I wanted to be an actress, and I wanted to be a model.
I don't know why people think child actresses in particular are screwed up. I see kids everywhere who are totally bored. I've never been bored a day in my life.
I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears.
I realize now that I've hoped to be great - as an actress, as a mother - because I want to embody the greatness of women who didn't get to be all they could have been. Their dignity, their courage, and their brilliance make me strive to be better. They're a part of me.
It's so nice after 10 years as a blond actress in Hollywood to have people let you do smart things.
I think audiences, producers and directors included, develop crushes on actors (actresses in particular) and then lose interest and move on to the next one.
After I turned producer, people asked me, 'Why are you taking up production? You are still so young and doing well.' Just because an actress decides to make movies, do people assume that her career is not going well?
This war is like an actress who is getting old. It is less and less photogenic and more and more dangerous.
If you use your imagination, you can look at any actress and see her nude... I hope to make you use your imagination.
I got pigeonholed a bit. When I wanted to be an actress, I never wanted to be the kind of actress I became.
So many Hollywood actresses become successful and then just keep on going - they miss out on having a partner and a baby and end up lonely.
My parents are very modern. My father is a cosmopolitan person. He always supported the fact that I will be an actress. There is nothing else I would do rather than being an actor.
What we need is more women writers, writing for older women. There are some actresses who have production companies and create their own material, and I truly admire that.
Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them?
When I was 11 years old, I was bullied. It mainly started when I moved to California to pursue my dreams of being an actress. Kids back home in Texas, who I thought were my friends, were saying things behind my back. They said that I would never make it because I wasn't talented or pretty enough to be on TV.
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
What I love about being an actress is being able to really look into myself and understand another human being.
I don't have an exact moment when I decided I wanted to be an actress - it kind of was just really a part of my growing up.
I have never struggled for anything in my life because I never thought I will be an actress. Film just walked up to my house with 'Abodh.'
When I left the house to become an actress, my mother literally flung her body across the door and said, 'You're killing me!' It was a very strict household. That can be okay, but there was also no nourishment, either.
In government, one actress is enough.
I don't really like dressing up. Some people probably think actresses dress up everywhere they go. I'm in sweatpants half the time with my hair in a ponytail.
The good thing about being an actress is that it's very children-friendly. I can work for three months, and then I can have six months off.
I never wanted to be a model. I never wanted to be a serious actress. I started off doing comedy. I did a stand-up comedy camp at the Laugh Factory, and I started out on Nickelodeon.
I believe that every role that I have done this far has had quality and content. My roles have been very demanding and every role has been a challenge and a learning experience that has helped me mature as an actress.
For me, modelling has been an advantage because if I hadn't been modelling, I would never have been spotted as an actress. I didn't have any intention of becoming an actress.
My parents thought it was nice to develop my imagination, but they never seriously thought that anything would ever come of it. They said that I couldn't be an actress because I would be taller than all my leading men, so I thought I would be a writer instead.
I used to get some ego thing out of saying I wasn't a star, just an actress. Forget it. I'm a star. I wanted it. I worked for it. I got it.
I don't know what the secret to longevity as an actress is. It's more than talent and beauty. Maybe it's the audience seeing itself in you.
I didn't have the safety net that a lot of young actresses have. A lot of young girls have their families around to support them and help choose wisely.
Then a year would go by and I'd realize I love the acting too much and it is my identity and I don't know how to be anything but an actress. It's who and what I am, so I always come back.
I do not admire young actresses whose foreheads cannot move.
When I was little, I didn't have dreams to be an actress or a star; I wanted to be a mom, have a house and a picket fence.
I am an actress, I earn money, I am well-known. I don't think it is altruism to become engaged in humanitarian work. It's the least one can do.
My talents fall within definite limitations. I am not as versatile an actress as some think.
I am not an actress. I can only play me - on and off the screen.
