I never wanted to be an actress, really. I sort of caught the bug fairly late. So many people are so intrigued with the glamour and celebrity of acting, and a lot of actors start acting when they are 9 or 10 years old - so young. I started when I was about 24.
The United Nations remains our most important global actor. These days we are continuously reminded of the enormous responsibility of the Security Council to uphold international peace and stability.
I was dissatisfied just being an actor.
However, I hope I am also judged on my accomplishments as an actor and not just on my pretty face!
We all have ups and downs in our career, and as an actor going through a rough patch, all I can do is keep working as hard as I can and hope for the best.
It is about time that TV actors were paid as well as film stars.
Acting is all about big hair and funny props... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it.
Those offers come in now and again. They're not knocking down my door. I'm only an old character actor, and I'm not needed.
I was comfortable in my thirties playing the romantic partner, the hero that saves the day, or the woman who is facing a world that revolves around younger kid actors.
The director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell. He gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.
I'm really an actor first. I'd love to do more straight plays.
I was four when I started modeling. My mom was very much an off-the-stage mom who knew nothing about the business. She married my stepdad when I was about four, and he had been an actor. Because I was a really smiley kid and could read, which is something they're always looking for, she just decided to give it a shot.
Actors are just entertainers, even the serious ones. That's all an actor is. He's like a serious Bruce Forsyth.
My favorite actors when I was a kid were in their '60s. Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne.
I'm definitely one of those actresses who comes to a set knowing how I want to do a scene, and I definitely love input from my directors and my writers. I know that there's some actors who like to be left alone, they like to be very independent, but I actually really enjoy the teamwork.
As a child, I always wanted to be an actor. But as I grew older, the acting dream kind of faded away, and I took to studying a lot. A few years later, a relative of mine who really wanted me to try my hand at acting sent my photographs to a few production houses, and like they say, the rest is history.
I don't know why British actors are getting big parts in American TV shows. Maybe it's because we're cheap.
I have directed good actors and have gone through the process which is more detailed in theater in a way. You have to get people to stay for two or three hours in a performance. They need more talk and rehearsal than in films.
Even when I was little, people would always ask me if I wanted to be a movie star, and I would always say, 'No, I just want to be an actor.'
Meeting actors and TV personalities is one thing, but I just feel like meeting musicians is the coolest.
I think any performing artist can do films, or, as a matter of fact, anybody out there in the street can be a film actor with no experience whatsoever if you've got a good director.
I have never understood that. I come from a place where the press makes or breaks an actor and it is more of a teamwork relationship.
I have a wonderful wife I met at Rutgers while we were both there. She was in the Ph.D. program. She is not an actress. She definitely brings balance to my life. We actors can tend to bore anyone with shop talk.
My dad became a soap opera actor, and I was an extra in a skating rink scene on the soap. I didn't audition. It was nepotism all the way.
I think L.A.'s terrific. You fly an hour and a half and you're in the mountains in three feet of powder. I also think it's a much better city if you're working as an actor. If you're not working and you don't see your dreams coming true, there can be a lot of heartache.
I did well as an actor in Australia, and then Paramount invited me over... to have a look at me.
It's very embarrassing to talk of your own work before shooting for it and even before it is released. I have been a witness to many of our actors turning red-faced after their films release. I'd rather not be there.
As an actor, a lot of things you do, people don't see it.
Actors very often are people who think it's always about 'me,' and I can see why! No one else is going to support you or say, 'Gosh, I'm sorry about that,' or, 'Here, let me give you a job.' It doesn't happen that way. You can see why performers get very self-absorbed.
Making movies is great. It was like love at first sight; a whole new, different business. I can see why actors love it so much.
You make your own path as an actor. Nobody does it for you, so you have to invent yourself.
My dream as a youngster was to be like Olivier. To be a great stage actor. To be a great Shakespearean actor. To me that is the Olympics of acting.
I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director, so it's really reassuring to me that it's just about who is right for that role and less about if you ace the audition. It's just about getting to know people, not about who's a better actor a lot of the time.
Sometimes an actor will stumble on the joke, and I'm right on them. Back it up before the audience hears the bad version of the joke, because humor is 90% surprise. If they know what's coming, they won't laugh as hard.
When I started acting, my whole focus and intention was to work as a stage actor in a company where you're asked to different roles - do a comedy, do a tragedy, etc. I haven't had any reservations about jumping from one type of genre to another.
Actors are such an insecure breed.