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Every person's opinion, in a way, does matter.
Annette Bening -
I've tried to take roles with great demands.
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 -
I find the reality of our emotional lives interesting.
Annette Bening -
If you're an actor, you have to find a way to make peace with all the media attention.
Annette Bening -
It's always 'busy' with four children; it's chaos.
Annette Bening -
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 -
When I watch my kids, and I see the primal level at which the sibling relationships are formed, then I completely understand what these unresolved adult sibling problems are based on. You know, 'Mom liked you better' and, 'You got your own room and I didn't.'
Annette Bening
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We all get lost along the way, but hopefully we figure out some sort of path. It helps if you can imagine the process as well as the goal. Those kinds of dreams are easier to achieve.
Annette Bening -
Acting is not about being famous, it's about exploring the human soul.
Annette Bening -
I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.
Annette Bening -
It's easier to see in someone else, another actor, how they kind of disappear and then this other persona appears. A great actor is a thing of mystery.
Annette Bening -
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 -
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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I think when you're at your best as an actor, it is cathartic.
Annette Bening -
I think people have a right to their point of view.
Annette Bening -
Find the story you want to tell. If you don't want to write it, find somebody to write it.
Annette Bening -
It's hard to make a living in this business. Unions aren't as strong as they used to be. For a journeyman actor - someone who doesn't have a famous name but has consistent work in theater or film or TV - it has become harder to get through, harder to raise a family.
Annette Bening -
I've played parts that were just likable people, and there's a certain pleasure in that. And that's that.
Annette Bening -
I wanted to be a classical actress. I plodded along. I went to junior college in San Francisco, I was in a Repertory Company. My hero was Eva Le Gallienne, who was a great theater actress at the turn of the century who created her own company, and she wrote these hilarious autobiographies at the time.
Annette Bening
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My mother is not somebody who's troubled by aging.
Annette Bening -
What really motivates you to try to work things out as an actor is in large part fear, because you want to get into that narrative and bring the audience along.
Annette Bening -
I'm interested in writing that explores all sides of human beings.
Annette Bening -
I knew I wanted children in my life. The acting was always in relation to it. Life at home is chaos. They're wonderful. They're such interesting human beings. I just love it. I'm lucky.
Annette Bening