Actresses From Australia

"Oh yes, I am wise But it's wisdom born of pain Yes, I've paid the price But look how much I gained If I have to, I can do anything I am strong I am invincible I am woman"

"Would you take better care of yourself Would you be kinder to yourself Would you be more forgiving of your human imperfections If you realized your best friend was yourself"

"She was an office girl ("My name is Betty") Her fav'rite group was Helen Reddy"

"I definitely knew her song, "I Am Woman." I didn't know a lot more than that. I'm so thrilled that I got to learn a whole lot more about her over this process. I now am her biggest fan and I could probably start a museum, I’ve done enough research on her. That's what's really interesting, is that not a lot of people in my generation know a lot about her life. But that being said, her song "I Am Woman," the words are on most placards at any women's march. Her story is so incredible, and to look back and honour all the amazing work she did, and what she did for women and just the music industry in general. I mean, she had four gold records in a year. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy, and people don't know that. So it feels like a really lovely thing to be able to share that."

"I’m vegan. It’s really changed, like, my eyes, my, you know, everything."

"I think it’s more difficult to be vegan than gay. I think people have a harder time accepting it; people feel more uncomfortable with a vegan at their dinner table than they do a lesbian. It’s confronting. It’s kind of suggesting that what someone else is doing is bad or wrong, and it hits them on a more personal level. … If somebody is setting there eating a steak watching you eat polenta, they’re thinking that you’re trying to preach to them or you’re trying to convert them in some way. Whereas with being gay, I don’t think anyone’s concerned that that’s the agenda. “Hey, Mom, you also have to be gay. I’m gay and so should you be!” Certainly when I told her that I was vegan, it forced her to look at her habits."

"I think about you And you think about me I'm thinking what my name is I have amnesia I don't even know you I need my memory back"

"I love people and people watching. I love music. I am intrigued by musicians more than I am actors. I have a bigger respect for them."

"It was bizarre and … kind of a fluke … I'm very lucky, it kind of fell into my lap, honestly. I was auditioning for a part for an American project that was filming in Australia, and a manager kind of saw my tape through that, and sort of contacted my Australian representative, and it kind of all just fell into place."

"I don't remember a thing There's fresh in my mind I've got a weakness bump on my head When a rock hits me harder, I'm dead"

"My memory helps my speech So I can think of a word and get it right I can't remember someone else Because my memory has changed"

"I never think of anything what I said Ever since I lost my memory, it's like they ran away There was an enemy that's stepped on my feet I ran away and trip me on the street"

"I love Rudy and I remember I was leaving for two months and I wept for like 12 hours on the plane because I wasn’t going to get to see him. So yes. I can relate to my self. … But it was only four years — and not that many boyfriends ago."

"My tattoos symbolise something to me, after all they will remain with me forever."

"I can understand why people would want to stay on the road because you create your own bubble. You almost don’t live in the real world. Just to have the things that are with you is fine."

"I maintain that the best song is the one that ends up on the album. So whether I’ve written it or I haven’t, I’m very comfortable with both."

"The reason that gets me is, and the greatest part of my job and what I do, is the humanity of it and there’s certain moments where that really cuts through."

"Ob Sie Adeles "Skyfall" von Megan Marie Hart intonieren, von Kylie Minogue piepsen oder von Tupac Shakur rappen lassen, macht einen Unterschied."

"I had the endurance but not the brute strength that must be coupled with it. No woman has this combination. That's why I say none of my sex will ever accomplish that particular stunt."

"The men, who started from different points along the coast, wore no clothes, but I was compelled to put on a bathing suit. Small as it was, it chafed me. When I finished, my flesh under the arms was raw and hurt fearfully."

"There are two kinds of bathing suits, those that are adapted for use in the water, and those that are unfit for use except on dry land. If you are going to swim, wear a water bathing suit. But if you are merely going to play on the beach and pose for your camera friends, you may safely wear the dry land variety."

"The clitoris contains 8,000 nerve endings. It makes it easy to have sex. With yourself."

"Certainly some actors I'm just amazed by the amount of work that they do, and I think, “My God.” I feel quite humbled ... Cate Blanchett. She was in Los Angeles and we were doing a round table and I was just amazed. I just looked her up again on Google to see what she's done. And she runs a family, she runs a theater, she's done all these incredible films around the world, she just never stops and she's so attractive and she's so present. She's like superwoman."

"At the moment, I'm obsessed with Cate Blanchett. I would love to act with her. We are costars in How to Train Your Dragon, but we don't ever get to work together, which is so sad. I would be anything with her onscreen. I would do anything. If she's reading this, she should know I will do whatever to act with her. She's so alive and present in every single moment, and not for one second do you feel like she's acting; you just feel like she's living the character and being in the moment. The acting is undetectable, and that is so exhilarating, and I feel like it would be so intoxicating to be an actor around her."

"Cate. I think Cate is kind of everybody's benchmark with everything she does. She does incredible work and always has."

"She is extraordinary, completely committed and very gifted of course. She's also extremely generous, modest and always brings a sense of humour so it was just a pleasure to work with her."

"We only met at a party [during the making of The Lord of the Rings], we weren't on screen together. Well, we were on screen together but we didn't meet. Here [on The Hobbit], we had a whole week, or maybe two. That was a thrill because she's a great screen actor and a very congenial person, for me. She's based in theater. That's her main job at the moment, running a theater. So there wasn't a moment that we didn't have stuff to talk about."

"[Working with Blanchett again] was one of my motivations for getting involved [with Carol]. I had such an amazing time with her on I'm Not There, and watching that particular performance emerge was an extraordinary experience for me. I think it was for her, too. I was just blown away by what she did and who she is as a person; that's always coupled with my esteem for her. And that just continued to be fleshed out in every possible way on this ... She has incredible knowledge and instincts."

"[Cosmetic surgery] is idiocy, unless it is to remove a disfigurement. A small breast doesn't have to become big. I prefer to look at a natural woman. A woman should be courageous to become older, not be desperate to look younger than her age. With time, a woman's body is better. As a woman goes to work, has babies, she is strong. She has character. Look at Cate Blanchett."

"That performance was as naked, as raw and extraordinary and astonishing and surprising and scary as anything I've ever seen, and it didn't have anything to do with what clothes she took off, you know what I mean? She took the layers of a person and just peeled them away. I thought I'd seen that play, I thought I knew all the lines by heart, because I've seen it so many times, but I'd never seen the play until I saw that performance."

"I saw Cate in Streetcar Named Desire on Wednesday night. Liv Ullman directed it. I will say right here that it was perhaps the greatest stage performance I have ever seen ... She showed us the unraveling of a fragile woman right before our eyes and did it with not a false moment ... What I so love about both Cate and Andrew [Upton] is they haven't an ounce of pretense, divahood– just brilliant, hardworking, regular people with a growing family."

"I wanted to do the part because Cate was playing Sheba. And she knows, because I've said it out loud in front of a lot of people. My admiration for her is absolutely unbounded. And we had a lot of laughs, which is always good."

"When we came to work, I realized of course that Cate has a fierce intelligence, an unbelievable integrity. Her powers of concentration are phenomenal. Above all, she has a great sense of humour which I think is the most important thing to have and she is a phenomenal family person. The fact that she is working on something with an incredible intensity and at the same time can completely switch off and become a member of an incredibly close family with her children and her husband. When I saw her playing Elizabeth, it was one of those rare moments that I forgot I was watching an actress and I believed I was watching a real person who had actually lived and existed in history. I think Cate is the most extraordinary actress and I'm thrilled we did this movie together."

"As an actor, you either work off your own personality, and that's what you're peddling, or, like Cate, you draw out from the source material all the many dark, mysterious, and conflicting elements of the character that are going to make it engaging and trilling for the audience."

"She has the most extraordinary access to her emotions that I've come across in an actor."

"She has this incredible ability to transform herself. Sometimes you're not sure it's her on screen. It's always fascinating; this capacity of being a totally different person, and yet being yourself. She's very inventive; working with her, I can tell right away she's very free."

"That Blanchett could appear in the same Toronto Film Festival playing Elizabeth and Bob Dylan, both splendidly, is a wonder of acting."

"[She] elevated most of our performances. She's exquisite. She's a great friend. She can read a scene like few actors can. I find her to be grace incarnate. I liked that she was playing a dancer. It fit her because of who she is, because of her undeniable elegance."

"I remember going to the Sunset 5 and just thinking, 'Who is that My goodness'. You just don't see people who have that kind of power and ability every day of the week."

"Years from now, when cinephiles are asked to name the movies' golden age, they'll say it was when Cate Blanchett was in them."

"I'm not very cautious or careful. It's always been more about having a variety of experiences than any planned trajectory... I think that in a way, projects choose you."

"No one is ever who they purport to be. And I suppose I'm most interested in the gap between who we project socially and who we really are."

"You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually."

"For me, the roles are the secondary part of the whole process to me strangely. It's about who you're being directed by and who the other actors are. Whenever I read a script, I think, 'wow, that's a great story,' and invariably I want to play one of the other characters, and the process of working out how to play the character you're offered is to work out why you aren't playing the other characters in a way. Maybe that's why I play roles of various different sizes. The challenge is not necessarily always the lead role, but in this case [Blue Jasmine] it was all those things combined."

"In my career, I thought I've never wanted to get anywhere in particular. I just wanted to work with interesting people on interesting projects."

"I remember when I came out of drama school I'd seen a lot of actors, brilliant actors who didn't work very often. And when you're starting out, there's more rejection than there is acceptance, and I said to myself, “I’ll give it five years. I don’t think I have a strong enough mettle to deal with the rejections.""

"It's not just women in film, 18-year-old girls feel pressure to do preventative injecting. I see someone's face, someone's body who'd had children and I think they're the song lines of your experience, and why would you want to eradicate that? I look at people sort of entombing themselves and all you see is little pin holes of terror... and you think, just live your life, death is not going to be any easier just because your face can't move."

"Of course one worries about getting older - we're all fearful of death, let's not kid ourselves. I'm simply not panicking as my laugh lines grow deeper. Who wants a face with no history, no sense of humor?"

"I've done a lot of talking over the past six years. My husband and I have been running the Sydney Theatre Company and it's been magic – my kids have been able to see so many of those transient moments between acting and real life behind the scenes. But now that I've given it up I'm looking forward to being a bit quieter. I'm very conscious of that. There have been times when I've heard myself in the past and thought: "Aw, just shut up.""

"It's been an enormous challenge and enormously gratifying. Andrew and I wanted to travel less and the opportunity of living and working in Sydney was irresistible, especially when it came to being able to give our children roots. I also felt drawn to the stimulating kind of environment that the theatre offers in a way that is completely different from film. To direct a company has its own challenges, and there's nothing like the terror and thrill that comes from performing live in front of an audience. So it's been a marvellous experience for both of us."