Actresses From Toronto

"Everyone makes mistakes, and they do things for righteous reasons, even if [it’s] not the right thing to do. But, at the same time, I always think it’s best to lead with honesty. Starting any relationship on a lie is not the best foundation to grow up on. Everybody catfishes to one degree or another, though. Everyone’s putting forward the version of themselves that they once were, or they want to be in the future. [It’s] this glossy, perfect version that isn’t real. That’s why they call it a honeymoon phase."

"I was a rhythmic and athletic gymnast for a little while. Then, when I quit gymnastics, I fell in love with yoga. So sometimes I think I’d like to open up a yoga studio."

"I think it’s amazing that there’s this new media that allows you to be more connected with the people that support you. Without their support I couldn’t exist."

"There are toxic people who have come into my life before. I feel like when you’re younger, you kind of don’t really realize it. But I surround myself with people who are very blunt and honest and real. And when somebody comes in who doesn’t share that authenticity, you can smell it from a mile away. And so, I trust my friends to tell me if I’m not seeing something or if someone’s not being genuine or doesn’t really want to be my friend for the right reasons."

"I think when I hit 27, my priorities shifted. It was one of those things that I’d been warned about. People told me that when you’re younger, you don’t really have a concept of time. You think the world is your oyster, but after a certain amount of time, you realize that it is finite, and what have you done up until this point? Was it something important to you? What have you achieved? What do you want to achieve? Where are you in that path to achieving it? Once my priorities shifted, I realized that I didn’t have as much time. I started to realize, what was I doing? Was it making me happy? If it wasn’t making me happy, then I don’t need to do it. No one’s forcing me to be here. I should be spending my time with things that make me smile, make me laugh, make me fulfilled. And so as soon as I realized that staying out a little bit later would make me feel not so great in the morning, I’d rather go to bed. I’d rather hang out with my dog and watch a movie and do things that I want to do instead of waste my life and my time."

"I do feel like changing your aesthetic can be therapeutic in a weird way. I mean, it’s odd to even say that out loud because your aesthetic is superficial in so many ways, but it can also affect the way you feel. I mean, I know for a fact that when I cut my hair shorter two years ago, it was almost like I was cutting off old energy."

"I’ve been producing behind the scenes for a little while now, so that has always been part of my brain and process. If I can add value and be integral in a project or an experience, I definitely love producing. But now that I’ve directed, I look forward to new opportunities to get to do it again. We’ll see what comes next. I definitely look forward to doing it again, for sure."

"When you’re directing something, you have to look at the bigger picture and what the goal is, what the story is that you’re trying to tell, and the emotion that you want to convey. When you change the lens that you’re looking from, it changes the type of performance or the take you might choose. I think I’m more forgiving now because I understand that a little bit better."

"I really want to immerse myself in the world. In terms of dialogue and writing characters and visuals, it needed to come from me, especially for the first one. I’m not closed off to the idea in the future. I’ve been writing a lot of other things as well. None of them have gotten set yet, but I’ve sold a couple of projects, as a writer. Writing has always been an interest of mine as well. It really just helps you, when you’re the one who wrote it, bringing it to life feels much more colorful and multi-faceted. You really understand that story, you know what you wanna get across, and your vision just feels more full, in my opinion, but mind you, I’ve only ever had this one experience. I can only judge it from this one time."

"Let the universe bring what is meant to bring to you. Don’t hold on to things that aren’t meant to be with you. If you’re on a dating app and you’re putting yourself out there, put yourself out there, but any kind of desperate energy can be felt on either side — especially if you’re trying to do [it] just for the holidays. That doesn’t feel very genuine. If you’re looking for someone for the holidays, specifically, then that probably means you need to call your therapist and do some work on yourself. That’s another thing that I’ve personally been working on for a long time: trying to bring the focus back to myself and be whole in myself, with or without a partner. In order to be with someone else, you need to be there for yourself, first, and be content with who you are. You have to be complete in yourself."

"How do you choose? You choose because of who your heart and your soul connects with more, not the physical appearance that’s gonna fade eventually. It’s all about the person who is going to make you laugh until you cry for the rest of your life, the person you can be your most authentic self with. That’s key, in my opinion."

"Obviously everyone has flaws, but, more than anything, it’s not about finding the perfect person — it’s about finding the perfect person for you."

"Acceptance was the first step. Loving my anxious self was the basis of making some changes that made my life easier. Anxiety is just one part of me, along with the fact that I'm a devoted friend and a good cook and I buy multiple copies of my favorite books because I love to give them away. I embrace my weird now. I'm not ashamed of who I am. When I started asking for help when I needed it, I learned there is nothing weak about doing that. I realize now that it is incredibly brave to admit when my anxiety is more than I can handle by myself. I still have anxiety sometimes, but I now have tools to help take my power back. I have compassion for myself when I'm having a hard time. I know that I can ride this difficult wave of emotion, and I'll be okay. I'm done pretending."

"For us to organize ourselves in a way that allows for equality in the fullness of our difference, we need to remember that every individual human being is the point. Each unique person is the whole story, interconnected fractals of a wholeness called "love." No one is less or more useful on the way toward something else. Human beings seen as a means is exploitation. Human beings seen as an end is dignity. It’s love."

"Even if you ignore them, they will bubble up in some way at some point in your life, and it is only when you embrace those emotions that you are able to break free and move forward from them. And I want to support people through that darkness and be a symbol of strength in the face of hate and heartbreak. I want to let people know that it’s okay to feel those things and that they are never alone in feeling that way and it’s okay to move forward. You will come through it stronger than you knew was possible."

"You do what you can with what you've got, but you also have to know you're part in the ensemble. If you have no lines, you can't be in the background trying to steal the scene."

"I have such a terrible memory. I have so many lines in my head from so many scripts over the years – I can memorize 20 pages of script in a half-hour, but you tell me something and I've forgotten it by next week. My mind is like a steel trap!"

"I never thought of myself as courageous or adventurous, so moving out to California by myself pushed my comfort zone in a big way. Truly, there were only a handful of teachers that made a difference, but just pushing myself to do it was the most important part of that experience. I came back feeling brave, and I needed to feel brave to get into this business."

"Look, if you like the freedom to play violent video games, watch internet porn, and grow weed in your house without police using thermal energy to bust you, you owe a debt to Antonin Scalia. You also probably work on my staff. Whether you loved or hated his narrow literalism about a document written before machine guns and gay people were invented, Scalia was by all accounts a nice guy with a wicked sense of humor. People liked him. … Good people do have bad ideas."

"There’s a lot of people sitting around in rooms discussing how to make it happen as opposed to just, like, doing it — asking: ‘Do you have any 45-year-old-woman friends who you think are really talented who could submit an application to us?’ ‘Do you have any black friends who are great writers who haven’t had a shot."

"There are plenty of people who won’t tune in because a woman’s voice bothers their eardrums. Their ear canals can’t handle the sound of my shrill voice talking at them about a subject. I guess I just don’t really care about those people."

"As long as you want to keep playing whack-a-mole from hell, it is my solemn promise that I will keep picking up the metaphorical hammer to slam you back down and remind you that you have not yet done anything to earn our forgiveness. So take your millions of dollars and pay a therapist to care about how tough it’s been to get caught being an abuser because honestly, I don’t give a shit."

"Oh my God, conservatives, make up your minds about poor babies. We thought you wanted them to be born. Why else would you oppose free contraception, wage jihad against Planned Parenthood, fight the FDA on Plan B, and make abortion as unattainable for poor women as a ticket to Hamilton. Well, like it or not, there are a lot of poor babies, and it seems all you got for them is the same useless advice you’re giving their mothers: Keep your legs crossed."

"I'm sorry, remind me again, what is the point of encouraging little girls to dream big if any career puts them in the path of boob honkers? There's not a workplace on land or sea or even at the bottom of a big, deep hole in the ground where we're actually keeping women safe. Right now I'm actually picturing some guy saying, oh, what am I supposed to do, stop asking women out at work because it makes them uncomfortable? Yes."

"It’s not okay to actually take a life out of an individual for whatever reason and then sell those body parts. It’s sick. It’s really sick. And it’s hurtful because those lives were real and just and you’re giving them absolutely no grace in the end of their life,” she continued. “It’s, you know, they’ll have to meet their Maker one day. So as much as we all have our opinions on this matter, I think at the end of the day they’re going to have to meet God one day and they’ll have to answer for themselves on what they chose to do with their time on earth, you know?"

"I think when you work with really wonderful directors who have a really strong vision, it lets you as an artist set the tone for your own career. So for me, it's not necessarily having that kind of notoriety. I'm interested in great work and working with people that have a singular vision, and I think the work dictates that."

"You go through different arcs in your career. I think when I was younger, I was very into the performing side of the industry. I came to acting through that way, and then having gone to university and studied cinema studies and watching tons of films and understanding film theory and making a conscious choice of working with auteur director marks a new chapter in my development as an artist."