Quotes

A woman my age is not supposed to be attractive or sexually appealing. I just get kinda tired of that.

I feel I get recognized for my voice more than for my face.

I know there are nights when I have that power, when I could put on something and walk in somewhere, and if there's a man there who doesn't look at me, it's because he's gay.

I learned years ago, I adore acting and I think it's the most alive I know how to be -- almost -- but I really want a good life. I've been married for 17 years -- I know, they call us the last couple. I have a 13-year-old daughter. I have a lovely home life with good friends who aren't in the business... and I have no desire to cost my whole life in pursuit of the career alone.

When I was 20, I had so many more insecurities and looked for approbation from everyone. But by the time I was 40 and now at 50, you wake up and think, "Fuck you, I don't have to prove myself anymore", and that makes you sexy.

I often play women who are not essentially good or likable, and I often go through a stage where I hate them. And then I find the reasons why they are that way, and end up loving and defending them.

It's always been my first love, I never feel more alive than when I'm on stage. On film you feel chopped up, you can be acting from the neck up, or the hand, there is a lot of close up.

Then when I was about 40, the roles started slowing down. I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers. I'd say the cut-off point for leading ladies today is 35/40, whereas half the men in Hollywood get their start then. It's a terrible double standard.

I find the idea of today's icons being teenagers incredibly uninspiring. I think the Europeans have enough tradition and respect for the experience and body of work of an actress that they don't sell out to the new ones.

I'm not a naturalistic actor. I believe acting is a planned process of communication. I don't see anything naturalistic about it.

The studios are no longer creative institutions. Their job is to raise a great deal of money for their shareholders, to hedge their bets about risk. All this does not spell creativity. You might as well be talking real estate. Thank goodness for the independents. Except that distribution is still controlled by the studios. So they take the first week's profit and, after that, they don't give a damn. They take their money and they leave. It sucks.

[on what was her most embarrassing moment] When I met Gregory Peck and he said, "You have a lovely voice." And I replied, "Oh, so do you, sir!" What an idiot. It was my first Oscars, so I was very young.

[on what is the most important lesson life has taught her] That you are not the center of the world.

I do not have a great deal of belief in the so-called method. Yes, you run into actors who have to have their quiet time, you must not speak to them as they're preparing or they want to be called by their character's name not their own since that jars them out of their reality. And you go, "Okay fine, whatever you need. Just stay out of my way.".

[on her divorce] I don't think there is a simple explanation. I don't think there ever is. I think we became too difficult for each other because our lives were going different ways. He wanted to be part of the public world less and less. He was tired of the publicity, and the travel, and being, as he would call it, "Mr. Turner".

[on Rheumatoid arthritis] The day I was told, I went from the hospital to kindergarten for a meeting with my daughter's teacher and looked at these little chairs and started crying because I knew there was no way I would be able to get into that chair.

[on her looks] You know, I was so naive. Still am. When I arrived in L.A., Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, they would all call me up. And I thought: how nice, they are looking after me. It was only later I found out it was a competition to see who could get the new girl.

[on the differences between the West End and Broadway] On Broadway, the star gets an automatic standing ovation. In the West End, they don't. I swear this is true, or if it isn't, Dustin Hoffman won't kill me. But he was here (in the West End) in "The Merchant of Venice" when Laurence Olivier passed away, and at the end he said: "It is my sad duty to inform you that Lord Olivier has died." And the audience rose to their feet. And as Dustin was going off, he muttered: "You have to die, you have to fucking die.".

[on Hollywood (1995)] We need women producers, writers and executives. Otherwise, it is like expecting male senators to write legislation for us. Hollywood in general is at least 10 to 15 years behind the times. We just last year made a big fuss over Tom Hanks playing gay.

[on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] I would encourage more young people to join, because the average age now is over 60. Not to sound sour grapes, but I think there is a lot of politics involved. They like a classic with the hottest young actors who can barely speak English. Oooh, didn't I sound like an old lady then?

[on Danny DeVito] He provides a sickness, the tastelessness, that dark underside. It's like being groped all day long - being somewhat short, he gets to casually drape his arm around parts of your anatomy that no one usually would.

[on Robert Zemeckis] I remember terrible arguments doing Romancing. He's a film-school grad, fascinated by cameras and effects. I never felt that he knew what I was having to do to adjust my acting to some of his damn cameras - sometimes he puts you in ridiculous postures. I'd say, 'This is not helping me! This is not the way I like to work, thank you!

[on Jack Nicholson] There's this thing when you're the new girl in town in L.A., right? And they all have to take you out for dinner and make sure they get a shot at you. I'm an old-fashioned Midwestern girl, so this doesn't work well for me. Once we got that straight we were friends.

[on the Oscars] They just don't vote for comedies, do they? I think I need a good crying scene.

[on Francis Ford Coppola] I'm really about the only lead woman he's worked with. He's shy, but we worked out well. I said, 'You give me a martini at the end of the day and everything will be fine.

[on Lawrence Kasdan] I find his sense of humor is rather low, but he thinks I'm stuffy.

[on Steve Martin] Steve just wasn't somebody you want to grab a beer with after work. I don't know why he's so contained, but when the camera's rolling, he's a genius.

Being a sex symbol has to do with an attitude, not looks. Sexuality is not just looks; it's a sense you have of yourself. I think most men think it's all looks; most women know otherwise.

No, I don't look like I did 30 years ago. Get over it.

I sign more Jessica Rabbit photos than mine, almost. I'm not kidding. Isn't that crazy?

We have no National Theater support in this country. However, we have some wonderful regional theaters. Face it, in New York on Broadway we don't really create much work or new talent, it comes into Broadway after it's been elsewhere. The regional theaters are what we need, so every year (or two years at most), I work at a regional theater. It makes a difference.

[on Serial Mom (1994)] I walked into a storm of resistance, from agents, friends, actors, everyone. "You're an A-movie actress and he's a B-movie director!" I said, "He's made films that have touched and moved people all over the world!"

[on Serial Mom (1994)] They never got it. I was sitting in this screening with one of the heads of the studio. He turned to me and said, "It's a comedy?!" And I [thought], "Oh, we're in so much trouble."

[on Elizabeth Taylor] For a while I felt like half my life was making her wrongs right. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - you ever listen to her voice? It's awful. She has a bad voice, badly used.

[on The Doctors (1963)] I was doing a scene where I was giving birth, after a four-month pregnancy of course, and I had researched the process and learned Lamaze breathing and everything. After the first take the director, who was a man of course, came up and said, "You're doing great, I can really feel what you're going through. But can you just be a little more . . . um-mm . . . attractive?"

There's a fine line between just being really good at what I do and wanting others to like how well I'm doing it.

[on method acting] In Crimes of Passion (1984) I was playing a designer by day, $50 whore on Hollywood Boulevard by night. Do you think I was going to hang out with whores on Hollywood Boulevard and find out what the fuck that was like? I have an imagination, you know. My belief is that all the information I need is in the script. And if it's not, then it's not a good enough script.

[on Julia and Julia (1987)] Has turned out to be longer and harder than I envisioned. The director is gloomy. He has restrained my natural exuberance. There have been no laughs working on this.