Daily Inspiration Quote by David Ogden Stiers

Acting advice rarely admits how bruising the job can be; David Ogden Stiers does it in two clean moves: accept the shock, then make it usable. The line opens with an almost therapeutic premise - when the story throws an “extreme” event at you, denial isn’t an option. But Stiers isn’t talking about method-actor melodrama or mining personal trauma for authenticity. He’s describing a professional discipline: the character’s psychology has to metabolize what the script just did to them, and the actor has to do that work fast enough to keep the performance coherent.

The key verb is “embrace.” It’s not “understand” or “justify,” which would imply the event makes sense. “Embrace” implies physical closeness, even consent, to something you wouldn’t choose. That’s the subtext: extreme plot turns often feel imposed, artificial, even unfair - a writer’s wrench thrown into a life. The actor’s job is to make that wrench feel inevitable by incorporating it into “how you think,” the internal story engine that controls every glance, pause, and reaction.

“Sometimes it’s not easy” is the understated kicker. Stiers, known for balancing warmth and acerbic intelligence (think the controlled chaos of MASH), recognizes the gap between craft and comfort. Extreme turns can break continuity, strain empathy, or demand emotional colors the actor hasn’t located yet. His intent is pragmatic and humane: don’t fight the rupture; let it change the character’s logic, and let that change show.