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Daily Inspiration Quote by Albert Finney

"It was great to do and it's exciting to do those things. That's another thing, that one enjoys the game"

About this Quote

Finney’s line reads like an on-set shrug, but it’s a sly little manifesto about what actors are allowed to admit in public: pleasure. The repetition and plain phrasing (“to do,” “to do those things”) isn’t laziness so much as a refusal to mythologize the craft. Where celebrity culture expects either tortured artistry or triumphant branding, Finney offers something almost indecently ordinary: it was fun, and he liked it.

That casualness matters. Actors are trained to give meaning; interviews pressure them to supply a narrative arc, a method, a grand explanation of “the work.” Finney sidesteps the prestige vocabulary and lands on “the game,” a word that demotes the whole enterprise from sacred calling to lived activity. It’s a subtle power move. Calling it a game signals fluency and control: he’s in on the rules, he can compete, he can improvise, and he doesn’t need to perform suffering to prove seriousness.

The subtext is also defensive in a charming way. “That’s another thing” sounds like he’s answering an implied accusation: Isn’t it exhausting? Isn’t it difficult? Shouldn’t you be reverent? His reply insists that enjoyment isn’t a betrayal of depth; it’s part of the engine. For a performer associated with intelligence and range, this is Finney keeping the audience from turning him into a monument. He frames acting as play with stakes, not a shrine.

Quote Details

TopicExcitement
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Albert Finney on the craft and joy of doing
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About the Author

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Albert Finney (born May 9, 1936) is a Actor from United Kingdom.

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