Mary Elizabeth Winstead Quotes

I grew up in a big movie house, we watched movies all the time, so I had an awareness at a very young age that that was a job that you could have.

The older I get, the more I'm drawn to the smaller films, but I still hope to keep bigger films in my repertoire. It's just maybe going to be a shift in focus, but I'll definitely still hopefully be kicking around in those.

There's actually a time when I got cast in something and it was announced that someone else was cast. I hadn't been told yet if I had the role and I had a breakdown because I really wanted it and it was announced on this website that this other girl had gotten it. I was so sad and called my agents and said, "You guys didn't tell me this other person got the role!" They were like, "No, they haven't decided yet." Then two hours later I got the call that said I had the role.

I have a sister who is a dancer and dance teacher. We grew up dancing together. I wanted to become a ballerina when I was a kid, so she and I were always at ballet conservatories and going to school with our hair in buns.

I don't have any premonitions. I don't have any supernatural powers. I just have a typical woman's intuition, and I go with that.

I was that overachieving, annoying kid who was always trying to win some contest or win the role. I look back on it now and I'm like, "Chill, man." Calm down.

Usually a lot of moviemaking is boring.

You do sometimes have to work on things where you love the cast and you love the filmmaker, and the role might not be great but it's fun. I'm totally down to do those things, and will continue to do those things, as well, but it at least has to be peppered with roles that are really interesting and that are hard.

It's always been a lot of fun for me, just to be in films that people see and they connect to, big or small. The big ones tend to reach a wider audience, so it's exciting to feel like you've got fans in countries, all over the world, who are watching what you're doing. That's really great!

You have to believe that it is what you want to do with your life and you have to be dedicated to it.

Particularly for women, I think more of us in the industry need to just do it. I think guys are more willing to put themselves out, that way, at least with the girls that I know. We say we want to direct, but then we don't actually do it.

Once I've accepted a role, I'll let my parents and my sisters read it because they find it entertaining.

I always felt that my talent would trump everything.

I am manageable. I, you know, it'll suffice I think. No, no, I feel pretty good. I trained for a long time and I got really cool, like I was doing jumps. It got like, I felt really good, but then when I got out on gravel and fake snow and - it just kind of all went downhill. But I think it's still okay.

For any addict, when you get sober, life becomes more challenging, in some ways, because all of your problems become very clear and you have to deal with your pain. You can't just drink and forget about it and pretend it doesn't exist. You have to actually face it, head on.

You don't have to play masculine to be a strong woman.

I love playing characters that are strong, when there's physicality involved.

I think my drive to work has gone up a bit since I've gotten older.

I think these are such different films that it's hard to compare, because with Quentin we were all just like, it was like a party every day, you know, it was like that film was just like silly, it was just really for fun, it was really, it wasn't, you know, to make a huge impact. I t was just we wanted to have fun and go to work every day and do a fun movie. And this is like huge, I mean, this is like huge studio film, there's a ton of action, it's like really hard work.

Anytime I'm given scripts where I'm sort of the fantasy girl, it's hard for me because that's not real and I don't think it's a great thing to put out there consistently.

I'm not one of those actors that hates press and gets really groan-y about it - I always like talking about films.

Any addict in recovery would say that life never becomes perfect. Your life is better, but that doesn't mean it's easier. Life, at least for a certain period of time, becomes harder and you have to work through that to get to the light at the end of the tunnel.

It's like so great to be in Toronto and to see everything that's in the books and everything they reference and to be able to hang out in those places and go to those bookstores and those comic book stores and those music stores, and like have that, from the books onto the screen, is so cool and I'm glad to have been part of that.

We make conscious choices to do something a certain way.

I do want to direct, eventually. I don't know if it will be a short film or a music video or a feature, but I know that I want to at least try it and see.

I was kind of embarrassed by some of the films I had done. I was like, "Oh, they're going to think I don't have street cred."

My first movie was a movie that had a bunch of people dying in it - the typical popcorn movie. That's where I got my start.

Which is so important, I mean, that's what's so great about the books, is, you know, those two worlds are sort of, the slacker world of just comedy and laziness and then this crazy, over the top action, supernatural world, and you know, combined.

I guess I've just gotten to the point where I don't want to be bored by the characters that I play, and I don't want to feel like I'm having to make something more interesting or I'm having to force something that's not really there on the page.

I think for most actors, because we sort of have to tell ourselves this, we always say, 'Oh, it doesn't mean anything to win an Oscar!' It certainly isn't a goal that you want to set yourself up for, because then you're just setting yourself up for disaster. Because how many people actually win an Oscar?

I'm a really cautious person, so I don't let myself get into near-death experiences. I'm not into the idea of skydiving or anything.

I actually came to New York when I was 12 and did ballet school for a little while. I was being groomed to be professional, and a lot of the professors and teachers there were drawn to me and thought that I could become a professional ballerina.

When I was 10, my school did Romeo and Juliet. I was Juliet, and that was, like, the biggest deal ever. I was completely obsessed with the role.

I can't say I was much of a gamer growing up or that I am now, but I'm certainly part of that culture or it's part of, you know, the sort of time that I grew up in.

I love anybody who's willing to stick to their own vision, their own voice, who's not easily swayed by money or by financers who are going to tell them what they should do.

I think, like a lot of actors and people in the arts who are struggling to get where they want to be, you spend a lot of time sitting around grumbling about how you're not doing the kind of work you really want to do. But there's a lot of complacency in that, too.

I come from a pretty scientific family. My sister is a neurologist and my brother is an engineer.

I feel like most horror films are made for teenagers about teenagers. I've done a couple of those horror films. There's nothing wrong with that but the older I get the more I starve for more adult material.

Some of those things come out and you don't know where they came from - somebody's leaking totally false information. They follow you for years and you have to be like, "I don't know anything about that."

I have a lot of different traits to my personality, depending on who I'm around, and what the dynamic in the situation is.

I'm a fan of films in general; I mean, I don't think I've ever considered myself specifically a horror fan even though I do enjoy horror films, find them really entertaining.

Obviously, we're all going to die at some point. Whether or not we are fated to die in some way I think is debatable. I just don't know which side to debate.

I do get starstruck working with Bruce because even though he is such a nice guy he's a real movie star. I grew up watching his movies it is just really hard to get used to just being around Bruce Willis. I mean, he's Bruce Willis!

I always wanted to perform in some capacity since I was a kid - I was a ballerina, then a singer before acting.

There's a little wire work, which is so much fun. You can fly, it's amazing. But I've had to mostly just sort of kung fu, you know, ground work. Footwork and stuff like that.

I've always been a huge fan of 'The Shining,' and 'Rosemary's Baby' is one of my favorite films of all time.

The more I work the happier I am.

If you let too many cooks in the kitchen it could cloud your vision of what you want to do.