There's a lot of ambiguity in life, and so often, our art is very neatly wrapped up at the end, when our lives never feel that way.
— Carrie Coon
I think there is no better training than being onstage because here's the thing: the theater requires you to act with your whole body. I think acting with your whole body gives you a root, and you can build from there.
It's much harder to act poorly written material. It's much harder to memorize poorly written material.
I rarely get recognized, and whenever I do, it has to do with 'The Leftovers' because it came into someone's life at a particularly important time for them - if they were dealing with grief or loss or whatever tragedy - and they just caught it. And there is no rhyme or reason to the kind of person it is.
Literature has always been the greatest fuel for my imagination.
I always liked church. I was one of those kids who was desperate for the statue of Mary to talk to me, which is a very egotistical approach to your faith. I just wanted somebody to pay attention to me.
I grew up with babies, so babies have never been particularly intimidating to me.
Everyone thinks I'm on 'Mindhunter!'
The 'Fargo' characters, they're the characters of my people. They're stoic, hardworking, uncomplaining, and I loved them.
I have this idea of myself as this quiet, observant, thoughtful child, which my parents roundly contradict. They claim that I was loud and bossy and dancing all the time.
My husband and I are huge bibliophiles. He's always reading 'The New York Times Book Review' and then ordering 20 books online.
I think if people stick with 'The Leftovers,' it's a very rewarding viewing experience. I wanted to be part of that - and what a great cast we got. I wanted to be one of those actors, in that show!
I'm from a family with five kids in it, and my father almost became a Catholic priest. And my mother never went to church, but she's the best Christian I know. My siblings have all chosen different paths to or away from their spirituality.
I've been seeing a lot of theatre in New York, and I am sort of terribly jealous of everyone on stage but also really appreciating it in a way that you can't when you're in the middle of it.
I think women have long been defined by their roles as procreators and wives, and we're expected to serve, take care of, say 'Yes,' and not ruffle any feathers. Women, in particular, are sometimes not allowed to consider who they are outside of the roles that they play.
We don't have control over many things. We're always grasping for it, but in reality, we don't have a lot of control.
Inevitably, when a scene isn't working for me, it's because I'm being self-conscious, and I'm not putting enough of my focus on my fellow actor.
When you have good writing, the rhythm of the scene is very apparent. What the scene demands is very clear.
I was an Emmy nominee and an Emmy snub.
I rely on poetry or literature to keep me centered before I go onstage because it reminds me to be present.
We haven't evolved a hero story that's female. We're always trying to fit women's stories into this male structure, which is this rising action, this powerful conflict, and this falling action. And I think a female hero story is not that. It's something else.
I didn't expect to pursue acting at all, let alone TV and film, let alone New York or L.A. I was quite content doing Shakespeare out in Wisconsin.
Inevitably, when directors work with me on a set, they say, 'This isn't what I was expecting. I thought you were going to be very serious.' But I like to stay loose and have a good time and not take myself too seriously. I think, otherwise, you get in your own way.
I don't want to be famous. I want to tell stories.
I have my three brothers, and then I have my adopted sister from El Salvador, who is actually the oldest. My brother and I were already born, and then my parents adopted my sister from El Salvador during the war and had two more kids.
Parents always stay older than you, but sibling sort of become adults together, and that complicates that relationship, I think.
I don't believe that art is just for entertainment. I want to create art that is meaningful in some way.
I really have the good fortune that the actors who work with me on 'The Leftovers' are thoughtful, hard working, open people and generous people.
Being a literature major, you know, I'm very familiar with the ways symbolism is used in our sort of mythic tales of society, so anyone who is consciously trying to pull that off I think is really interesting and clearly very smart.
I've never felt terribly attached to acting because I always feel like the world is really big and really interesting, and there are a lot of places that I can put my energy and be fulfilled.
There's something about Australia that feels prehistoric.
As actors, we have to say yes to everything for a really long time. You say 'Yes' to anything you can get.
Part of being an actor is the rhythm of the life of being an actor, and that involves coming together with a group of people, making something together that is intense and requires a lot of intimacy, and then walking away from it with the possibility that you will never see any of those people again.
My parents are just really down-to-earth, earnest, hardworking people that don't want for anything. I think that really served me because when you put more value on experience than things, then you're going to go out and have experiences.
My family has never understood why I play crazy, angry, depressed people because that is not the way they think of me. They see me as a totally messy, klutzy goofball - kind of weird and hyper.
My family was always wondering why I ended up playing people who were mentally ill, insane, downtrodden, and a little crazy. I think what they don't understand is that most female parts are written basically as hysterical women.
I grew up in a family with five kids.
I think Noah Hawley's writing is hilarious, and I love a good dark joke.
I didn't grow up knowing actors' names, and my parents weren't theater people.
I ended up doing four or five plays in college and being an English major with my thesis in language acquisition, which I was planning to study in graduate school.
I think there's a danger in how we can get addicted to the things that reaffirm to us who we are. For example, Facebook; people who make these Facebook posts about what's happening to them, just so people will chime in and give them positive reinforcement.
I'm a middle child, and I'm pretty diplomatic: the peace-maker.
There's this thing in TV that I find hysterical where the writers and creators will ask us if you want to know what happens to your character or if you want to experience it episode by episode. In the theatre, we always know the ending; we always know where the character is going.
The women I know are smart, interesting people who aren't just there to service the men's stories, so I don't know why our art continues to do that.
