Two things I'm trying to work on are openness and flexibility.
— Lili Taylor
You can rest a lot in an hour or have a whole day and not do it properly. One way I get a quality recharge is to connect with nature. To experience something that's bigger than me.
To do work that's not going to be fulfilling doesn't make sense.
I guess the characters I play may be at the more destructive edge of the spectrum, more damaged or whatever, but I find a lot of female roles uninteresting.
I do believe there's good in all of us, even if it's layered over so thickly.
I see my job as an actor to be as good a channel as I can be. Acting is a gift, and I have respect for it.
When it's working, what acting is really about is getting into the essence of a moment in a creative, joyous way - through whatever frees you up.
I love Central Park. I spend a lot of time in there. I try and get in there whenever I can.
It's tricky to say 'never,' but I will never have plastic surgery.
I like to play smart, three-dimensional women. I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people.
As a woman, a lot of stories haven't been told and we've got a lot of catching up to do.
Cannes is a very strange place. I tried to show up as best I could and to try not to be cynical.
It's been very important for me to follow my gut or my heart, or whichever organ you want to go by.
I felt that the biological clock was some myth to keep me from doing what I wanted to do. And so I rebelled against it in the '90s. I thought it was a backlasher, some sort of faulty data. But it's real. I'm glad I woke up before my body was just like 'uh-uh.'
We need art. We've been telling stories since the beginning. As human beings, we need it for our survival.
There's been a slow death in a way. On the positive side, there are films getting into the Academy Awards that wouldn't have, but on the negative side, financiers are now dominant and making all the decisions. I can't count the ways a director's vision is compromised.
The weird thing about this business - and I'm sure this operates in many other things, but it's very present and acute in this business - is that a lot of people don't realize that they have power. Particularly actors.
I tried to do the commercial thing. But I don't want to keep shoving Twinkies down everyone's throat. People are hungry for something of more substance.
If someone puts up $100 million on a movie, they're gonna be concerned about whether they'll get it back. So they're not gonna make a movie about three girls, you know?
