Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I get really restless if I'm not working. I generate or try to generate my own stuff. I'm constantly on the prowl for working with the people I love and respect.
The finest lesson I've learned with age is that all I need is a small team of comrades who inspire me, try not to judge me, and remind me when I'm judging myself.
I think of myself as a content creator and hopefully one day a content enabler and supporter of others, so that's what my immediate and hopefully future journey is.
If I'm going to pour that kind of love and energy and sweat and heartache, all that juju into something, I'm going to lean into my own projects before someone else's.
I think of myself as a content creator and, hopefully one day, a content enabler and supporter of others, so that's what my immediate and hopefully future journey is.
I don't really enjoy working in TV, to be completely honest. Even though it's incredibly lucrative, I'm just terrified of not being satiated in a myriad of different ways.
I've learned from every director I've worked with. Everybody's style is very different, and I always say that being an actor is the best film school that I could ever go to.
When you make a movie, you're spending a month of your life with someone and, down the line, you have to spend more months with them. It is this mini-marriage that you have.
When I was pregnant, I was like, 'I'm pregnant, so I'm allowed to eat everything: bagels with cream cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I can have pizza for dessert.'
Anything that is profoundly energy-shifting - like having a child - is fodder for creative thought. So for me, I welcome it and look straight into it as something to learn from.
I consider myself a good layman's cook. Ninety percent of the time, I'm successful with what I set out to make, and I can improvise. Yes, I own a mandoline. Yes, we have a Vitamix.
With more money brings more fear and when you're trying to be creative in a fear-based environment it's dangerous. Then decisions are made out of fear, not what's best for the film.
There are so many projects on my Dream List. I have so many things in the works, just like little ideas or collections of things or things I write or even just a title of something.
I've always been very in tune to my voice and to other people's voices and how they express themselves vocally. And I always loved accents and dialects - I collected them like stamps.
When you have a little one, you realize that your only mission in life is to protect this helpless, very sensitive creature. That is your charge. That's primal. I relate to that deeply.
You can't live in a dialect without tremendous work. Like any muscle, accents and voices and languages are all formed out of the muscles that we have in our mouths and faces and tongues.
I am lactose intolerant, and I always thought it was really funny how people who are lactose intolerant continue to eat dairy, because they like it so much. And I find it not acceptable.
Part of why I love being an actor is the opportunity to be able to go to distant lands and take on different worlds and concepts and pretend to take on different occupations and statuses.
It's priceless what you learn when you actually do. It's like going to film school times eleven. The best education is effectively to be functioning in the occupation that you want to take on.
My brother and I had many games. We were inseparable. We had a little team going on between us. We had even a language that was kind of like pig latin. So we'd speak in the language. It's called Op.
The two things that hit you when you meet someone are, first, how they're visually put together and then, what they tell you with the tone of their voice - whether or not they're to be taken seriously.
Having children is not for everyone, but I think it's a beautiful lesson in it not being all about me anymore. It's a relief, in a way. It's like, this is her story now, and I'm her mom. It's a nice shift.
I find the female tragedy of insecurity to be hilarious. We get obsessed over issues like the tiny skin tags on our backs or that we're fat. You read one line in a magazine and it sends you into a tailspin.
I feel tremendously lucky that I am offered incredible jobs all the time to direct, but the problem that I have just personally is that there are only so many years in my life to dedicate to certain projects.
I'm a music person. Music is, for me, the best way to cure any sort of anxiety or icky feelings. I think it immediately takes you out of your element and makes some other person do the work for your thoughts.
I learned how to direct by being in the trenches of movies. Getting to be a student from the inside looking out, and if you're a respectful observer you can sponge lots of information. That was my film school.
I have this necklace I always wear. I collect pendants from people I love; my best friends and members of my family have all given me one, and I put them on this chain so no matter where I am they're always with me.
There have been times where you do the red carpet in a certain shoe, and you go into the bathroom, you take that shoe off, you put the other shoe on from your purse, and then you walk around for the rest of the night.
I was a commercial girl. In drama school, I was a mediocre model occasionally to pick up some extra cash, and because clearly I'm not six feet tall, and I had baby weight, I would mainly just would do promotional stuff.
My happy place is holding my daughter and my husband in the same hug. It really is. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. I consider it such a privilege, and I know that I'm lucky. I never want to take it for granted.
Part of what's cool about being an actor or being in this industry, frankly, is to be able to travel to distant lands. That's part of the deal. I always thought when I was growing up, "I wanna be an actor and go see the world.'
When you write and direct your own film, you basically know exactly what you want. Or you hope to. For the studio, it actually can make life a little easier, because if you have a bunch of questions, they only need to call one person.
I think the greatest privilege you have as an artist is time to nurture what you want to make; that's super luxurious. For you to rush into something, that doesn't feel fun to me. I'm living life in order to be able to write about it.
I'm super and very openly obsessed with voice-over. 'In a World...' was my love letter to the industry of voice-over. And in a way, I sometimes think of it as a 93-minute audition to the voice-over industry to say, 'Hey. Consider me!'
At a time when every series we're supposed to be DVR-ing is very important, very serious, has to do with heavy, heavy matters, I think 'Wet Hot' provides a respite to that DVR homework. It's totally the gummy bears of your programming.
I'll be totally honest in that I feel tremendously lucky that I am offered incredible jobs all the time to direct, but the problem that I have just personally is that there are only so many years in my life to dedicate to certain projects.
My mom is incredibly stylish, and she gets it from my grandmother. I feel like I can't live up to how chic they are as women. They are great role models for aging gracefully, and that's a thing that is very key that I try to always emulate.
I lean into all things that are a little off. I will always wear overalls. At this point, I find a way in most of my life to wear a jumpsuit or an overall, anything that's sort of like an all-in-one situation. I do that on the red carpet a lot.
I feel very comfortable with my trajectory because I do have a life; I can go on the subway, you know? And I've been able to do that my entire career, and I have friends who are huge movie stars and can't go on the subway, and I feel like that sucks.
While marriage is historically associated with dire obligation and clipped wings, I've found that it actually liberates you to take on adventure and achieve your dreams. I like to call my husband 'my person.' Find your 'person,' and you can do anything!
My mother, Robin Bell, is the master of balancing the finite line between classic and creative when it comes to fashion. Mom has no qualms about unleashing the pinking shears on a vintage Givenchy dress if it means she'll wear it more once it's sleeveless.
Without strong financial roots, our generation is in a constant state of redefinition. This forces us to think outside the box when it comes to making a living... which sometimes makes it look like we're a mess, but really we're just creative. And we like weed.
I collect handkerchiefs. I know that's sort of old-timey, but my mom started the collection for me, and now I have a bunch. Basically, I have a myriad of beautiful handkerchiefs, and I carry them like a grandmother in my purse. And I opt for hankies in any situation.
Most of my characters are an amalgamation of people that I've met, my family, or myself. Being a writer, you can draw only from what you know. I am lucky to have really rich and interesting people in my family for, you know, interesting family nights and great characters.
'Wet Hot American Summer' was sort of lowbrow genius, you know? But smart in its cultish silliness. It wasn't considered something of great cultural caliber. But like many cult pieces, it sort of became something culturally relevant, which I think is what's so wonderful about it.
I think the key to a great romcom is to not fight against the genre. The trend more recently has been to apologise or be snarky, so it's an anti-romcom. Just lean in and embrace the fact it's a love story, and it's funny, and it's light. It can still be uber-smart and deal with zeitgeist issues.
I went to drama school in England, and you spend your first year working on the muscles surrounding the vocal mechanisms. You learn how you support it and create characters through your voice so that became an obsession. So I went to Hollywood thinking, 'Oh, I'm going to be one of the great voice-over artists.'
I think, in general, when you're doing comedy, you're having a good time regardless of the comedy table tennis that you're playing. I think you want that, too: you're rooting for two characters to be together, and you should feel that even when they're angry at each other, they're still in synch with each other.
I'm not a sketch writer. I know what I am: I have a sensitive comedic sensibility. What turns me on is subtle neurosis. That's my game. I'm not an action writer or a thriller writer and I'm not a sketch writer. I don't pretend to be those things. Then it would not be fun. Then you are in a space where this is painful.
'In A World...' changed my life a thousand per cent. I feel thankful that something I believed in so much - I love dialect, so I dedicated five years of my life to making a film about it - yielded such rewards. It led to 'Man Up,' as well as 'No Escape,' which comes out later this year... two movies where I am the female lead.