Quotes About Acting

As soon as I have the script in my hand, I'll be up in my apartment room pacing up and down learning it because it's just such a lovely thing to do.

There are many things in common with my life and my character in 'American Crime.' My upbringing has definitely helped me out in this role.

I have acted in all four film industries in the South. I speak all four languages because of my upbringing in various cities.

While I'd like to make movies that are uplifting, there's always that part of you that goes, 'I want to play the evil guy because it's not me.' So anything that is not me is a challenge, and if I rise to the challenge, then I've kind of proved myself.

I'm not at all fed up with British films, but I am fed up with playing upper-class people.

When I was younger, I played a lot of upper-class English girls. Then I came to America, and everyone was like, 'She's very believable as trailer trash.'

When I was at Upright Citizens Brigade, I would pretend to be a sad, drunk rapper.

It's very important to play a police role convincingly. It ups you in your career. Even 'Siruthai,' in which I played a cop in one of the roles, was a gamechanger.

On Disney, we stick to the script. But you go to the 'Grown Ups set' and it's completely different. Same thing with Tyler Perry - it's nothing but ad-libbing.

Man, I had a good time working on 'Grown Ups 2.' First of all, when I read the script, it is hands-down the funniest script I've ever read. It's laugh-out-loud funny.

It would be interesting to get into two different get ups and play diverse characters.

Everyone has ups and downs. You can't always get exciting roles.

Over the years I've grown to love the industry, my job, and the profession itself. It's been a journey full of ups and downs. For the first few years, it was a journey of self discovery where I grew to love acting while acting.

My dad was one of the original members of the Groundlings, and I watched him as an actor have ups and downs, and I watched my mom as a casting director have ups and downs.

You do get used to the ups and downs, the rejection of auditions and not getting parts, and so when you do get a job, it feels really special, and you try to hold onto it for as long as you can.

But having said that, becoming an actor was the best decision I ever made. With its ups and downs and its craziness, nothing makes me happier in life.

If I do a movie where I have to have a son and it's a chubby kid, my mother is always like, 'You were never like that.' She gets so upset about it.

I was terribly upset not to be in 'Dickensian,' so I pretend to look down on it. The part I should have played, Mrs. Gamp, is done brilliantly by Pauline Collins, but I entered this world for no other reason than to play that part.

People will come up and say - and it is insulting - 'Do you ever want to do anything else? Like some real acting? Or a real show?' Here's the thing: You can either get upset about that, or you can realize that that person isn't trying to offend you. They're literally interested, and they're asking you a question.

I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down.

Sometimes it was tough doing take after take upside down! I did a lot of that sort of thing.

I do love doing stunts; I was in a film called 'The Quiet Ones,' which was quite a spooky film, and I had to be hung upside down, which was good.

I started doing repertory theatre in upstate New York when I was 15, went back when I was 16, and by that time decided that I really wanted to study drama seriously and go to an acting conservatory called Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

I never thought of acting as a creative process. Christ, I used to go to the movies and see Brando talking like he was trying to sell shoes, and he was great. I thought anybody could do it. Then I tried it, and I got so uptight, I'm limited as to what I can do on film.