If you're working opposite an actor who can act, then all you have to do is listen and respond.
— Gaby Hoffmann
I'm not on social media; I don't watch TV. I'm really out of it.
My mom could be pretty strict.
Our parents all experimented with raising us in a fairly loose, unorthodox way. A huge emphasis was placed on creativity, and our artistic efforts were never dismissed as childish. There was a sense that we - kids and grown-ups - all had the potential to make something of value. Our drawings were not simply destined for the refrigerator.
Her mother, Laurie Simmons, is a contemporary artist, and my stepmother, Cindy Sherman, is a photographer, so they've known each other forever. Lena and I were often at the same dinner parties when we were kids.
Here in America, just as we see such incredible progress happening in one state, we see another state passing absolutely disgusting and oppressive laws against the rights of all sorts of people - transgender people, gay people, women.
People would say, 'Can I hug you?' And I would say, 'Yes, you can hug me! We're fellow New Yorkers!'
I'm interested in people. I'm curious about people, and of course we're curious about people whose work we respond to. So I'm not saying that I don't understand fascination with other people. But as it's dealt with in this American, modern-day culture, I find it not just boring but actually sort of destructive, really.
I think sexuality is fluid, and we have such a strange relationship to it in this country. It's been so fixed and so controlled for so long.
I don't revisit anything unless there's a really good occasion, like BAM screened 'This Is My Life', with Lena Dunham and Nora Ephron before she died. It also screened 'Uncle Buck', so I took my niece. I don't have a TV, so I don't happen upon old movies like you would if you had cable.
I'm not one of those New Yorkers who so much identifies themselves with the city that they can't imagine living anywhere else. I plan to live a lot of other places, but it is defiantly is a big part of who I am. I have a complicated relationship with it. It has changed so much, but I love it, and it's my home. I'm really glad I grew up there.
I just want my kids to have the space of childhood to explore themselves as fully as possible.
As an actress, vanity is your enemy. If you're thinking about how you look, you're not going to give a good performance. Once I realized, 'Hmm, I guess I'm not that vain,' it's like something I wanted to protect. I can't imagine anyone could give the full dynamic performance they're capable of and still be vain.
I watched a lot of television as a kid, and the suburbs to me - that was exotic! Like, a mom and dad who lived in the same house and had jobs and cooked breakfast at the same time every morning and did laundry in a washing machine and dryer? That was like, 'Woah! Who are they? How do you get to be like that?'
I am paid to dive deeper into my own humanity and do that with other people in collaboration... so that, in and of itself, I just feel like is the greatest privilege in the world.
I had a world of people raising me; it was like a little village.
I started missing acting when I was in school, and I realized after being in the business after however many years that I was really interested in film.
I just try to show up and be relaxed and present and honest. And that's my only trick. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Honestly, sometimes it really doesn't work.
There's a lot of improv in 'Girls'.
It was like I lived in a little suburban neighborhood in the middle of New York City because I could run around barefoot or, you know, completely independently from a very young age in the safety of this building where I knew everybody and where I had friends on every floor, and I knew the bellmen in the lobby.
I was never as famous as all these kids. There was no social media. We weren't celebrity-obsessed as a culture. I feel like these kids are under a crazy microscope; they're basically brands. And they eventually implode and act out. They need a break, and they're not getting one.
Every once in a while, I would say, 'I don't want to do this anymore,' and I would go back to third grade, and after six months, I'd say, 'OK, I'm bored. Let's go make a movie.'
If you don't have a healthy relationship with yourself, how can you with anyone else? Even if it's not healthy, I imagine it's a lot of fun. And healthy or not, I still think there can be a lot of love.
If somebody smiles at me on the street, I'm like, 'Hi, have a nice day!'
Every scene is on the table to collaborate on, to pick apart, to try a million different ways. Usually, what ends up occurring in the end is something that no single person knew would happen or had planned for.
I've never been on a television show as a regular before.
I'm somebody who's super into psychology and analysis and the human psyche and the human experience.
I certainly don't have any boundaries myself, but I think I'm very aware of other people's.
I was obsessed with the idea of going to college. And I took many years off after that, so I sort of missed the weird, crazy transition that was what making movies was in the nineties to what's happening now.
The sleeplessness is proven; it eradicates your memory.
I never set out to be an actor. Again, my mother presented this job by job to me at the time, and if it sounded fun, I would say yes and if it didn't, I would say no. I always knew, since I was 7 or 8 years old, that it was a means to an end and that I wanted to go to college.
All my cousins steal things. They're just a bunch of thieves. My whole family is like that. You put something down for a second, and they steal it. You never see it again.
It's funny because I grew up with the T.V. on 24 hours a day. And the more money I made, the more T.V.s we had.
I went to school to study literature and writing, even though I didn't end up really doing that in the end.
Anything that needs to be accessed is within me. Even if it's in a circumstance that seems outrageous, I can still just go back to the basic human experience and it's all there.
I think mental illness is a slippery slope to talk about these days because people are overly diagnosed, overly prescribed, overly everything.
I just wanted to rollerblade at Union Square.
We lived in a classless society. We'd spend a summer at Gore Vidal's house in Italy, but we were on and off welfare.
I loved being on the set of 'Field of Dreams' because I hung out with the baseball players all day, played cards, flirted with Ray Liotta, and had a ball.
There's something extremely bizarre about the way people consume media now.
I was anxious before I decided to go back to acting about what I wanted to do with my life. Once I realized I was sort of interested in acting, I've been pretty lucky and had all these great parts. And I feel pretty much like, 'What will happen will happen.'
I often use the word 'magical' to talk about what it feels like on set.
I really, really loved making 'This Is My Life' and 'Now and Then.'
I just had fun making the movies - just being on set - but I didn't really care about the acting part.
People ask me all the time, 'What is it like being on set for a show about trans people?' And this is a state of normalcy to me.
I didn't intend to introduce food so early, but she became very interested at about 5 months, and I just gave her whatever sort of nutrient-rich food I had. Her first food was smoked trout.
I'm normally the least busy person I know.
I grew up with artists and drag queens. These were just my neighbors and friends and the people who are raising me.
I think I happened to work with sort of a bunch of slightly difficult male directors when I was a kid. I've since worked with lots of male directors that I love, so I no longer see the distinction gender-wise.
I have a teacher friend who gets nervous when there's $200 in her account. But at least she knows that in a week, she'll get another paycheck. I have no idea.
