Music is what our feelings sound like.
— Vera Farmiga
I am drawn to intimate, often uncomfortable portraits of a woman persevering and awakening.
I love to be surprised.
My only real advice to Oscar nominees is, 'If you haven't actually seen a competitor's film, don't fib and say you have and blow smoke up their wahooziewhatsits.' Always best to be frank and tell them the truth.
Am I ambitious? I used to be afraid of that word but now I think ambition is a good thing.
Doubt is the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. It encompasses cynicism but also genuine questioning.
I think the worst thing that can happen to a good actor is fame.
I think God gave us senses of humor, and we should use them.
Do I pray? Yes. Prayer is very important to me.
I don't necessarily need Hollywood.
Whether you're making a million dollar film or a $100 million film there is never enough money, there's never enough time.
You earn very little money on independent films and I'm the provider for my home, so I do have to think of taking one for the accountant time and again and that means studio pictures.
I've never graced the cover of a fashion magazine.
In the quiet moments, the discoveries are made.
There's no wrong way to experience a film.
I think I always try to be accommodating and open and available and proving for my director. I love to give as many takes as they want. I love to give them as many choices as they want.
Ruminants are a perfectly normal thing to possess when you live in upstate New York. It's just moving scenery. It's kind of like the equivalent of Great Danes. It's the way you keep your grass mowed. It's the way you keep your weed-whacking to a minimum.
I was a Ukrainian folk dancer in my teens, and I toured the country in 1991, shortly before the break-up of the Soviet Union.
I didn't grow up watching film but as a Ukrainian-American, music and stories and dance are crucial.
The biggest research of all when I do a character is self-examination. You look at yourself and you ask, 'How am I similar to this person and how am I different?'
Honestly, I think a good film is spiritual, regardless of whether its subject is faith.
I've always believed that if you are precise in your thoughts, it's not the lines you say that are important - it's what exists between the lines. What I'm compelled by most is that transparency of thought, what is left unspoken.
I, for one, am tired of seeing movies about men damaging each other.
There are some times when I think acting can be a noble profession. And when those rare roles come along, like 'Down to the Bone,' you have the opportunity to be of service.
Your soul either feels lifted by something that you read, or it feels squashed by it.
I'm saying that the depth of exploration of the male psyche and the female psyche is uneven. I see further, deeper renderings of what it means to be a man.
I chase after inspiring stories.
There are women who make things better, there are women who change things, there are women who make things happen, who make a difference. I want to be one of those women.
I'm from the school of, 'if you want more, you have to require more from yourself.'
As an actor, you're sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character.
I just can't feel lukewarm about a character. I either despise her, admire her, or don't understand her and want to understand her.
I hate being manipulated by song. Don't tell me what I should be feeling. I don't want cellos or violins to be telling me that I should be bawling right now.
We're all sick of holy wars and bloodshed because religion is supposed to give us life and a better life and is supposed to bring out our best self. When it results in mass destruction and hatred and anxiety, it's the antithesis I think of what religion was designed to do.
I don't have a caustic sense of humor. What I find funny, that humor comes from a much gentler place.
We take a lot for granted as second wave feminists, what our mothers and aunts did for us.
I have tender, romantic associations with upstate New York.
I'm hooked on Polanski's films, his psychological thrillers. I love 'Rosemary's Baby,' I love 'Repulsion.'
The more people know about you, the more face-time you get in the media, the harder your job becomes to create a character in whom people suspend disbelief.
The Ukrainian community is tight-knit by nature.
The limelight is a tricky place, because you can't believe what's going on around you. You stop observing. You stop perceiving. You stop extending yourself, and you become isolated.
When I look at female characters, I want to recognize myself in them: my trials, my tribulations as a mother, as a lover, as a daughter.
You don't necessarily have to be religious to pray.
I think that films about faith made for faith-based communities have a certain tactic.
I look for struggle in the roles I choose - struggle and perseverance.
I can't get my knickers in a twist about my age and ageing in an industry that caters to the ids of 14-year-olds.
You ought to have a perspective when you're making a film.
I think maybe I was a shepherdess in a past life.
I'm part wood nymph. I require mountains and warm, dense patches of moss to thrive.
Working with children is a whole other ball game. They're like little animals. You have to keep the camera turned on them all the time. Sometimes it takes a 41-minute take to get one sentence out in a believable way.
It's a very different thing, religion and faith. Religion is man-made, it's man-regulated. And faith, you can define God as you wish. But I think they're two different things.
