Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
One of the biggest challenges in my job is letting go of the movie once you go home at night, and knowing you can't do anything to your performance once you've laid it on film.
I try to search for roles where the character is not dependent on how she looks, but it is hard because I didn't know anyone in this industry, so I started as an extra and fought.
I think there's a part when you sign your soul to the devil and start working in Los Angeles that you also sign away that you could be a human being in anyone's eye. You're like a robot!
For someone like me, who prefers to keep their life as private as possible, it was disconcerting to have to define so much about myself. I don't want to be labeled as one thing or another.
You know, I've kind of been lucky enough to always work with established actors or big names or people that are really popular or infamous for doing what they do and doing it well, I guess.
[The Rum Diary] is a prestigious movie and it's got a great, talented cast, so they wanted to make sure they had the right person for the role, but it was a torturous process. It was painful.
I love things that have a vintage feel to them, just because there's a certain texture to them that we just don't have anymore. In fact I think I've been stuck in the 50s or 60s for a while...
I think the main struggle for women in Hollywood and women in my position is to fight for true representation in the media and accurate representation of our many diverse qualities in stories.
I have successfully avoided being stereotyped into a specific category. I've worked very hard at that, and I'm proud of not being easily lumped into anybody's preconceived notions or expectations.
If you've been seeing someone for a short while and the "relationship" winds itself down mutually but not explicitly, no postmortem is necessary. But a real relationship should have a real ending.
I grew up driving old pickup trucks on the ranch with my dad, and I still always find myself driving like I'm out in an open field, except I'm in LA on La Cienega in the middle of rush-hour traffic.
We come from a somewhat puritanical and chauvinistic point-of-view, so that when we're asked questions about women being empowered by sexuality, we often confuse it with women who are victimized by it.
Can you ever imagine yourself in a situation like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie or Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, where the world feels like they have a stake in your private life? I would never want it.
I say I'm a rebel. I'm continually fighting against [sexism]. I don't take parts because they're for the sexy girl. I take the sexy girl parts and try to give them something else and make them a character.
I am constantly struggling to show people that there is more to me than my appearance. You do have to try and overcome those hurdles. Female actresses need to be given the chance to be more than how they look.
I want to be able to create characters for as long as I can and I want to tell stories for as long as I can but unfortunately I'm not given those opportunities because I'm often boxed into the former category...
I did nothing to look the way I look. The genetic cards that anyone is dealt are not in their control, so to take pride in my looks would be a mistake. And besides, in L.A. there's always someone more beautiful!
We didn't take Charlize Theron seriously until she did 'Monster' and became physically ugly. I would love to see women be able to be powerful, complex, smart, opinionated and taken seriously, even if they are beautiful.
I don't want to play into the perception that all women should look like fourteen year old boys. I don't want to add to that pressure for young girls. But in Hollywood, there is a constant pressure to look a certain way.
A lot of nudity in my early movies was out of necessity. When I came out to Hollywood, I didn't know anybody, I didn't have any connections. I did what a lot of people have to do in the real world, and just work up from the bottom.
My very best friend died in a car accident when I was 16 years old. That was the hardest blow emotionally that I have ever had to endure. Suddenly, you realize tomorrow might not come. Now I live by the motto, 'Today is what I have.'
Some of my best friends in LA are devoutly religious people. I'm completely supportive and interested in people doing their own thing. That's a motto that I try to live by, and I hope that's how other people treat me. Live and let live.
I can definitely make an argument for atheism. I was very educated in scripture and dogma and the church, particularly the Catholic Church. I could not possibly know that I disagreed with religion unless I knew what I was disagreeing with.
I would love to see women be able to be powerful, complex, smart, opinionated and taken seriously, even if they are beautiful. Even more, I would love to see women held to different standards, other than the superficial ones that we're held to.
If you're not seeing each other anymore because things are so strained, and your only communication is a weekly e-mail, and you're wondering which medium is most appropriate for announcing your desire to break up - guess what, you've already broken up.
If you're seen as beautiful or sexy then your only options in terms of character descriptions are beautiful, sexy, cute - and that's it. And that affords you a certain amount of opportunity but that opportunity ultimately leads to a spark, never a flame.
It is really hard when you spend your life living out of a suitcase. But it really does weed out superficial people - if someone is still with you after the second movie, then they're probably a good one! I like to trust people in general - it's the southern girl in me.
I don't want to be labeled as one thing or another. In the past I've had successful relationships with men, and now I'm in this successful relationship with a woman. When it comes to love I am totally open. And I don't want to be put into a category, as in "I'm this" or "I'm that."
When I go into making a movie, personally, I don't try to bring other pieces of movies with me. I think that finding a character, relating to her and making her as real as possible means forgetting all of that stuff and just trying to find the truth, in that particular character's words.
I love fast cars, loud guns and classic rock 'n' roll, but I'd never do any of it in flats. I love me a nice, big uncomfortable pair of heels and some big hair! Maybe it's a Southern thing, but I love dressing up. It's everything I can do not to leave the house in a goddamn prom dress every day.
My dad used to take my younger sister Whitney and I to the firing range, and he'd stand behind us as we shot. We were tiny, tiny girls, only about ten years old at the time, so the recoil when we pulled the trigger would send us flying backwards. But he'd stand behind us and make sure we were safe.
There is a common, puritanical way that we look at things where, if it involves sexuality, somehow the women must be compromised. It's just chauvinistic to deny women their sexuality. It's about empowering. It comes down to choices. If the choices are available and they're making that choice, they're not being exploited.
I've made movies that were adaptations and I've been kind of frustrated by the process because, you know that old axiom, 'It's never as good as the book'? It's often true because nothing competes with your own imagination. When you're reading a book and you imagine something in your head, nothing's going to compete with that.
I used to be very interested in the history of women's rights in this country and in other countries. I tried to learn as much as I could about it, and more than anything, I would be called gay. It was phenomenal. But if a boy has something to say, he is appreciated; he's even popular. If a girl says something, it's instantly a threat.
I grew up in Texas, and people love their American-made muscle cars there. I grew up around people who loved cars and took care of cars and my dad's a big car nut, so I learned a little bit about cars - how to love them, most importantly. I think that from the time I could remember, I've always envisioned myself in a vintage muscle car.
I get a stack of scripts, like, once a month, and most of the time, you find these placeholder girls that are there to provide a bounce for the male character. So we know he's funny because she's serious and she's mad at him. We know he's strong because she needs saving. So really, her job is to validate this personality trait of our hero or male.
At the end of the day, I think there is an important moment happening in our society right, and I have to do the right thing. At the end of the day, I don't label myself one way or another. I come from a place where I find it hard to identify with a label. I've dated men in the past, and now I'm dating a woman, and I see it as ultimately no big deal.
By the time I was seventeen, I was on my way to Hollywood and didn't look back. My family is supportive now, but like any adult guardian of a seventeen-year-old daughter, they were not thrilled with my plan to run off to the LA to make it as an actress. Even a somewhat functioning parent would think that was a bad, bad idea. Lucky for me, I didn't listen to them.
I was interested in [Hunter S. Thompson novels]. The rebel in me fell in love with it, and the artist in me was confused by it, and interested and turned on. Ever since, his work has meant different things to me, at different times, and I still get new meaning out of it and appreciate it, in a different way. His work is very visceral, and you can take from it what you want, in various moments of your life.
I can't be a part of the problem. I hate the idea of a label just as much as anyone else but I'm with who I'm with, I love who I love and I'm if not a better actress than I was yesterday and my personal life should have no effect on that. I think that the injustice of people staying in the closet is more than I can bear with a clear conscience and I couldn't sleep at night if I was a part of that problem, if I was part of the lies.
The sad thing about our society is that women are put in one of two categories. You're either in the beautiful category and you're seen as sexy and beautiful, or some version of that, or you're put into another category... The latter category affords women the opportunity to be smart, funny, independent, mean, strong, intelligent and opinionated. We take them seriously as politicians, if they fit into that latter category. We respect their opinions more and give them higher expectations. That latter category is what allows female actors to be characters.