Quotes from Margaret Qualley

I think gender parity is a crucial part of any healthy society. It's applicable to the entire world.

When you're really serious about ballet, it's a job - even if you're 15 years old. You're doing it six to eight hours a day.

With 'The Leftovers,' I was actually super, super lucky. It was my first major audition. When I came out, the casting director was kissing me on the face, and I was like, 'Oh, that's probably a good sign.'

I like a bohemian floral dress, but then I'll throw on a leather jacket or a pair of lace-up boots to give it an edge. My mom is always trying to get me to wear really sweet clothes. Something pink. But that's not really my look.

'The Leftovers' takes place three years after 2% of the population has gone missing. And it's about how that changes society. Cults form as a result, and it drastically changes home life for a lot of people, including the Garvey family, which is the family I belong to.

My sister and I are pretty dorky, so we drive around at night in her car listening to old Disney songs and feed the coyotes cans of wet cat food, which I'm sure is a terrible idea. Meanwhile, 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty' showtunes are playing in the background.

I was a dancer, growing up, and I definitely thought that was going to be my profession.

I actually quit ballet when I was offered a job, an apprenticeship at North Carolina Dance Theater Company, run by John Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride, who are my idols. Everything sort of went perfectly. I was 16, and I was about to drop out of high school and become a professional ballet dancer.

I was used to having a job - ballet was my job, and I felt like I needed something artistic to focus on after I quit.

I guess I gravitate towards stories that I like and directors that I want to work with, and I hope that it works out.

Ballet can be grueling, for sure, but it gives you a certain discipline.

I still feel guilty buying something without asking my mother first. It's ridiculous. I'll call her and be like, 'I saw this dress, can I get it?' And she'll say, 'Margaret, whatever. Get the dress.'

I don't really know what I'm doing, to be honest. I come up with things, and maybe it works, and maybe it doesn't, and I try to learn from my castmates and director and from everyone.

I was having a really-early-onset midlife crisis, and then something clicked in an improv class, and I knew.

I was one of those dancers who they say wants to feel the floor through their pointe shoes. I would end up not wearing toe pads and that stuff. I would just wrap minimal amounts of paper towels around my toes.

I explored the arts in general; I took painting classes and sketching classes and acting classes and all sorts of different things.

Growing up in North Carolina, my mom was always just sort of my mom to me. I never really recognized her as a famous actress. I'm always thrilled when she's cleaning out her closet. Last time, I got a pair of boots that she bought in Paris 20 years ago. I have completely worn them out.

It's a normal part of the culture of ballet to go to a nutritionist in your first few weeks. They write down everything you eat and use a little roller that pinches you to measure the fat all over your body. Then, every semester, you get a letter saying either you're too thin, or you're OK, or you're overweight.

I think I would find being in Hollywood intense if I had more of a social life, but all I do is stay indoors with my sister and play with our puppy, watch movies.

I think a lot of times, people don't want to do what their parents do because they want to be their own person.

Nothing ever goes to plan. As soon as you are OK with that, everything is much easier.

I went to the Professional Children's School in New York, and I started modeling because I could do that until I actually figured out what I wanted to do, and it gave me the opportunity to travel.

My mother has been an advocate for me as far as modeling goes.

With modelling, there's nothing to work on other than losing weight. I definitely had an eating disorder.