As soon as I suspect a fine effect is being achieved by accident I lose interest. I am not interested...in unskilled labor....The scientific actor is an even worker. Any one may achieve on some rare occasion an outburst of genuine feeling, a gesture of imperishable beauty, a ringing accent of truth; but your scientific actor knows how he did it. He can repeat it again and again and again. He can be depended on.

Mrs. Fiske: Her Views on Actors, Acting, and the Problems of Production (ed. 1917)