The actresses I've known support each other very much. If you have a level of confidence in what you're doing, then you don't feel threatened. We all have different things to offer.
I think it's important to be extremely proud of one's origins, especially when you are a foreign actress with ethnic features.
Being an actress does not mean that each thing that happens in my life has to be news or meant to be shared with others. Acting is a profession, and once I leave the sets, I want to be left alone.
I was so nervous because I was doing my first film. I didn't want to embarrass myself. I'm an incredibly insecure person, and knowing that I had to go on set in next to nothing, it scared me, but at the same time, I knew it would be a challenge to open me up, not only as an actress but as a person.
As an actress, you never know when you're going to work again - and there's so much dependency on working.
When I left high school - I was younger than my classmates, just 17 - I knew I wanted to be an actress, but I thought, 'When I go to college, I'd rather study something else.'
Oddly, moving to L.A. had nothing to do with me wanting to be an actress. My mother had a friend who was willing to take us in for a month until we could get on our feet. So we lived on her floor. It was pretty traumatic, but I found my strength through my mother in that time because she never once made us feel like we wouldn't be OK.
I'm not really an actress type. I'm an entertainer.
Being a plus-size actress, it is slim pickings, so anytime any role comes up for a plus-size actress, my agents are all over it, and they were like, 'You have to book this job. It's 'American Horror Story.' It's a big deal.' No pressure, right?
From the time I was very young, maybe five or six, I thought a lot about being an actress. I didn't tell my friends about my ambitions, though, especially when I got older, because I thought they would not receive them well. I never talked about what I wanted to do.
I didn't want to be an actress. I wasn't trying to be in film or an art gallery for me.
I have a ship's bed, which totally plays to my obsession of, if I were not an actress, I would be a pirate.
My mom was an actress, so I got with her boutique agency back in 2001 and started booking a few commercials. She's like my co-manager.
Maybe actors are more passionate about cinema than actresses. Many heroines today seem unable to look beyond glamour.
I hate how box-office failures are blamed on an actress, yet I don't see a box-office failure blamed on men.
I am a character actress. Well, let's say, I am a leading character actress who does interesting, odd parts.
I really can't complain about actresses who get paid to be dumb. Most of us can't get paid to be smart.
Both my mother's younger sisters, Padmini and Tejaswini, are actresses. I am extremely close to Teju mausi, as I am quite similar to her. We both are adventurous, spontaneous, childish, impulsive, and a bit silly and have our own strange sense of humour.
On a very small scale, I kind of understand why the directors that I work with do certain things. I don't consider myself an incredible director. I'm not ready to do movies by any means. But, I feel like I can be a better actress now that I've been on the other side and kind of understand the process and more of the technical aspects of it.
I think people are always like, 'She's a model-turned-actress.' And I don't want to turn actress. I want to do both. I wouldn't have built the confidence to do acting if I didn't model.
Being an actress in Hollywood and being a celebrity tend to feed into one another, but just being a celebrity wouldn't really be interesting to me.
I was a tomboy, always fairly eccentric, and convinced I'd grow up to be an actress.
I wanted to be a serious actress rather than a pretty face.
In Sweden, only exceptional actresses get major film parts.
My mother always helped me because she was kind of a research fanatic. When she would write a screenplay, there would be so much research all over the walls. And so when I started working as an actress, I would do the same thing. She instilled in me a love of taking everything very seriously. It didn't matter what it was.
Let someone else be the world's greatest actress. I'll be the world's greatest baseball fan.
I've never been difficult to anybody or with anybody on a picture. Especially when you're in that nice status of hierarchy of actors and actresses who get to approve directors. Because once you make that choice, it's my belief that the director's boss.
I've already been married six times in my career as an actress - twice as Becky - so I think a wedding of my own might feel too much like work!
As a black actress, all I was offered in British film was the best friend role, whereas in TV I was offered a whole spectrum of parts.
My stepmother wanted to be an actress.
I saw things at an early age because my mom was a theater actress. I did a play with her when I was 10 years old.
As an actress, I always wanted to do movies, and I never dreamt about doing movies in America just because I didn't think it was possible.
I did voice work for many years before I started having success as an actress. It was mostly radio and television voiceover work, but I know my way around the studio. I know how to use the cappuccino machines and the headphones.
I'm basically an actress, not a comedienne, and if something comes along that appeals to me, I'll do it.
I think someone like Khandi Alexander, who's now on 'Treme,' is one of the most extraordinary actresses I've seen in years. But she's dependent on someone brilliant like David Simon to realize that and to give her a forum. Tyler Perry's not interested in that kind of nuance because it doesn't sell.
Working next to Glenn Close was unreal. I kept saying, 'I'm gonna pinch myself, this is a dream.' She's one of the most respected actresses in the world, and I respect her so much.
