actresses-from-st-louis

"I would not have gone into acting. I would have done something else with my life. Although I had an incredible amount of fun, and it opened up doors for me that were unattainable in other ways, I think I would have been better off developing my brains. On the other hand, I might not have gotten into what I'm doing now without that background. All the experience I had in television, radio, theater, stage and films gave me confidence in front of crowds. Because of that, I can talk to an audience of a thousand people without a moment's nervousness, and talk without a script for hours."

"I used to get scared really easily especially before I started filming. I mean as a kid, you can’t really differentiate between reality and movies and real life, so that part of it was super scary for me but then I grew up."

"I'm not gonna criticize anybody who likes a good meme; I love memes. But honestly, communication being reduced to digital pixels, that's not what humans are. We're animals who require social activity and need that. It's being taken away from us, and we're taking that for granted because it's convenient. It's a question that we have to ask. I feel like my generation is the one that will be responsible for how future generations carry on communicating, and that's a lot of pressure. But at the same time, this is the moment where we have to choose, convenience over humanity."

"I don't think there are very many people that will have the experience of sitting in this room, doing a job, and the next thing you know you've been on every television camera around the world, and people are' they're frightened of you. They don't know what to make of you. I think people seemed to believe when they saw me that they might be becoming possessed. That is the look in their eyes. They were frightened of me. And no matter what I said or did, it didn't change. And the fact that it was a job in film, it just never came across. And I really' I wish that things had been different back then, but people couldn't see that it was entertainment."

"Every time I watch it, I still see something new, and I’ve seen it a lot as you can imagine. When fans only talk about the scares, they’re not really learning anything, which is a shame because Billy really put a lot of thematic elements in this movie that are supposed to make you think. It wasn’t just about scaring people; it was a family drama that had horrific elements."

"If I had done a Disney movie nobody would care. They would not care. You may say oh, I grew up and I loved that movie, that was really super, but you wouldn’t care. People really will stop and talk to me about deeper issues, which I am excited to participate in."

"Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood."

"Josephine Baker is a St. Louis washwoman’s daughter who stepped out of a Negro burlesque show into a life of adulation and luxury in Paris during the booming 1920s. In sex appeal to jaded Europeans of the jazz-loving type, a Negro wench always has a head start. The particular tawny tint of tall and stringy Josephine Baker’s bare skin stirred French pulses. But to Manhattan theatre-goers last week, she was just a slightly buck-toothed young Negro woman whose figure might be matched in any nightclub show, whose dancing and singing could be topped practically anywhere outside France."

"She broke down barriers … She became part of the hearts and minds of French people ... Josephine Baker, you enter the Pantheon because while you were born American, deep down there was no one more French than you."

"I believe in action. … I believe in doing rather than talking. All my life I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice. This is why I traveled all over the world to adopt 11 youngsters."

"I have stage contracts for the next 18 months, and I shall go on with them whatever he says."

"France made me what I am. I will be grateful forever. The people of Paris have given me everything. They have given me their hearts, and I have given them mine. I am ready, captain, to give them my life. You can use me as you wish."

"First, I want to do what I can to help win the war and thus perform whatever duty I can for my native land. Second, I want to help those of my own race. I am doing all I can to help win the war effort and to make people generally more appreciative and kinder to my race."

"I cannot see that I did anything extraordinary to merit this honor. Everything was just as it had to be.""

"I want you to know that this is the happiest day of my entire life. And as you all must know, I have had a very long life and I'm sixty years old. The results today of seeing you all together is a sight for sore eyes. You're together as salt and pepper just as you should be. Just as I've always wanted you to be and peoples of the world have always wanted you to be. You are a united people at last because without unity there cannot be any victory. You see, I'm glad. I'm glad that in my homeland, in my homeland where I was born in love and respect, I'm glad to see this day come to pass. This day, because you are on the eve of complete victory, and tomorrow, time will do the rest. ... Continue on. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you."

"Every now and then, when you're onstage, you hear the best sound a player can hear. It's a sound you can't get in movies or in television. It is the sound of a wonderful, deep silence that means you've hit them where they live."

"A pretty face is a passport."

"I think the purpose of the actor is to illuminate the human condition. When you go to a film and you see a good actor, it's because you identify with them—you know what they're feeling—and a good actor draws, I believe, from their own experience. And when it's true for him, it's true for you. If a director imposes a performance or you try to mimic somebody, it can be funny or brilliant, but it isn't moving."

"I've been away from Hollywood so long, I feel like a spider on a wedding cake."