My identity was tangled up in the parts that I had played since I was a child. I would go through my closet and only see audition clothes: Brie looking older, Brie looking '60s, Brie looking '40s, Brie looking younger in the future.
— Brie Larson
Maybe it goes away, but this is the way I've chosen to live: I want to go down or rise up as an artist. I don't want to get swept up in lipstick or whatever the hell.
There is so much to be gained from adulthood! Feelings just become so much deeper. The feeling of sadness and loss is much deeper than when you were a kid, but the feelings of love and happiness have also so much more dimension when you get older... That is what's so hard and exciting about being a human being.
The constant is always mythologies and the very first stories that we have. All of the movies that last, that you return to, the movies that struck you as a kid and continue to open up to you 10 years later and 10 years after that - those are the movies I want to make. Those things are eternal.
I found I could perform in front of 200 people, but I would still feel nervous having a one-on-one conversation.
Each step of the way I'm learning. When I leave an interview, I learn whether I feel, 'Oh, that was nice,' or that made me feel like a little piece of me was taken. It's a line that is always on the edge of being crossed, and once you cross it, what's next?
I feel very much aware of my mortality. I'm here, and then I'm not. It's the same thing with everything else: the movie comes out, and then it's gone. Everything is changing all the time, and I'm not going to stress out and spend my entire time chasing something that ultimately doesn't exist.
I'm extremely interested in art, every form of art, but I'm interested in it when it's good and interested in it when it's interesting.
My dream was always to have a stamp. I feel like people who have a stamp really did something. They really did some acts of service.
'Basmati Blues' deals with a great social issue, GMOs, but it's told through love and song and dance.
The point to have a child is to introduce them to this planet that is in some ways dying and hopefully, this new generation, these new untainted brains, will be the people to fix some of these things that this generation can't.
Women are such strong, powerful leaders, and a lot of the time, we play it silent.
I love to cook, and I've just gotten more and more into it over the years, just because it's the best way to stay creative.
I believe in what movies say, and I'm not an actor because I want things to be about me. I have no interest - if there was any way for my face to not be in a movie and still be an actor, I would do it.
The thing that I love about moviemaking is how many people it takes to make it.
It seems like people have to get their thrills somehow.
I'm pretty tough and picky when it comes to actors that I admire.
Lately, I've been getting too much attention with the Met Gala and work going so well that I try to find rejection in my day. I'll seek out someone on the street or at the farmers' market and ask for something where I know they'll say no. No one likes rejection, but it's real. And I don't want to lose that feeling.
I won't do things for money. I can't.
It's very rare when we are in control of everything. Sure, I can learn my lines, I can know my character really well, but there are so many factors going on throughout the day.
The moments that I feel a huge sense of accomplishment are actually the smaller moments, not really the bigger ones, the televised ones.
I was nervous to even talk to other kids in my class. I would hide in my room when my parents had people over.
More and more, my life is going in a direction that is not universal; there's only a very small group of people who understand.
I think seeing the love between a mother and child is something we can all really relate to. You can remember it from your own childhood perspective.
Even the news, to me, or newspapers, I have a hard time getting into it because it all sucks you into this negative, bad, there-is-no-hope side of it.
When I'm sitting in bed watching 'Chopped' - that Brie I know. But I don't know the Brie in sky-high heels on a carpet with a bunch of people screaming at me. I wonder what she's like.
The only way I can feel comfortable being an actor is if I can find stories that I believe are important to be shared.
I used to dislike it, but now I like it more and more, feeling small. I like feeling like a little speck.
Through film, I realized that was a safe place for me to play. It was a safe place for me to express myself and explore these things that I was afraid to explore in my real life.
I want to get better and better at my craft.
Acting isn't like being an athlete. There's no real quantifiable measure. It's just a bunch of people feeling things.
I would never say no to comedy.
Anything that keeps me off balance is vital.
Trends are not real; they are for the consumer, and once we can get enough of us to free ourselves from it and realize that it's not about strong-arming our way through, it's about understanding that we are so needed for the balance of this planet, then I think we can start having changes.
I think it is the fact that I want to quit that keeps me going. It's very complicated. But I think part of this whole exploration with every job that I do is, in terms of overcoming fear and by overcoming the fear, I feel so much more complete, and I learn something new about myself.
We have to choose every day to be active participants. To wake up in the morning and choose this life and make something of it is an incredible thing. Not many living creatures have that option. We have so many opportunities and options - it's a huge burden, but it's also the most freeing part of our lives.
I still have moments when I close myself in, but I wouldn't be on the path that I am with the career that I've had if I didn't have a deep understanding of the sense of my inner freedom.
I was not a child star. I was more like a young auditioner.
My life is scheduled to the minute. I used to be notoriously hard to get a hold of. But now, it would be irresponsible for me to say, 'I'm not checking my phone.'
We had very few things. I had a couple pairs of jeans, a couple shirts. And same with my mom and sister. I think my sister had, like, two toys. We were living off of instant noodles.
I just don't understand why more actors aren't artists.
I don't live in Los Angeles. I work in Los Angeles, and even that - I audition in Los Angeles; I very rarely film in Los Angeles. I don't hang out with producers on my off-hours, so I don't even know what that world is like.
I love discussing social issues, but I'm not interested in scare tactics. I believe there is a way to bring awareness in tandem with forgiveness and love.
I guess I was always an outsider and some kind of anarchist.
I'm just trying to enjoy the fact that I have gained some respect from some people whom I respect.
I always felt like reality was a bizarre place, and everybody was really good at being normal, and I didn't know how to do it.
I look at something like 'Short Term 12,' and that character has a lot of pain, and I wouldn't have known how to portray that if I hadn't experienced pain myself.
I'm not sure what it means fully to be a parent.
Any time I was at Trader Joes, and the person bagging my stuff would be like, 'Did I go to college with you? How do I know you?' Then it took awhile, and suddenly people were like, 'Oh, you are the girl from 'United States of Tara.'
I'm really not interested in acting as a facade, I'm interested in it as an emotional expression and as a transcendent experience for an individual. I find that a lot of people, a lot of young actors, haven't gotten to the point where they're comfortable being stripped down. They're still interested in ornate jackets.
