Quotes About Actress

I had no idea of being a star, all I knew was that I wanted to be a great actress, I wanted to work as an actress. So I thought the way I would be a great actress was to sing and dance first. Lay a foundation - get my foot in the door, and then undoubtedly, of course, I would be offered great roles as soon as I grew up enough to handle them.

The good news for me is that I have an amazing team behind me, and they've been with me for 20 years now - almost 20 years. And they have seen me as an actress, not necessarily just a black actress. So I have been lucky enough for them to see me that way.

Books are a really fun way to get yourself in a certain mindset or mood as an actress. Also, the way people tell a story is so revealing and I think it's important as an actress to see all the different ways people can unravel a story, and introduce the characters and the way people speak.

Once an actress always an actress.

I'm really silly. That's the thing that people don't get. I think I'm a stronger comedic actress than I am a dramatic actress. I'm not really pigeonholed, but I'm known for drama. I do comedy so easily, and people relate to my humor. I'll be glad because I don't have to stay sexy and young forever. I don't care if I'm big, as long as I'm funny.

I never really thought about being an actress or being anything like that. I was always a bit scared as well because of the thing about models becoming an actress and all that.

I've joked that I would have either become schizophrenic or an actress, but as an actress you can do both.

I'm always interested in something that Helen Mirren is doing. I thought her series Prime Suspect was unbelievable. I think she might be my favorite actress.

I think that there are a lot of reasons to be insecure as an actress... But I don’t really have a perception issue. I’ve been pretty good about being who I am in the public’s eye.

Virginia Mayo had kind of a small role in The Best Years of Our Lives, but you got the whole character in one scene. Where are those parts? I was talking to somebody about great actors: Morgan Freeman's name came up, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington. And I realized, there're no black actresses. Where's there a black actress who's been extremely successful in the past 10 years?

I tried to find a character and how I would be an American actress in the 30s. But if this was a talking movie [The Artist], I'm sure she would be exactly the same for me.

Remember picture books are the closest form of writing to a poem. Even though they don't have to rhyme, they must be poetic. They must be written so the worst actress can read with comfort and expression.

I don't have a diet, and whenever I feel like eating a burger or pizza or tacos, I just go for it. I feel like my body is telling me I need that. I think it's important for an actress to look like a real person.

I love New York very much, and it was very important for me to spend my 20s in New York City. You're exposed to so much here, whether it's other people or just the grind of it and how hard you have to work. I think it forces you to define yourself: what kind of person do you want to be? What kind of woman do you want to be? And then inevitably, what kind of actress do you want to be?

I've reached the point where I really can't care what anyone thinks. Of course, I do. I'm an actress. I'm totally insecure, but I'm trying to stick to my guns about what is important to me, and it doesn't matter what anyone thinks I should or shouldn't do.

As a director, I get to have a much broader creative expression than as an actress.

It was not easy for my mother, being a struggling actress and raising a child. We were these two sort of vagabonds, never knowing where the money was going to come from. She always says she couldn't afford a babysitter, which is why she put me on the stage.

When you're an actress you are in a very specific position, cerebrally, I would think you know. You are a thinking person but you are in a certain perception of the world between really being conceptual and completely stupid. So you are in between, with a lot of intuition and instinct. And that's not completely being intellectual because I think intuition is more blurred. It comes from intuition. Instinct. More than really reasoning.

I started out as a lousy actress and have remained one.

I adore going to movie sets and being part of a team trying to create something. And yet, I hate to miss even one bedtime with my girls. . . My sisters both are working mothers. I understand that my being an actress as well as being at home isn't some heroic thing. That doesn't mean it isn't confusing or difficult--especially that question of how you find a balance.

I'm just a pack mule. I've played leads and I've played character roles. Any actress in Hollywood will tell you as your age climbs, the leads thin.

I've been in showbusiness all my life, but as an actress I have never been overly driven.

After all the work I've done, why should I suddenly be treated as a bona fide actress?

Being an actress is to be in tune with the fantasies of a man. What woman never dreamt of that?

My mother and father always supported my passion for acting. I think they just kind of expected me to move to New York and become an actress and have all these adventures.

Marilyn Monroe gave more to the still camera than any actress, any woman I've ever photographed; infinitely more patient, more demanding of herself and more comfortable in front of the camera than away from it.

An actress' best friend is a body which responds instinctively to thought.

The three things I said when I came out of school were I want to work consistently, I want to do good work and I want to be paid fairly, and that's happened. But I didn't become an actress for the money. I do it for other reasons.

I was 21 years and 218 days old when I received the Academy Award for Best Actress. I had just stepped into an imaginary world that I'd seen at a distance for years.

My favorite question is 'What do you do?' I'm like, 'I'm a walking cliche: I'm a model and an actress.

I had always wanted to be an actress. I went to summer theater camp from kindergarten on up until high school, and always had the leads in all the plays - even though they were at the YMCA - but it was something I always wanted to do.

I think there will always be a double standard between males and females, so I think that an actress is more likely to protect her public persona, so to speak, than an actor would be.

Every actress has to face the facts there are younger, more beautiful girls right behind you. Once you've gone beyond the vanity of the business, you'll take on the tough roles.

I was lucky enough to be able to grow and mature in a natural way as an actress.

My mom kind of led me toward acting. She wanted to be an actress when she was younger. That made me interested in it when I was a kid, because she and I are very close.

I guess I was an early method actress. I would go to a quiet part of the sound stage with my mother. I wouldn't think of anything sad, I would just make my mind a blank. In a minute I could cry.

I have a music career as well, so I was going to either be an actress or a musician. Then, I did both. But, I was always going to do something creative.

Although I did end up trying out several different fields before committing to acting, I knew in the deepest part of heart that I wanted to be an actress.

I think the era of the diva actress is coming to an end.

One would expect an actress to stand onscreen mostly as a caricature. If she would say, "I'm selling shoes," you would believe her. She says it and it creates this fiction, non-fiction perception of the film. People believe it because she says it. If she said, "I'm a butcher," people would believe it too, I think.

The condition of being an actress can be unbearable.

Its really good to have so distinctive a name as an actress. No one ever forgets it. My sister and brother are called Perdita and Rollo. Actually, my family calls me Hollyhocks.

I came to L.A. to work and become a better actress, not to be a star.

I think as a young actress, it's very rare that you read something where you're not either 'the girl' or there to serve some romantic purpose in a male dominated cast.

I used to get some ego thing out of saying I wasn't a star, just an actress. Forget it. I'm a star. I wanted it. I worked for it. I got it.

I don't think anyone has the right to intrude in your life, but they do. I would like people to separate the actress and the woman.

As an actress I find the most enjoyable part of acting is really just to please the director. I just want to please my director.

I played football when I was little. I didn't want to be an actress at all, I wanted to be a majorette in an Australian circus. That was my ambition.