Daily Inspiration Quote by Harold Ramis

Ramis slips a banana peel under the sanctimony of “serious acting” and watches the room try not to fall. “Big hair and funny props” sounds like a cheap shot at craft, but it’s really a love letter to performance as showmanship: the visible, slightly ridiculous machinery that makes an audience lean in. He’s puncturing the myth that great acting is purely internal alchemy - the soulful stare, the tortured Method backstory - and reminding you that even the gods of the canon got help from the external: a silhouette, a costume, a physical bit that turns psychology into something legible.

The name-drops are the key move. Olivier and Brando are often framed as opposing religions (classical technique vs. Method authenticity), yet Ramis yokes them together under the same pragmatic truth: both understood the value of theatrical “handles.” Olivier’s authority was always partly architectural - voice, posture, the imperial line of a costume. Brando, patron saint of naturalism, still used objects and bodies like instruments; the famous props and fidgeting aren’t accidents, they’re tactics that smuggle spontaneity into a scene.

Coming from a comedian-director who built classics on physical detail and behavioral specificity, the quote doubles as a defense of comedy’s intelligence. Props aren’t crutches; they’re storytelling shortcuts with emotional consequences. Ramis is arguing that greatness isn’t purity. It’s control - the willingness to use anything, even “big hair,” to make a moment land.