Quotes about actress

A collection of quotes on the topic of actress, likeness, want, thinking.

Quotes about actress

Katie McGrath photo
Gregory Peck photo

“My cat is not insane, she's just a really good actress.”

Source: Untamed

Sara Paxton photo
Oliver Herford photo

“Actresses will happen in the best-regulated families.”

Oliver Herford (1863–1935) American writer

The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations (1986), p. 9.
Attributed

Salman Khan photo
Katie McGrath photo
Brigitte Bardot photo

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

Brigitte Bardot (1934) French model, actor, singer and animal rights activist
Jennifer Lopez photo

“I'm the best. If you have the goods, there's nothing to be afraid of. If somebody doesn’t have the goods, they're insecure. I don't have that problem. I'm not the best actress that ever lived, but I know I'm pretty good.”

Jennifer Lopez (1969) American singer and actress

Jennifer Lopez shades A-list actress peers in resurfaced interview https://nypost.com/2019/09/25/jennifer-lopez-shades-a-list-actress-peers-in-resurfaced-interview/, by Nadine DeNinno, New York Post, September 25, 2019.

Marilyn Monroe photo

“Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one… I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Context: Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live.

Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, published in LIFE magazine a few days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) <!-- p. 42 -->

Marilyn Monroe photo
Bret Easton Ellis photo
Conan O'Brien photo

“Now that this mess is almost behind me – I just have one last request: HBO, when you make the movie about this whole NBC late night fiasco, I’d like to be played by Academy-Award winning actress Tilda Swinton.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

January 22, 2010 Monologue Variety, 23 Jan 2010 http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/
The Tonight Show

Salma Hayek photo

“I'd hear, "Because they paid the man, there's no money for the woman." How many times do you think I heard this? Over and over. Then I became a sex symbol. Now, how the hell did that happen? I don't exactly know the moment when it happened, but all of a sudden I'm a bombshell. The way I discovered this was I did Desperado. I had a very hard time with the love scene. I cried throughout the love scene. That's why you never see long pieces of the love scene — it's little pieces cut together. I'm crying most of the time so they have to take little pieces. It took eight hours instead of an hour. I nearly got fired. … Because I didn't want to be naked in front of a camera. The whole time, I'm thinking of my father and my brother… And then when the movie comes out, I read the first review. What do they say about me. "Salma Hayek is a bombshell." I had heard that when a movie does badly here, they say it bombs. So I'm crying. Thinking they're saying, "That terrible actress! It's a bomb! Salma Hayek is the worst part of the movie!" I called my friend and said, "The critics are destroying me!" She says, "No, they're saying you're very sexy." And then I look at all the reviews, and everybody said I was very sexy. So I'm very confused. I said, "I wonder if that's good or bad." I hear, "Yes, that's good." Then I do Fools Rush In, and I'm a pregnant woman. And they say I'm sexy again! I go, "But I'm pregnant!"”

Salma Hayek (1966) Mexican-American actress and producer

I'm not even naked in this movie, and they still say I'm sexy. And then it became very depressing — I thought, I guess I'm reduced to that now. That's all I am in the perception of these people.
O interview (2003)

“[Unnamed actress on the set of Grand Prix] never had eyes for me. Hell, she wouldn't even talk to me, after she'd found out that I was just an unimportant actor. Good grief! Then, this is what happened: We were sitting in the foyer of the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. She, myself and Antonio. Then an assistant director crossed our path. That actress was trying to get him to take us to the theatre where they were showing the rushes of the day before. After some discussion, she persuaded him. He said: `Be quiet, I'm gonna lose my job…' So we hid in the balcony, looking down, where that wonderful director Frankenheimer was sitting. After some minutes of racing cars, finally her scene came, and she was doing a phone call - she was playing a sophisticated magazine editor -, and suddenly you could hear the director, who had this loud, resonant voice, howling in rage, because he didn't like her at all. `Oh my God, she's awful! She can't walk, she can't talk, look at her hair!' So he turned to that faggot hairdresser, who was like Katherine the Great, and this guy said: `Well, usually she plays this peasant types. I don't know why you cast her for this role in the first place!”

Donald O'Brien (actor) (1930–2003) Italian film and TV actor

And remember, this actress was sitting there with us, and she nearly went crazy! She was squirming with embarrassment. This is an actor's nightmare, you know. The next day she was fired.
Euro Trash Cinema magazine interview (March 1996)

Rekha photo
Jennifer Garner photo
Jusuf Kalla photo
Mallika Sherawat photo
Uma Thurman photo
Maggie Gyllenhaal photo
Lindsay Lohan photo
Mary Tyler Moore photo

“I'm not an actress who can create a character. I play me.”

Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) American actress, television producer

As quoted in TV Guide (1970) http://books.google.com/books?id=ZokxAQAAIAAJ&q=%22I'm+not+an+actress+who+can+create+a+character.+I+play+me.%22&dq=%22I'm+not+an+actress+who+can+create+a+character.+I+play+me.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vu6CUaY_1LTgA_DtgaAJ&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA, also in Celebrity Register (1986) edited by Cleveland Amory and Earl Blackwell, p. 353

Monica Keena photo
Lucille Ball photo
John McCain photo

“You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

Supposedly said during an interview with Fox News http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/7/5/00548.shtml
Disputed

Alexandra Kollontai photo
Angelique Rockas photo
Tallulah Bankhead photo

“If you really want to help the American theater, don't be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.”

Tallulah Bankhead (1902–1968) American actress

Tallulah: My Autobiography (1952)

Lizabeth Scott photo

“When you say ambition to me, that's when you get me started! My greatest ambition is to be the whoppingest best actress in Hollywood. You can't blame a girl for trying! I don't want to be classed as a "personality," something to stare at. I want to have my talents respected, not only by the public but by myself.”

Lizabeth Scott (1922–2015) American actress and singer

McFadden, Robert D. (February 6, 2015). " Lizabeth Scott, Film Noir Siren, Dies at 92 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/movies/lizabeth-scott-film-noir-siren-dies-at-92.html". The New York Times.

Marilyn Monroe photo

“An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 38

June Vincent photo
Megan Mullally photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
Charles Reade photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Pauline Kael photo
Irene Dunne photo

“If I began today, I would certainly remember that by becoming a movie actress one automatically becomes vulnerable in the matter of gossip.”

Irene Dunne (1898–1990) American actress

If You Want Success (Screenland Interview) (1961)

Paz de la Huerta photo
Masiela Lusha photo
Mumtaz (actress) photo
Salma Hayek photo
Lisa Kudrow photo
Han Han photo
Michelle Gomez photo

“Sex and politics - sex and politicians. I never understand how any politician gets a shag, really. Can you? A classic example: the David Mellor sex scandal. I bet you're the same as me. We're not shocked by these scandals involving politicians. I bet when that happened, your response was not 'Good God, that's outrageous! A man in his job, he should be running the country, not messing about like this; no wonder we're in a state; terrible!' No, that wasn't the response. You open the paper, you read about that, and you go 'Ha ha ha ha - I don't think so, Dave! I don't think so. In your dreams, perhaps.' The interesting person in that relationship is not him; it's her - Antonia. A woman of mystery; a mystery woman. Antonia de Sancha, always described as an 'unemployed actress'. Unemployed actress? How's she an unemployed actress? God! if you can feign sexual interest in David Mellor, I should think Chekhov's a piece of piss. So, she thinks 'I'm an actress. It's a role. I'll prepare'. She gets to the bedroom situation. He's in a kit-off situation, and there's Antonia giving it 'Red lorry, yellow lorry - Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper'. But the hair - that's the main unattractive thing. What barber told him that suited him? Someone winding him up there. 'Yes, David, that'll suit you, mate: a greasy, oily flap of dirty-looking patent leather, wafting about down one side of your moosh; that'll drive those unemployed actresses mental!' (Linda Live, 1993)”

Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian

Stand-up

Halle Berry photo

“I love Halle. She's so sweet. I connected with her immediately and, even though we only worked together for a few days, it was the best connection I've ever had with an actress. She made me feel like I could trust her.”

Halle Berry (1966) American actress

Penelope Cruz, on working with Berry in Gothika — reported in Los Angeles Daily News staff (November 20, 2003) "American Gothika; Halle Berry overcomes her career fear to take first marquee role in horror film", The Guelph Mercury, p. F12.
About

Joni Mitchell photo
Jerome David Salinger photo
Peggy Moran photo
Marlon Brando photo
Michelle Trachtenberg photo

“I was always wanting to learn and be one of those actresses who can actually hold a conversation as opposed to standing there looking pretty.”

Michelle Trachtenberg (1985) American actress

Interview by Nicki Gostin, Newsweek, Updated: 10:46 a.m. ET March 11, 2005

Fred Astaire photo

“Of all the actors and actresses I've ever worked with, the hardest worker is Fred Astaire. He behaved like he was a young man whose whole destiny depended on being successful in his first film. He rehearses between takes, after takes - there's no limit to his professionalism.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Rouben Mamoulian in Lecture and discussion at University of Southern California, December 7, 1975. Tape recording, Special Collections, University of Southern California. (M).

Rekha photo
Ingmar Bergman photo

“He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I've seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade… He concentrated on single images, never realising that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

On Michelangelo Antonioni
Variant translation: Antonioni has never properly learnt his craft. He's an aesthete. If, for example, he needs a certain kind of road for The Red Desert, then he gets the houses repainted on the damned street. That is the attitude of an aesthete. He took great care over a single shot, but didn't understand that a film is a rhythmic stream of images, a living, moving process; for him, on the contrary, it was such a shot, then another shot, then yet another. So, sure, there are some brilliant bits in his films... I can't understand why Antonioni is held in such high esteem.
Jan Aghed interview (2002)

Marlene Dietrich photo
Angelique Rockas photo
Sherilyn Fenn photo
Lisa Wilcox photo
Jack White photo
Mukta Barve photo

“I am a greedy actress. I still feel there is so much more I want to do as an actress. I won’t take up direction anytime soon because I alone would feel like essaying all the roles in my film!”

Mukta Barve (1979) Indian actress

There’s still so much I want to do as an actress: Mukta Barve http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=5487432128260758691&SectionId=5558842172310824508&SectionName=Cinema&NewsDate=20131024&NewsTitle=There’s%20still%20so%20much%20I%20want%20to%20do%20as%20an%20actress:%20Mukta%20Barve

Marilyn Monroe photo

“First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42
Variant: First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

Elbert Hubbard photo

“Should we have an Eleventh Commandment?" asked a youth of the Greatest Living Actress. "Most assuredly, no - we have ten too many now!”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

answered the divine Sara.
Source: A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard (1911), p. 17.

André Maurois photo
Madhuri Dixit photo
Sienna Guillory photo
Harry Chapin photo
Masiela Lusha photo

“It came about like a typical audition where the actress doesn’t know a soul in the room, and exposes her heart and vulnerability in hopes of winning a handful of strangers’ affection.”

Masiela Lusha (1985) Albanian actress, writer, author

On being cast for the role of Carmen Lopez on the George Lopez show http://reelladies.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/reel-lady-masiela-lusha/

Manisha Koirala photo
Lillian Gish photo

“For Lillian Gish, My Favorite Actress. On the occasion of her 1st visit to New York of which this book is a practical guide. From Her Chattel, F. Scott Fitzgerald”

Lillian Gish (1893–1993) American actress

F. Scott Fitzgerald's letter to Gish, written within a copy of Tender is the Night http://gothamist.com/2013/01/29/fitzgerald_pens_letter_to_favorite.php
About

Sherilyn Fenn photo

“The studios have their list of five actresses and whether they’re right or wrong for a role doesn’t matter. It’s how much money their last movie made.”

Sherilyn Fenn (1965) American actress

Sherilyn Fenn, quoted in "Crate Expectations", by Jim McClellan. The Face (UK). Issue 57. June 1993. p. 40-47.

Rachel Weisz photo
Harry Chapin photo
April Winchell photo

“[Referring to actress Winona Rydr] "Get over it! Your 'wide-eyed, gamine, trembling chipmunk' thing! Get over it!"”

April Winchell (1960) American voice actor and writer

KFI-Los Angeles radio broadcast, October 15, 2000, available at AprilWinchell.com http://www.aprilwinchell.com/2000/10/15/kfi-sunday-october-15-2000/

Tina Fey photo

“They made a porn movie about Sarah Palin, and the same actress, Lisa Ann, played me in the porn version of 30 Rock. Weirdly, of the three of us, Lisa Ann knows the most about foreign policy.”

Tina Fey (1970) American comedian, writer, producer and actress

"Ask Tina" segment from NBC's 30 Rock website

Camille Paglia photo
Lee Meriwether photo
Lucille Ball photo
Isabelle Adjani photo
Preity Zinta photo
Madonna photo

“Hollywood is about playing the game, and I can't think of any successful actresses who didn't play the game. there's a lot more renegades in the music business, from Patti Smith to Janis Joplin.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Aperture Magazine 1999 http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews-articles/aperture-magazine-summer-1999

Lillian Gish photo

“Lillian Gish is not only the best actress in her profession, but has the best mind of any woman I have ever met.”

Lillian Gish (1893–1993) American actress

D. W. Griffith
About

Kamal Haasan photo
Halle Berry photo

“Actors always have to fight for the good parts. There are so few good roles written for women each year, and when one is written like this every actress in town covets the role.”

Halle Berry (1966) American actress

On her role in the film Things We Lost In The Fire — Western Mail staff (February 1, 2008) "From the grave to the cradle", Western Mail.

Vyjayanthimala photo

“She says she was the only south Indian actress who could speak Hindi without a South Indian accent, at the time.”

Vyjayanthimala (1936) Indian actress, politician & dancer

In "There's no slowing down for Vyjayanthimala".

Ellen Page photo
Ellen Terry photo

“Tall, slender, with beautiful flaxen hair, grey eyes, full red lips, finely framed features, graceful of carriage and movement, fresh and always young, Ellen Terry was as much an art object as an actress.”

Ellen Terry (1847–1928) English actress

Katharine Cockin, quoted in Spartacus biography http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ACterry.htm
About

Kate Mulgrew photo
Desmond Morris photo
Janeane Garofalo photo

“There's always [on women's magazines] that great photo of the actress or model lifting up her shirt just to show you the bone structure and the six-pack of her own. It's almost like when horses are auctioned and they show you their teeth. 'Am I good enough?”

Janeane Garofalo (1964) comedian, actress, political activist, writer

standup performance (accessible through .WAV files available on the Internet)[citation needed]
Standup routines

Mumtaz (actress) photo
Sara Malakul Lane photo
Tracey Ullman photo