56 quotes found
"[On John Ford] The meanest man on earth. Thoroughly evil. Adored him!"
"[On her relationship with Frank Sinatra] We were great in bed. It was usually on the way to the bidet when the trouble began."
"On The Beach is a story about the end of the world, and Melbourne sure is the right place to film it."
"We're both strong, and there's something that all Southern women have in common — the survivor instinct."
"There's really no rhyme or reason in our generation as to how things are supposed to work. I don't believe in the words supposed to. I believe in everybody having their own path and their own learning experience. To each his own."
"When you're with somebody for a long time or have a child with someone, you start to expect them to be this person you had in mind. Then if they don't fill the expectation, resentment starts to come up."
"Relationships teach you what you do and don't want, what you can and can't put up with, what you do and don't deserve."
"I learned a long time ago that I can't live my life for everybody else. We learn and we grow from our mistakes, and we get older and more mature."
"I must be the oldest living child soprano."
"Louis B Mayer created a situation that was just like a very big family, but with love and loyalty for everyone."
"I’ve been vegan since 1988, and over that time, my relationship with cooking has ebbed and flowed. I am very happy to eat very simply; I love to be able to taste the incredible produce I find. I enjoy making simple harmonies from whatever is seasonal. When I have people over though, I love exploring spices. Just because a meal is plant-based doesn’t mean it can’t be a flavor power-house."
"It was my sophomore year at Yale, going through the food line for dinner, and I wanted a chicken breast, but the way they put it on my plate – all of a sudden it reminded me of my mom’s dog – and at that moment I was instantly on the outside of the food chain. I just couldn’t be a part of it. It was very personal to me in an instant, all because of a big breast of chicken that was oddly plated and slightly pink and I couldn’t do it. At first all I could think to eat was peanut butter and bread, so I put on a bunch of weight, but over the years it’s gotten a lot easier because people are much hipper to the fact that a plant based lifestyle is healthier for us. So it’s gotten so easy and so delicious to be vegan."
"That little, small voice in your mind and in your heart that makes you curious about being vegan is something you should listen to, because that’s the sound of your conscience making you be compassionate."
"I think my experience as an adoptee who was given beautiful, loving parents, makes me sympathetic to the plight of the voiceless and those who are disregarded or tossed away or thought to not have value in a society. I feel like no one is expendable because it’s convenient. So many animals out there without homes have so much love to give, and I want to do all I can to get them in forever homes so they can give that love. … Fostering a little life is so humbling and sacred. It reminds you we’re all here to help each other and that you’re not the central character in the story of life. You’re a supporting role and your hands are meant to help get someone or something where they should be. Helping and loving an animal is the greatest gift you can give yourself. Every time you save them, you save yourself a little bit, too."
"I'm not watching Idol this season. I stopped watching after the Fantasia season because I loved her so much I didn't want to go through that process with anyone else."
"But as an actor you do want to challenge yourself and step outside what you have done in the past and that what I like to do, I like to jump around and try different things and stretch myself."
"I love anybody who's willing to stick to their own vision, their own voice, who's not easily swayed by money or by financiers who are going to tell them what they should do."
"I think my drive to work has gone up a bit since I’ve gotten older. The more I work the happier I am. I’m also finding a lot more roles that are exciting and challenging for me on a more regular basis."
"My hope and my optimistic point of view is that ultimately people will always need that human element."
"I really didn't have any fear about the humiliation factor. That was something I was excited to get the opportunity to explore. My fears were about pulling it off."
"If you have a problem and you're also successful, everyone does whatever they can to keep it going. I see that a lot."
"I think you go through a lot of it, just kind of repressing that stress. You’re like, ‘Everything’s great, everything’s fine. Everything’s fine. Nothing bothers me.’ And then one day it just kind of hits you in the face. You know, where you have to acknowledge [the stress]. …There’s a stigma about complaining about work, I guess because it’s so hard to do what we do and it’s a dream for so many people. You feel like you don’t have the right to complain about anything."
"It feels great to not be standing behind a bunch of men, but to actually be standing in front of it as women with something that we made, something that we’re proud of and something that we put our blood, sweat and tears into."
"I think I automatically pick things up…I feel like I’m able to use my body and pick up the choreography in order to use it to move the story and character forward. That was something I was used to doing in ballet — and performing in pieces where I’d be creating a character with my body and expressing it that way. So that’s something that I still really love to do, and I think that’s partly why action is something that I’ve really taken to."
"I think it’s been a very slow progression for me in terms of shifting the perspective. I did a lot of really, really small films that, at least for me, shifted my trajectory in terms of the way that I saw myself as an actor and the projects that I wanted to pursue. I think it helped me bring a deeper level of understanding to the characters that I play, whether they’re in small films or big films. So I think taking some time out to focus on really small, character-driven roles helped lead me to those bigger projects that were also really character-driven and demanded a certain level of depth that I might not have had without those smaller, more character-focused independent films."
"I tend to try to be pretty level in my everyday life and on set as well. When I’m not acting, I try to be pretty even-keeled and level. I try to keep myself as calm as I can be. It’s sort of a good state to be in if you don’t know what state you’re going to have to put yourself in from day to day. As an actor, you don’t necessarily know exactly how far you’re going to have to go or what you’re going to have go through for a character. So I try to focus on being calm and happy. I try to keep my stress level pretty low so that I’m not bringing any of that home with me."
"I just learned how to drive a stick shift on my last film, finally. I had never learned to do that, so that is something that I’m planning on continuing to take with me. Also, my martial arts training is something that I want to keep up with after doing it three movies in a row now. I feel like it would be a real waste to just stop that when I do feel like I’ve been progressing quite a bit."
"I try to stay pretty zen on set for the most part because it can help make it easier to dip in and out of all of these different moods. So I just try to stay really calm and that way, whatever mood I have to go into, I can always come back to that place. It’s not super hyper, super bubbly, but it’s something calm that it’s easy for me to come in and out of."
"Initially I started to back off of social media mainly for privacy reasons. But as soon as I was off of it, it was like this huge wave of relief where I felt kind of a weight lifted off of them. Like, oh wow! I don’t have to spend my days scrolling on my phone. I don’t have to be sucked into this anymore. I can actually focus on just living and enjoying my day itself and not focusing so much on what I’m supposed to share or what I’m supposed to receive and take in but actually just live my life."
"I started acting before Instagram and Twitter and it was a different thing back then, but we’ve all kind of been swept up and I was swept up in it for a while. It was like, OK, this is what everybody else is doing. I’m going to have this many selfies, I’ve got to get this many likes, I’ve got to do what everybody else is doing. And then I realized that I had started taking part in all of that without really realizing it and figured out that it wasn’t not moving me. So it felt really good to let it go. And I feel much more authentically me when I’m not on it."
"I always had a love hate relationship with social media. I was doing it but my heart was certainly never in it. I don’t know if anybody’s heart should really be in social media, but mine never was. So I always wanted to get rid of it. And I had before. I had actually deleted it before and then I ended up going back onto it. So now I’ve made the official move. I’ve pulled the plug. And I never say never. I don’t know what will happen 10 years from now. Who knows? But for now, this is really working for me."
"Just knowing that I had the complexity and the capacity as an actor to play the kinds of roles I always wanted to play. I think I had always wanted to go down a certain road, but I had insecurities about whether or not I could really focus on that. So when I did that, it felt so good. I realized these kinds of complex roles and this kind of material is what I can steer myself toward. I don't have to worry if I’m good enough for it."
"Every part and every year I just learn little bit more about myself and I start liking myself more. That’s been the biggest change for me, which I think is very normal. I started when I was younger; throughout my early twenties, I was just trying to figure out what other people wanted me to be and fit that. I think now that I’ve enter my thirties, I go, "Oh, I’m what people want. What I am already!" Then you start embracing that. Just being yourself is the key to the whole thing. That’s something I’ve really clicked into in the past couple of years more so than ever before."
"There’s always going to be challenges and barriers, but you have to be adaptable and go, "OK, if that’s not going to work for me, then this is a passion I have as well." I was passionate about a lot of things in the performing arts, so I was lucky ballet wasn’t the only love in my professional life. I wanted to perform, and I didn’t feel ballet was going to allow me to do that to the extent that I wanted to. Acting seemed like a good transition from that."
"I’m probably more laid-back in a lot of ways. I was very type-A as a kid, and I wanted to be the best at everything. Now I’ve definitely learned that this is not the best [quality] to have. You need to be able to screw up and learn from it."
"I’ve been very lucky. Most of my career I’ve been considered an up-and-comer, which is sort of funny sometimes when you’re an up-and-comer after 15 years. But I’m really grateful because it makes me feel like I’ve been on this slow climb, and I feel very grateful to be still rising and still trying to reach my potential. There’s been times where it’s been scary. Every actor has those moments when you think this is your last project and no one is going to pick up the phone for you again. I go through that all the time, but then somehow something always comes along and it reinvigorates your spirit and carries you through the next phase. So I always keep that confidence that it’s going to happen even in the dark moments. That’s worked for me so far. Maybe I’ll still be an up-and-comer in five years, and I’ll be OK with that."
"After the brutal one-sided police response to protests in 2020, some of us believe that the Mountaintop Station was overdue"
"In the early Eighties people thought feminism was over, but now, my God, we’re dealing with third-wave feminism, which is extraordinary."
"My mother always told me that for a person to be happy they need love and work."
"When I see people do extraordinary things and I think: How did they do that?"
"Sometimes when things are mysterious to us– the thing that we do, you just do one, two, three and it’s done. But something that is outside of your abilities or your world and it’s mysterious, it’s amazing."
"You have to remember children are not usually very interested in what their parents do for a living."
"I think everybody's political. The act of being alive is political. Unless you choose to be a hermit, you're automatically political, because you're part of a community."
"It's difficult in an economy like ours to call yourself a socialist, because we're living in a capitalist society where we all benefit from that. But in terms of where we are going politically, a lot of people would like to see a more equitable distribution."
"I don't understand how it happened so suddenly; why the upper echelons of society have flourished while other people suffer."
"No, you're only brave in the face of something you're afraid of, and I'm not afraid of stories, of emotion, of people. So I don't feel it's risky. I feel it's an exploration of something human."
"I do think the one thing ageing allows you is to go, 'Well, I know what I like, I know what I don't like.'"
"It takes a long time to figure out what you care about."
"All I really care about is staying alive for as long as possible for my children, because I don't want them to have to experience loss."
"The older I get, the more I want to be authentically myself."
"A feeling is something that’s really important to have! Real life is not always easy. You cannot always look at the good stuff. But just because something is not positive, it’s not like it’s going to kill you. You don’t have to say, “No, no, no.”"
"I wrote to my mom saying 'Look, I don't think I want to be a dancer any more so I'm going to quit ballet and stay here. I will have this and this income next week.' I laid it out in a way that she couldn't say no because I was so organised."
"I’ve been really fortunate to work with a lot of women. There were a lot of talented women that were more than capable of directing the show. The goal is to not be patted on the back for hiring a woman, because it shouldn’t be an exceptional thing. It should just be commonplace that women should have equal opportunities as men."
"It’s literally the dream collab duo. It was incredibly surreal for me. To be in the flesh with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke and be able to not only witness their process but be a part of it was life-changing."
"I don’t think I want to commit to a franchise. It seems like a lot of time, and I’m scared. I’m a commitment-phobe maybe. But also, no one’s asking me to do anything."
"I don’t feel like I’m always good at representing myself publicly in real time, so I would almost rather say nothing at all? Because rather than have the wrong idea about me, someone just wouldn’t have any idea about me."