Alia Shawkat Quotes

American shows can go on for 20 years. I respond more to the British format. Three seasons is a long run for them to tell a story.

When you focus on life, on enjoying and connecting with other people, that's when work comes. When you focus on work, you can never work. I'm always going through waves of that.

I have been acting for almost 20 years now. At first it changed in my focus and how much I wanted to act. When I was younger, it was so much fun, and I really wanted it, but it was not competitive. Then I became a teenager and it became kind of competitive and not as much fun. I pulled back and I got lazy about it, where I was like, "Yeah, I guess, I'll do small parts in cool movies," but I wasn't really trying to say anything.

I don't think it's good to say that you won't do certain things, but I don't necessarily have the natural urge to write.

Acting is a very strange industry in that it flows in these weird ways, I'll be so busy for 6 months and then nothing for a couple months, so it's hard for me to focus and stuff.

I think how I've gotten better, hopefully, at taking what I've got and being able to mish-mash something together, and as long as it feels real to me in the moment, then it feels like a success.

I'm not a huge TV person, but when I do watch, it's always after the fact because I like to binge watch.

Let's not get too comfortable with each other.

I'm lucky right now because I'm not that famous, people will look at the work just as the work, and people respond to it pretty well. It's just hard to know exactly what group I need to meet and where I need to be. I think fame helps, but I want it to be separate as much as it can. Fame is just so weird, people just love famous people.

The main thing I got from growing up in a suburb is the boredom you have as a child.

It's weird, not to sound too actor but I think that any time you do a performance, you kind of take a little piece of that character, cause it's a part of you you're using.

I'm more verbal and not as private as I was as a kid.

I've been reading scripts where they've been doing a lot of singing now, but within the dark, realistic story line. I would love, love, love, love to do that. But not a musical on Broadway, I don't have that kind of energy or stamina.

Obviously the way people watch TV has changed so much, too, that it's not necessarily about the ratings anymore. There's a different kind of time lapse; you put it out there and people absorb it at their speed, not just on Monday night at eight.

I'm not at the place in my career necessarily where I'm like offered every role.

It's always nerve-wracking; it's like going to a new school every time you start a new movie. There are so many people and you're trying to be comfortable and vulnerable on set in order to be fearless on camera. But it's fun, it's part of the job. You've just got to be very personable, I guess.

It's nice when you get to leave and travel and be busy and then come home.

You don't want to not be single because you're scared of being single.

Kids can be harsh, especially when they get jealous.

I still do a form of sense memory. It honestly depends on the job. It depends on the other people you're working with, how the other actor works. It's take a little from here, take a little from there.

The words are ludicrous at times, but you add the reality to it and that gives it the balance it has.

I go into work and get my hair and makeup done, go into wardrobe. I have to do three hours of school a day.

As an actor you want to just like, act as much as possible.

I feel like when you're dealing with your main character, it has to be relatable and feel grounded, and that's the kind of acting I like to do anyway.

I've been single for so long that I'm scared of being in a relationship.

I love being on movie sets. It's a very particular setting. And not all of the time, most of the time, there's always people you don't like, and you have to see them every day.

It is important to be involved in everything.

You get a kind of familiarity on a set when you're on a TV show.

I want to do film and TV. I want to make good stories. I want to write; I want to be more involved.