Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I was very insecure at the beginning of my career. I didn't value my talent. I would have probably skipped signing up for movies that I didn't want to do if I had understood that I had been accepted and people liked my work.
We started by playing girls who only married at the end of the picture. We didn't play wives. That came later. But the most dreadful thing was when a star had to play a mother. That was the beginning of her professional end.
There is definitely that thing here a little where people are like 'Oh that Broadway girl has come to Nashville' and I'm like 'Listen you guys, I was singing country before I even got a Broadway show. And I'm from Kentucky.'
So I always think its important to allow someone to reveal themself. If you notice something about someone that you like, it could really tell you something about who they are during a time of trial. The truth will come out.
When you're playing a real character, you want to honor that person and receive inspiration from that person. They need to anoint you in some way that allows you to borrow just a small piece of their soul. That is the flame.
I think in terms of family, in terms of relationships, in terms of work, competition to be the favorite, to be the noticed, to be the one - I don't know if it exists for all personalities, but I know for sure it did with me.
I like to do variations of all kinds of different work. One of my roles in Israel was for the theatre - Romeo & Juliet. So from that role I went to - I was playing, I believe her name was Amanda in the U.S., on "Ugly Betty."
With an award like the Asian Film Awards, we've sent a message saying that 'Asian Cinema is here, it matters, and more importantly, we are all part of the same fraternity!' The AFA is truly, then, an award for Asia, by Asia.
I feel like your generation is like, "We deserve a place at this table, we have a right to be here," whereas when I was in my 20s I was like, "Who am I?" It's exciting because I do see a lot of young women feeling empowered.
My grandparents never understood why my mother Noreen chose such exotic names for her children: Damon and me. My granny insisted on calling my brother Dermot - a good Irish name - until she died; I was just known as wee one.
If I was a bajillionaire, I would spend a lot of time at Barneys just buying all kinds of great things all the time. I would have so many black cashmeres it would be out of control. I like the way nice things feel very much.
I take a multivitamin, I take extra C, I take chondroitin and glucosamine for my joints, I take calcium for my bones. And by the way, weight-bearing exercises can help ward off osteoporosis and yoga helps ward off arthritis.
Criticism really used to hurt me. Most of these critics are usually frustrated artists, and they criticise other people's art because they can't do it themselves. It's a really disgusting job. They must feel horrible inside.
I have a lot of brothers and sisters, and each movie has helped pay for tuition. And then I was like, I only have one left in college, so why am I doing this? But now I want to go back to Italy and live on a farm in Tuscany.
Sometimes you go into a film and you have no time to prepare and have to compress the details into a few days and then rely on the instinct and what happens when you're in a scene with other actors and that chemistry or not.
It's awkward: Here you are with most of your clothes off in bed with this person who you've really just met. You're strangers to each other's bodies and you're coming together for the first time in front of all these people.
Goodness is also about interacting with people, brands, companies and organizations who are invested in sustainable and ethical practices. What's the point of using products that are ruining our Earth? It doesn't make sense.
I had an amazing mother. She raised nine kids, practically as a single parent, which is the hardest thing in the world. Nine of us! Day in and day out. She had to make sure we all had an education and that we all felt loved.
Ask a celebrity what social cause he or she wants to take up, and many would say utopic things. For me, however, the decision is very clear... I want to do something for children, a category of people I am genuinely fond of.
I think of fitness as being about heart health and staying strong and agile. That actually makes me go to the gym. I used to hate it, and you couldn't drag me there, but now I can't stand it if I don't go, which seems weird.
Of course, if you're going to enter the 'Star Trek' Universe, you want to work with Spock, you want to work with Kirk, you want to work with McCoy, and Scotty, and Sulu, and Uhura. The next one for me would have been Picard.
Our old stories happen to be your new stories. The stories that you're seeing as immigrant stories are your grandparents' stories, are your great-grandparents' stories. You just happen to be separated from them a little bit.
I'm considering getting married again. I've not lost faith in that institution. I'm older; I'm smarter. I'm no longer searching for something to complete me... and therefore I'm now able to find someone to be a partner with.
I really love Penelope Cruz, because she has the tan skin. I think it's important to look at people who resemble you and see what looks good on them, and how they are doing their makeup or hair and how they carry themselves.
I have no regrets about not having children. I still wait for the pang of guilt, but I have none. I tune into the television show Nanny 911 occasionally which reminds me how much patience and love it take to be a good parent.
Everything officers go through in any chase anywhere in the country, but amped up 100 times! I'm right in the thick of things in a car going like 80 miles an hour, and doing 360s in the middle of the road. It was a wild ride.
Growing up it was the exception because I was maybe the only one in my school or my circle of friends that had that experience. But now that I know more people in the industry, I am realizing this happens to almost everybody.
When I was younger, I went through a lot of different phases. One day I'd be punk rock, and the next I would be tomboyish, and then I would be really girly. I was so weird. My two best friends and I were just crazy and goofy!
I've done so much travelling in the past few years, and when you travel, you realise that we do actually have a cool, clean look in Scandinavia - it's not just Denmark - which I think brings peace if you have it in your home.
When I see old movies with women in floor-length dressing gowns, or when they're going to the store and they've got a pillbox hat with a net over the eyes and white gloves, I'm offended that I can't go to the store like that.
Even though I'm an actor, I've gone to productions where there has been someone whose work is known in film, and you can't take your eyes off them. It unbalances the production. Whether they're good or not, it doesn't matter.
I see L.A. as a workplace rather than somewhere to live. If I don't get out, I go crazy. If you have a little success, people treat you differently, so it's good to keep a healthy perspective. It's acting, not rocket science.
Whether it's that moment in acting when everything is suspended and you're not yourself, or breaking through the veil of a very long run or swim, or hearing my daughter laugh they are all pathways to what I think God must be.
I don't mind being an only child; never have. I am lucky, though, that I have my friend Emily, who grew-up very close to me and so, there is someone I have shared memories with. I would miss that if I didn't have it, I think.
I think I live in this mythical world where doing the parts I do is not going to hurt me, and telling people my age is not going to hurt me. And it actually does. It's a bit sick-making but, you know, I can't change who I am.
As an actor on sets, Ive always clocked how hard the crew works, how much longer their days are, how much lesser their glory is - and the fact that their commitment to the work and project is unwavering, no matter the budget.
To make films is as boring as watching paint dry - you usually have to do little tiny bits here and there. You go off waiting for lighting, you come back - the energy dies. You hope you can find someone who can keep it going.
People suit their star sign. If someone is annoying me over and over, and I know they're a Sagittarius, say, I'm more likely to forgive them. It comes down to my need for structure as a way of finding my bearings with people.
I've learned a lot from doing the sitcom. I've learned so much about comedic timing. For all the movies I've done, I've played so many different roles. I love both, but I guess in my career maybe I want to stick more to film.
Now I know Hindi, and I can read and write Hindi, but the problem is that I can't improvise when I am acting because I think in English, so I have to translate my thinking from English to Hindi, and therefore, I speak slowly.
Sure, it does help you get into a room, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to deliver, and you have to be talented, because they're not going to hire me because my dad is David Cassidy, who was famous in the '70s.
I think it's really rare to see women on television who are brilliant, selfish, vain, fallible - and I feel like I have all those capacities in myself, so it's good to see people in the media representing all of those things.
I think that nudity is beautiful. Sometimes it can be awful, but when it's beautiful? Cinema is the art about reality; it's art from reality. In French we say l'art de la realite. You show reality, so you have to show bodies.
So I always think it's important to allow someone to reveal themself. If you notice something about someone that you like, it could really tell you something about who they are during a time of trial. The truth will come out.
My mother used to take me to flea markets in my stroller, and I would just rummage through the piles. You've got to dig through the overstuffed racks that everyone else just walks by. It's the only way to find the cool stuff.
I did my first Broadway show when I was nineteen years old - and to be able to say that I am still working with the incredible talents of all of the creative teams that I have been able to work with - that's so special to me.
I definitely intend to create my own work in the future so that we don't have to keep saying we don't have work for black women. But right now I don't know what's next. I hope that there are more opportunities to come my way.
'Expect nothing and hope for the best' is my mantra. A drama teacher called Joseph Blatchley told me that, and it's the best advice I've had. If you keep an open mind and don't expect too much, then you won't be disappointed.
A lot of boys in my poker circle are mathematicians who play on probability. I don't have that kind of brain, so I rely on instinct. But I recently found out that poker and cards in general go way back in my family gene pool.
I remember seeing 'Hairspray' when I was 15, and it is such a luxury to be able to see a Broadway show, and it is so hard to do if you don't live in New York - plus, it can be expensive to go to the theatre all the time, too.