During my first few weeks in Hollywood, I was told that Jack Warner, the head of the studio, did not believe that a small-breasted woman could become a star.
I left acting for 15 years, and I think it’s really nice to have another life. I took too much for granted when I was younger. I didn’t really want to be an actor. I didn’t really love it. And so I made a lot of mistakes. Oddly, I care much more about it now. I feel like a complete novice.
That’s what we’re all doing: paving the way, finding the roles that have the complication instead of the one that’s always got it together or the dedicated housewife or the wild one who smokes cigarettes and sleeps with anybody.
When I was in my 40s was I simply produced my own movies because no one offered me anything. But certainly after 50 it’s hard for a woman, which is why television is such a welcoming thing.
I found that you’re more powerful when talking from your soul.
When you’re told to be good, you have to get rid of whatever is bad. I sure identify with that.
Good enough is good enough. We’re not supposed to be perfect. We’re supposed to be complete.
We need women friends, women who challenge us. I have chosen not to have any more plastic surgery. Sally Field and I have kind of made a pact about that. It’s really hard, especially if you’re a public person. But I want to give a face to aging.
I hate to create cynicism about politicians. We just need to invade. Regular people need to run for office and keep their balls and ovaries intact.
When you know in your heart why you did something, and you feel and you know that in spite of all the controversy that it was right, doesn’t matter.
One of the wonderful things about being an actor is that every director is different.
I’ve worked really, really hard on myself to not be judgmental.
I’d like to think that I have integrity.
I never would’ve imagined in the first part of my life that I could’ve stood up and said anything. The war in Vietnam changed me. I was so angry. Some of my speeches probably weren’t well considered.
Mostly actors are progressive because we are accustomed to all the nuances of human life, whereas dictators just try to flatten it all out. So we usually try to stand up to dictators like, well, we won’t mention names.
If I can change, anybody can change.
My identity depended on men for so long. You can be successful and still have the feeling that if you’re not with a man you don’t exist.
I knew that my newfound activism and feminism was going to improve my acting, because I was seeing things not just in very narrow, individual, kind of Freudian terms, but seeing them in a much broader, societal way that was going to deepen and enrich my talent.
I had it in my head. I thought I had it in my heart – in my body – but I didn’t; not really. I couldn’t. It was too scary, like stepping off a cliff without knowing if there was a trampoline below. It meant doing life differently.
Nothing can change until we acknowledge what is, as I have learned over time.
No Pain No Gain.