Tracey Ullman Quotes (36 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman: 36 quotes 0 likes

Famous Tracey Ullman Quotes

“I wouldn't do anything mean spirited. If it's in the wrong spirit, or if its not honest, then I wouldn't do it. It's got to honest. Otherwise, what's the point?”

Tracey Ullman

The Des Moines Register https://www.newspapers.com/image/296428181 (11 May 1990)

“Every seven years or so I look around me and I want to look at the society and I want to try and be everyone I'm seeing in the world right now. […] And I've done this all my life. I realized I used to do this in my mother's bedroom when I was 6. I used to be everyone in my village and everyone at school and everyone in the news, and I'm still doing that same show. I'm now 56. I think I can do it in my 80s. I'll just, you know, impersonate everyone around me then in the nursing home.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted by NPR http://www.npr.org/2016/10/28/499796182/british-comedian-tracey-ullman-brings-celebrity-impersonations-to-hbo in 2016, on what what drives her to do impersonations

“I have the sh*ttest birthday—the 30th of December! Can you imagine what that was like when I was a kid in England? It was the day before New Year’s Eve. It was horrific! My sister’s birthday is on the fourth of July. It was all about strawberries and dancing in the garden in summer dresses. Mine was like, “Don’t talk about it. It’s her birthday.” It was pitch-dark (laughter). Every one wrapped presents for me that they didn’t want from Christmas. It was a terrible time to have a birthday (laughter)!”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 2009 The Many States of Tracey Ullman https://tracey-archives.tumblr.com/post/119868522838/the-many-funny-states-of-tracey-ullman

“As I get older, I just prefer to knit.”

Tracey Ullman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

“The BBC said the only thing they didn’t like about the show was those weird little animated characters and suggested maybe they could get rid of them because they would never catch on.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 2009 about The Simpsons shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/107675/Brit-comedienne-Tracey-Ullman-can-t-crack-the-UK

“I'm as famous as I want to be.”

Tracey Ullman

"Ullman, By Hook & By 'Crooks'" http://www.nydailynews.com/ullman-hook-crooks-tracey-tireless-efforts-landed-role-woody-allen-leading-lady-article-1.859726 (NY Daily News, 14 May 2000)

Tracey Ullman Quotes about thinking

“Hollywood to me, I never get the real glamour and romance. I look at an old picture of Veronica Lake, you know, looking glamorous, and I just look at her and think, "Maybe she had her period that day."”

Tracey Ullman book Tracey Takes On...

Tracey Takes On... (1996–99)

“Why does everyone think the future is space helmets, silver foil, and talking like computers, like a bad episode of Star Trek?”

Tracey Ullman

"Tracking Tracey" http://www.dareland.com/emulsionalproblems/ullman.htm (Interview, January 1989)

“People think I'm a demented little pixie, but I'm not 'on' all the time. I'm sensible. I pay my bills. I've never done drugs. I don't drink or smoke. I eat organic. I'm a goody-goody, really, but I can play bad girls.”

Tracey Ullman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

“American [comedy] was always stronger because you had Lucille Ball, you had Carol Burnett, you had Lily Tomlin, Gilda Radner. I came from a country where we just had Benny Hill girls. You had to run around in a bikini basically in the '80s in Britain. Then I did a sketch show and Pamela Stevenson and then (Dawn) French and (Jennifer) Saunders just shook it all up. But I grew up thinking I could be a character actress. I didn't think I could go into comedy.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 2015 in The Hollywood Reporter https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tracey-ullman-bbcs-female-revolution-830223

“I based my career from the very beginning on people like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Margaret Rutherford. I keep thinking Maggie and Judi are going to eventually not want those parts and I’m going to move up and take them (laughter). So, hopefully, I’ll be working in my 70s and 80s. You know, character actresses. I never had looks to lose. I could keep going—Meryl Streep and me.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 2009 in The Many States of Tracey Ullman https://tracey-archives.tumblr.com/post/119868522838/the-many-funny-states-of-tracey-ullman

Tracey Ullman Quotes

“I thought, is this what it's all about? Do you have to be blonde and girly and have freckles and a snub-nose and sort of act the coquette in show business? WELL YES!”

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed (2005)

Business

“It's very therapeutic, what I do. Other people get this anonymity and thrill from being in an Internet chat room, where they can be anybody they want to be. That's the feeling I get, but to an even greater extent. I physically take on these characteristics. Afterwards, I feel I'm a parrot. I need a black bag put over my head until I become myself again.”

Tracey Ullman

On playing multiple characters in her television shows
"Ullman, By Hook & By 'Crooks'" http://www.nydailynews.com/ullman-hook-crooks-tracey-tireless-efforts-landed-role-woody-allen-leading-lady-article-1.859726 (NY Daily News, 14 May 2000)

People , Feeling

“I was never a child. I was always a menopausal woman within a child's body.”

Tracey Ullman book Tracey Takes On...

Tracey Takes On... (1996–99)

“What I fear most is that you will know where the laughs are going to come, or that you will know a character so well that you know when they're going to sing a song. In some shows, you just know that the audience is sitting there going "Oh no, she's going to sing."”

Tracey Ullman

"Tracking Tracey" http://www.dareland.com/emulsionalproblems/ullman.htm (Interview, January 1989)

Fear , Singing

“I left school at 16 and went to Berlin and danced […] West Berlin, 1976. It was amazing. I wish they hadn't taken the wall down. Now it's full of east Germans wearing Versace shirts.”

Tracey Ullman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

School , Dance

“I never worked with a dialogue coach before, but I'd hate it if an American did a British accent and didn't do it well. It would be insulting.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 1989 in The New York Times article "Tracy Ullman Makes A Face" http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/15/magazine/tracy-ullman-makes-a-face.html?pagewanted=all

Hate

“My mum went and married a really horrible horrible man, who drove a taxi at night and had a sticky-fingered son and he smoked cigars in the toilet. Smelled terrible! Again, there's no therapy, there's no counseling over the whole situation! Just married the maniac. And there was a new person in her bed now, and I couldn't do my nightly performance anymore. I was nine years old and my show had been canceled!”

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed (2005)

Personality , Night

“My face is a good one for doing impersonations. I’ve got small eyes, a low brow and a big head … When I worked at the BBC in the 80s the only wigs that would fit me were Mike Yardwood's.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 2016 in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jan/10/tracey-ullman-my-face-is-good-for-impersonations

“As we twirled and snapped our fingers, I felt light and airy and fancy-free. Of course I did, I had no bloody panties on! And the cartwheel lift's coming up! And I'm a brunette!”

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed (2005)

Light

“From an early age. I used to dress up and impersonate our next-door neighbor, Miss Cox. She wore rubber boots, a wool hat, and her nose always dripped. My father died when I was 6 and we were really sad, so I put on a show for my mum. [In a mocking American accent] Looking back now, it was a kind of therapy.”

Tracey Ullman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

Age , Sadness

“They hold onto a small child who's hungry, then go back to their homes and feel good about themselves. That's how I perceive actors getting involved in politics and charities. They want even more attention for themselves, it's in their nature.”

Tracey Ullman

"Tracking Tracey" http://www.dareland.com/emulsionalproblems/ullman.htm (Interview, January 1989)

Feeling , Home , Nature

“Everybody's [in Berlin] gay!”

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed (2005)

“Every character I do is based on someone I know. I try to justify every sketch we do. If it's not working, we find someone to talk to who it has happened to.”

Tracey Ullman

"Tracking Tracey" http://www.dareland.com/emulsionalproblems/ullman.htm (Interview, January 1989)

“I'd stand in front of the mirror and talk to myself until I fell asleep, you know. I'd interview myself as women with problems, you know, like, women in documentaries who had three kids and chainsmoked and husbands in prison that hit them! I'd be in the mirror going, [lowers voice] yeah well, you know, it's not easy since Derrin went into prison. My eyes aren't black anymore, but the twins, Tilly and Wayne, you know, they don't stop crying. SHUT UP TILLY SHUT UP TILLY!”

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed (2005)

Women , Problem , Cry

“I love John Waters. There's stuff in it that's beyond the boundaries of my taste, but his movies have always been like that.”

Tracey Ullman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

Love , Water

“In 1976 I was sweet 16. Well, I was never sweet, but I was 16.”

Tracey Ullman book Tracey Takes On...

Tracey Takes On... (1996–99)

“You see, most people with multiple personalities get therapy. I get my own HBO comedy series!”

Tracey Ullman book Tracey Takes On...

Tracey Takes On... (1996–99)

People , Personality

“I thought I'd end up in a Swiss sanitarium. It was brutally hard work. I could barely see my family.”

Tracey Ullman

On doing her 1980s Fox network series
"Ullman, By Hook & By 'Crooks'" http://www.nydailynews.com/ullman-hook-crooks-tracey-tireless-efforts-landed-role-woody-allen-leading-lady-article-1.859726 (NY Daily News, 14 May 2000)

Family

“Oh, yeah, she's that snippy little Brit girl who takes all the parts so no one else gets a crack at it.”

Tracey Ullman book Tracey Takes On...

Rayleen Gibson (Tracey Takes On... character) on Tracey Ullman in "Tracey Takes On... Fame"
Tracey Takes On... (1996–99)

Girl , Parting

“Dignity, girls! Ageing with dignity – that's the thing.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in The Express https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/553797/Into-The-Woods-Tracey-Ullman-interview in 2015

Age , Girl

“There’s real fear of aging in this country, which I don’t share. It seems to be an American nightmare, especially for women. There’s nothing worse than a woman trying to look like she did when she was 32 when she is 58. It’s like, “Have some dignity, guys—just go with it!””

Tracey Ullman

Quoted in 2009 in The Many States of Tracey Ullman https://tracey-archives.tumblr.com/post/119868522838/the-many-funny-states-of-tracey-ullman

Women , Age , Fear , Guy

“As we twirled and snapped our fingers, I felt light and airy and fancy-free. Of course I did, I had no bloody panties on!”

Tracey Ullman

And the cartwheel lift's coming up! And I'm a brunette!
Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed (2005)

Light

“Working with the same people week after week brings out inspiration. You have to have an open discussion or you end up with actors saying fuck you to the writers and writers saying fuck you to the actors.”

Tracey Ullman

"Tracking Tracey" http://www.dareland.com/emulsionalproblems/ullman.htm (Interview, January 1989)

People

“Some kids can play the piano or kick a football; I could just impersonate everyone.”

Tracey Ullman

Quoted on a 2003 episode of The View.

Football

“My real name is Trace Ullman, but I added the 'y.'”

Tracey Ullman

Source: On the subject of her name in Look in TV Annual (Independent Television Books Ltd, 1984)
Context: My mother said it was spelled the American way, but I don't think she can spell! I always wanted a middle name. My mum used to tell me it was Mary but I never believed her. I looked on my birth certificate and I didn't have one, just Trace Ullman.