To me, being an actor is the best job in the land, next to being a mother and having a family and a husband. I just think it's the realization of, "Hey, this is the greatest situation in the world."
Ann DowdDamon Lindelof is hypnotizing. His imagination is without limits, and Tom Perrotta, as well. You begin to just trust, completely, where the story is going, knowing that you're entirely safe in the truthfulness of it.
Ann DowdI love the roles that I'm having the chance to play, and I've learned to just let go a little. Children teach you that, every day. Life is large, so do the best you can and move on. Do everything you can in a given day, and then let it go.
Ann DowdThere are so many fantastic roles, but the ones that have always drawn me to them are the loners who, for whatever reason, never quite fit in and knew it and had to find their own way. I've always been drawn to that, for some reason. I've always been drawn to that sad, isolated place, but what it produces in behavior is something else, entirely. For whatever reason, I'm drawn to these people. Essentially, I think what draws me is that they are survivors against rather considerable odds.
Ann DowdI was educated by nuns. None of them, of course, did anything resembling the actions of Lydia from The Handmaid's Tale, but they taught me a work ethic, that I had to toe the line, that I had to step up and do my work, and that we would stay until it was done, and that came from a devotion to making you the best person you can be. That's the take I have on Lydia. She knows her actions are firm and sometimes very harsh, but she also looks after them.
Ann Dowd