"The most significant piece of advice my father gave me early on about acting was, don't get caught acting. Really believe in what you're doing and then commit to it. Even if it feels uncomfortable, even if you feel that you're gonna look like an ass. It's all acting, but find the truth in a moment as opposed to just pretending you have, and rather than trying to act your way out of it"
About this Quote
His father’s advice also smuggles in a tougher claim about courage. “Commit to it” isn’t about charisma; it’s about risk tolerance. Sutherland names the fear every performer recognizes but rarely admits out loud: the dread of looking stupid. By saying “even if you’re gonna look like an ass,” he reframes humiliation as the entry fee for honesty. The subtext is that safe choices read as fake choices. Overcontrol is the enemy.
Contextually, this sits in a late-20th-century acting culture that prizes “truth” - the post-Stanislavski, post-Method expectation that the camera will detect even tiny evasions. Sutherland isn’t romanticizing suffering; he’s describing technique. “Find the truth in a moment” is a directive to play the situation, not the idea of the situation. You don’t “pretend you have” emotions; you locate the real impulse that would produce them, then let it happen on your face.
It’s also an ethical statement about craft: acting isn’t deception, it’s precision empathy. The performance works when the actor stops trying to prove they’re acting and starts behaving like the stakes are real.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sutherland, Kiefer. (2026, February 18). The most significant piece of advice my father gave me early on about acting was, don't get caught acting. Really believe in what you're doing and then commit to it. Even if it feels uncomfortable, even if you feel that you're gonna look like an ass. It's all acting, but find the truth in a moment as opposed to just pretending you have, and rather than trying to act your way out of it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-significant-piece-of-advice-my-father-87548/
Chicago Style
Sutherland, Kiefer. "The most significant piece of advice my father gave me early on about acting was, don't get caught acting. Really believe in what you're doing and then commit to it. Even if it feels uncomfortable, even if you feel that you're gonna look like an ass. It's all acting, but find the truth in a moment as opposed to just pretending you have, and rather than trying to act your way out of it." FixQuotes. February 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-significant-piece-of-advice-my-father-87548/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The most significant piece of advice my father gave me early on about acting was, don't get caught acting. Really believe in what you're doing and then commit to it. Even if it feels uncomfortable, even if you feel that you're gonna look like an ass. It's all acting, but find the truth in a moment as opposed to just pretending you have, and rather than trying to act your way out of it." FixQuotes, 18 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-significant-piece-of-advice-my-father-87548/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
