Parts that are desexed, matronly - to just put me in a couple of scenes and have me be the older, you know, dead character, is not gonna fly with me.
— Patricia Clarkson
There are still so many movies made starring 50 men and one woman! A white male actor should never be allowed to complain about anything. Shut up and sit in the corner. I mean, seriously!
If my gravy train stops at SAG, honey, it's been a great ride.
And now oddly I'm getting sexier parts than I've ever gotten.
I think it's always harder in a film to convey intimacy.
I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.
I'm obsessed. I've always needed to know what's going on but now it's a must.
But no, had I been successful in my 20s I would have been just fine. But it is nice to defy the odds.
Why are comedic parts for women the exception, not the rule?
The majority of work I do is in independent films, where you're lucky if you have five takes.
Well did graduate summa cum laude from Fordham University.
The odds of having films made which star women... Everyone still references one movie: 'Bridesmaids!'
When I was younger, of course I had people act inappropriately to me. I've had certain directors yell at me. But I didn't stand for it, and I didn't let it go far enough for it to be in any way abusive to me.
And I have a really great agent and I know it's almost an oxymoron to say you have a smart agent. But she is and she has a beautiful aesthetic and she has guided me.
I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies.
It's never easy with characters in these dark and grave circumstances but that's my job.
I just have a thing for writers. Maybe it because I'm just so not a writer.
I have to watch the news or my day is not complete.
The odds are not in your favor the older you get, especially if you're a woman in this business.
I think it would be hard to go the distance in this business without a sense of humor.
I don't like a lot of rehearsing.
New Orleans. Born and raised. I lived there until I was 19.
Being married and having a child was not something I wanted, and I knew that at a very young age. I tend to be more solitary, and I'm truly a free spirit.
These archetypal older women in movies can sometimes make my skin crawl. It's about the one dimension; it's about the lack of any texture.
I'm still traumatized that I'm going to be on a big screen in a white bikini and naked so who knows!
You're always close and you never get that big romantic lead.
I always try to approach character first and foremost viscerally.
I love writers. All of my best friends are writers.
Holly Hunter has been doing great work forever.
See, the SAG awards caught me totally by surprise.
But I have had the luxury of working on good films with great people.
I'll read a script maybe twice, but I'll think about the role more than I'll rehearse lines.
