Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
To be honest, I don't usually do very much research, especially if I'm working with a director who also wrote the screenplay. They've usually done a tonne of research. And they'll tell you about it from their perspective which is better than doing your own research.
When Ben and I first got married and we first had kids, I felt I needed to prove we could still do it and I could still work separately from Ben and I could still work with him. I just let go of all of that now. I said to him, 'For me, a little bit goes a long way.'
Love is never giving up and yet a lot of surrender. Self-care. Truth. Trust. Openness. Growth. Courage. Faith. Collaboration. Compassion. Communication. Affection. Support. Passion. Joy. Warmth. Mindfulness. Rigorous self-work. Sympatico, empathy, flow. Forgiveness.
I used to love to go to the movies - I'd see two in a row. A few times I even snuck into the second movie after it started... now that I think about it, that's kind of like shoplifting! Needless to say, I still love going to the movies, but I don't sneak in anymore.
Ask everyone whether they're an actor or a doctor or a teacher or whatever is entitled to his or her opinion. But unfortunately, because actors are in the public eye, whether we want it or not, sometimes our opinions carry more weight or influence than they deserve.
After I had the Caesarean, I was told I had really strong stomach muscles and so would heal very quickly. And I did. I was up walking about within three hours. Six days after having her, I was out shopping and shortly after that I made it to David Walliams' wedding.
I've been in so many funeral scenes from The Sopranos, and I think I've even been in one on Sons of Anarchy. Those scenes, as a human being, are the most tedious scenes, of all time. You're waiting, all day, in the blistering hot heat. So, I didn't need to be there.
My mom had started to go to work when I was nine or ten, so I was aware of women trying to find their own identities by working. But I was still influenced by men to such an extreme. I wanted to play their games and wanted to compete in their world and be like them.
In my first few years as an actor, I took one terrible TV job after another. But even as I laughed off my awful roles and made fun of myself to friends, my work made me cringe - I dreaded anyone's seeing it. I was crushed that I wasn't doing anything I was proud of.
I just feel like if I start opening the door to talking about my university experience, then people just kind of... own everything. There was a lot of stuff a couple of years ago saying that I was bullied at Brown and awful things like that, none of which were true.
She was obsessed with French and Swedish cinema. I also remember our mother showing us 'Gone With the Wind' very early on. She absolutely loved Vivien Leigh, so it must have been a formative experience for me, thinking, 'Oh, maybe one day I'll be like Vivien Leigh.'
Unfortunately, the belief that women are a minority is endemic in most cultures around the world. Obviously some take it to the extreme where violence against women is legal and supported and in other cultures it is more subversive and easy to dismiss as "progress."
Keeping your coat on indoors in Russia, no matter how public the place, is far worse than keeping your hat on as the flag goes by. It is worse than going into a Catholic church in Spain with your upper arms bare. It is worse than telling a mother her baby bores you.
My dad moved to London in his early 20s and didn't really go back. So the irony is I've spent lots and lots of time in Ireland, but not with my dad. I've shot films in Belfast, where he's from. And I've shot in Dun Laoghaire. Which is great. And I've shot in Dublin.
I used to just go up to strangers and tell them really elaborate stories about who I was and where I was from and try to spice my story, which I didn't think was very exciting at all. That gave me a sense of life, a sense of excitement - but I don't do that anymore.
The love of a child is different from any other type of love on the planet. And being loved by your children is a love that is immense. I'm always so overwhelmed by how much my children love me. I think the best part of being a parent is feeling the love of a child.
Trying to understand the fear I had of truly opening my heart - first, you have to be whole to do that. The fears, the voices in my mind saying, "Oh, you don't want to do that, you might get hurt, they might abandon you - "those are ghost voices from my mom and dad.
I spend my afternoons painting and working on my Open Hearts jewelry line for Kay Jewelers. I designed an image of a heart that isn't completely closed. My mom always told me to live with an open heart - when life gets tough, you should go out and help someone else.
The process was remarkably cathartic. I'd sit and listen to my father's voice - having not heard some of these tapes for 30 years and hearing his voice laying me down for a nap, our giggles and cooking dinner - and I remembered all those wonderful days. Normal days.
I tried to avoid making plays or films that weren't telling a story that I felt was important. And what I discovered in the process is, it makes you more empathic because you have to enter someone else's reality and you learn to see through many other people's eyes.
I think as an actress before I was on Twitter I thought, I'm only doing drama [and dramatic roles]... but then as soon I started tweeting it was like, "Oh you're the funny girl!"... but that was never how I saw myself. It's changed how I seem in other people's eyes.
However much some journalists may criticize me, I know that I look, feel, and behave several decades younger than my actual age, and much of that is because I believe you are what you think you are. This is called positive affirmation, and it's a really strong tool.
I was 21 and had been going out with my boyfriend for two years when I found out I was pregnant - despite being told by doctors that I was sterile. Jamie's father and I hadn't discussed marriage, and to me, it wasn't something to be entered into just to stop gossip.
I couldn't give a sh*t what they have to say. As soon as I go home and see my husband James Thornton of Holby Blue fame and pick up my dog and cuddle him, that's all that matters. I couldn't care if some theatre reviewer thinks my American accent sounds a bit Welsh.
I was not a very good mother. I was always running out to do a movie or something. If I had to do it over, I would either have a career or children. I wouldn't do both unless I could work in my home. I spent 20 years feeling guilty, which is not a very nice emotion.
I think that there is a real beauty to the live aspect of the theater, and the working with a director for a month on a script in the isolation of a room and really deeply delving into who are these people, what is the story we're telling, how do we want to tell it?
One of the greatest thing about fashion is that it's a literal expression of your mood. Or it can be the opposite. You can feel bold and outgoing and wear something like that or wear all black and feel like you can hide a bit. It's expressionism. I really love that.
Kids will pick up on weakness, and I was very shy growing up. I was skinny and flat-chested; I didn't have the latest clothes. For me, it was about being left out and not having any friends and being laughed at. I was very lonely, but that happens to so many people.
My all-time favorite is Brad Pitt in 'Interview with the Vampire.' He's so sexy. I'm a fan of anything he does, but in that film he's a vampire who doesn't want to feed. There's something super sexy about someone who has to feed to survive but doesn't want to do it.
The thing about Stephen Schwartz is that, while it may be difficult to learn - it's a little bit like[Stephen] Sondheim; Sondheim is quite difficult to learn - but, once you have it in you: it never leaves you. It becomes some of your favorite music; it really does.
The work I did in Vertigo meant nothing if no one cared about the movie. Luckily, Vertigo had a revival and people had begun to recognize there was something special and it gained in reputation. But it just as well could have ended up rotting in film cans somewhere.
I've been lucky to find people who want to work with me, whom I respect and like, but the truth is there aren't that many good projects out there. And we make way, way too many movies. So it's not always going to happen with every project. But I try and wait it out.
I have been criticized a lot for not looking perfect in every photograph. I'm not embarrassed about it. I'm proud of it. If I took perfect pictures all the time, the people standing in the room with me, or on the carpet, would think, 'What an actress! What a faker!'
I remember being an usherette at my local theater very, very early on, selling ice cream and programs - because they're not free in the U.K. - during pantomime season, which was super interesting. It meant a lot of kids, a lot of sweets, a lot of sugar-induced kids.
How did we go - in a relatively short amount of time - from Audrey Hepburn to Kim Kardashian? I don't know how that happened. Like did we all collectively slip and hit our heads as a society? Why are we accepting garbage as nourishment? I don't know what's going on.
On a lot of shows that I've done, we had the same directors, which was cool. But then, it's also great to do shows where the director changes every week, because you get to see all these different personalities and see what you like dealing with better, as an actor.
The decision to leave [the church] is you're giving up everything you've worked for your whole life. I feel that people need to understand this has been my whole life. As time goes on, you start to lose touch with the real world. The mindset becomes us against them.
At first, being a female role model really terrified me. But it hasn't turned out to be an awful burden. I get a lot of letters from women who tell me that, after watching Xena, they have bought the Harley-Davidson they always wanted or left an abusive relationship.
I was always dressing up as a kid. I had a dress for all the Los Angeles bar and bat mitzvahs that I was going to when I was 13 which I was crazy for. It was green, dark, shimmery. Very 1980s. It was slightly off-the-shoulder, which I thought was very sophisticated.
You're not going to see me in a bikini again, that's for sure. I was horrified to wear that. I was mortified. I was like, "Danny, can you put me in a one-piece?," and he gave me that red bikini. I was like, "That's not a one-piece. That's a two-piece with a string."
The old men running the industry just have not got a clue. They've got to come to terms with the fact that Britain is no longer a totally white place where people ride horses, wear long frocks and drink tea. The national dish is no longer fish and chips; it's curry.
I think in my case, I had no choice but to have a good sense of humor. I grew up with my dad, Danny Thomas, and George Burns and Bob Hope and Milton Berle and Sid Caesar and all those guys were at our house all the time and telling jokes and making each other laugh.
I don't think we can say that all working women will get divorced - it's so dangerous to make these things emblematic of anything - but having said that, every person who has a big, important job and tries to have a family, has to make decisions every single minute.
I feel lucky because I was a nerd, which I talk about in the book, but I had academic success, so through that, because that's what my parents put a great deal of value on, I had a great childhood because I sort of fulfilled the expectations of being good at school.
My career has been very good to me, but really, the odds are really slim. It's a tough life, and you deal with a lot of rejection and unemployment, and if you're lucky to have a career, it's not easy. So you just want to protect your kids from the pain of rejection.
There are moments when you feel as if you have been blessed for a while, moments when you think this is perfect, moments when you start to believe that even for an hour, even for a year, it might all happen. So I'm determined to keep making it get better and better.
The most annoying thing I found was all the people pretending to be me on MySpace and Facebook. I'm not a member of either, but apparently there is an 'official' Nikki Sanderson MySpace page, complete with rants about how terrible identity fraud is, which is ironic.
For those who believe in the quote, Laughter is the best medicine and are looking for a divorce quote on the lighter side, the following divorce sayings range from mildly humorous to outrageously funny: Men are just like a book - with a beginning, middle and an end.
It was more that his career was going down again and he was tired of the songs. He was tired of the routine. And there was a point where he just kind of gave up. He couldn't face being 40. And he resorted to stimulants. There's a dark side there, a really dark side.
In terms of style I typically veer toward a certain masculinity. My style inspirations range from images of my father in his 1970s suits, to Tilda Swinton, to Hugh Hefner, to Sharon Stone and her ferocious sexuality, to handsome men I see on the streets of New York.