Many years ago, I used to say, 'I haven't lived long enough to be great.' Now I don't say that.
— Diane Ladd
I really can't stand not to be loved. I really can't. If I walk into a room and feel there are people who don't really like me, I have to leave.
It took 17 years to get 'Rambling Rose' made from the time Calder Willingham wrote the script adapted from his novel. Ed Scherick, the producer, was interested in it. Martha Coolidge was interested in directing it.
I always had a trunk full of good reviews. I'd get magnificent reviews, and I'd be standing out on the unemployment line!
I wanted to do 'Texas Trilogy' on stage. But it didn't do well in New York. In fact, it did very badly there, thanks to the critics. It was said that Preston Jones, the author, died of ulcer complications, but the truth was that the critics killed him.
My personality just steps away, and I'm in direct connection when I'm on stage.
Have a little faith, kick a little dirt.
If I can help one person in this world, then it's enough, and I've done my job.
After all these years in the business, I really feel that actors are used. People treat actors worse than they treat children. It's always, 'Do me a favor,' it's always, 'Help me out,' it's always, 'You carry the load,' and then they don't want to admit what you've done.
To work with someone you love is something special, an incredible experience. But it could be a negative. You have to make a strong commitment to be honest; you're not just being polite, like strangers on an airplane; you're working.
If you try to talk about yourself honestly when you're an actor, you come off as stuck on yourself.
Did any agents ever put Diane Ladd up for some of the great parts, even though she always got great reviews? No! But do they put up the girlfriend of the studio executive who's gonna do them a favor later? You betcha.
You know what I did? I turned down an offer to do 'Enemy of the People' with Steve McQueen. It doesn't matter that the film was never really released. A movie like that, successful or not, adds to your credits. It leads to other roles.
We all have the same destiny. The difference is opening ourselves up to possibilities to joy, hope, and happiness along the way. Give yourself and others a chance to take advantage of what's out there and available.
For 30 years, which I never talked about in Hollywood, I actually worked with doctors lecturing and doing some medical intuitive counseling both in a medical setting and for the community at large.
I had to force myself not to be overly protective because I had lost one child.
I can do Shakespeare, Ibsen, English accents, Irish accents, no accent, stand on my head, tap dance, sing, look 17 or look 70.
The big thrillers may make people aware of the violence in the society, and I guess that serves a purpose.
I lost many a role to actresses who couldn't do the job one-hundredth as good as I could.
They do awful things in the press. One newspaper in England said I was 12 years older than I am, and I was ready to sue.
Maureen O'Sullivan did 'Hannah and Her Sisters' with Mia Farrow, her daughter, but O'Sullivan had a very minor role.
Chemotherapy is such a hard, hard kiss. Anything we can do to alleviate its side effects should be intelligently explored with an open mind.
I wanted to be a district attorney and solve hidden problems or maybe even be a leper-colony missionary and save people.
What the advertisers are trying to do by eliminating residuals is the most appalling form of greed that I cry thinking about it.
