honest and to continue to be honestly driven by that which you are passionately engaged with. It should need not be forced. — Kenneth Branagh

As soon as someone I don't respect tells me I can't do something, it just makes me want to do it even more. — Kenneth Branagh

I think in the wake of the domination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, everyone is now looking for a grand plan. — Kenneth Branagh

It's very strange that the people you love are often the people you're most cruel to. — Kenneth Branagh

A lot of the films I've done have links to other movies that I've directed in the past. — Kenneth Branagh