During his introduction to Denzel Washington’s Cecil B. Demille award, Tom Hanks said some words that can be used as great advice for actors:

“Every generation filmgoers find a him or her, an artist who defines the time we live in. And as their credits are added to the IMDB, so too is the power of their persona and their personal taste. Their learned craft and instinctive talent. Their obvious abilities and the mysterious power they have to not just hold our attention but demand it. The history of film includes a record of actors who accrue a grand status of a body of work where every role, every choice is worthy of our study. You can NOT copy them. You can at best sort of emulate them. And damn it, stealing from them, bears no fruit.”