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I have perfected the art of putting my feet on my husband's lap during awards ceremonies so he can rub them.
Annette Bening
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When I look at women, older than I am, in their 50s, 60, 70s, 80s, and I see women that I admire, I think, 'Oh, I get it; that's how I'm going to be.' I'm not scared. I want to be that.
Annette Bening
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I love being busy, and I love having a lot going on; it's exciting.
Annette Bening
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The time I spend with my kids informs every fiber of who I am.
Annette Bening
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I've always been pretty levelheaded. In show business, you need to have a certain internal stability.
Annette Bening
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I love the craft of acting, I love learning, I love everything that comes with the new project; the whole process is totally intoxicating to me.
Annette Bening
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Most women would say they relate to 'Hedda Gabler' - there's a part of her in them. Ibsen was writing about a deep ambivalence that many women feel about domesticity. I think about myself and friends of mine - we have some of Hedda's qualities and traits.
Annette Bening
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I do have to take care of myself, not only because I'm in the movies, just for mental health reasons. I exercise for me. You know, maybe it would be nice to not have to do that in order to feel good, but I do. I feel like I have to, to feel good. To clear my head and all of that, so.
Annette Bening
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If you can open people's hearts first, then maybe people's minds get opened after that.
Annette Bening
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We still want to idealize moms, and sometimes we want to idealize actresses who are moms, too. I know that's something I've experienced, but we're all just doing the best we can and we're all trying to raise our kids and talk to them about everything that needs to be discussed.
Annette Bening
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I feel very, very lucky to have come from the family I did. We have our dysfunctions and our problems, just like any family. But my parents are extremely loving people.
Annette Bening
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I love the luxury of the camera. The camera does so much for you. I like the secrets a camera can tell.
Annette Bening
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Yes, I know I've played these women, but I'm not really conniving at all.
Annette Bening
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I never felt like I had made it.
Annette Bening
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Everybody has a public life, and they have their own private life. Everybody has their secrets. Everybody has their own private, you know, agonies as well as joys. And that's what great drama, whether it's the movies or the theater, that's what it shows.
Annette Bening
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Somebody said something really smart: It's like you end up being the defense attorney for your role. Your job is to defend their point of view. You're fighting for what they want. You learn that in acting school - it's Acting 1A: 'What do you want? What's in the way?'
Annette Bening
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The tension I feel is the moment they say, 'Action!' Movies are like lightning in a bottle, and you always want to find when you possibly can catch a surprising moment.
Annette Bening
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Acting is not about being famous, it's about exploring the human soul.
Annette Bening
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My sister and I fought a lot when we were kids. I was the little bratty sister, and she would kind of walk away, not wanting to be associated with me.
Annette Bening
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I didn't picture myself as a movie actress. I began to think about it around college. I remember thinking, 'Well somebody has to be in them,' so maybe I could do that eventually. It's all been a surprise.
Annette Bening
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Every person's opinion, in a way, does matter.
Annette Bening
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Most people are looking for something to give their life meaning.
Annette Bening
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I think in the past, around the time that method acting became so prevalent, it used to be that American actors were thought to be the kind that would work more from the inside out, and that the English actors worked more from the outside in.
Annette Bening
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I'm lucky: almost all my family has lived to be very old. I have one grandfather who lived to be 100.
Annette Bening
