I am forever grateful that I got some training in the theater - it reduces performance anxiety.
I like a director that encourages me to be playful. I don't really like being restricted or controlled by a director.
Theater is like going to the gym for actors.
Education is huge for me. I went to public school until I turned thirteen, and was lucky enough to afford college once I became successful as an actress.
Seeing other people in pain causes me pain.
The only thing that gets me through any type of pain, emotional or physical, is to make it worthwhile by putting it into my work.
Theater makes working in movies or TV seem like a cake-walk.
I think it's really special to be a part of something that people are still watching or thinking about or interested in, or remember fondly many years later. I don't think it's annoying at all.
I’ve really turned a corner recently in terms of not taking work too seriously, so it is much easier for me to not take my work home.
![I was happy when I read the script [The Bourne Ultimatum ] - the first version they sent me - to see that before, there's some humanity too.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/julia-stiles-122446.jpg)
I was happy when I read the script [The Bourne Ultimatum ] - the first version they sent me - to see that before, there's some humanity too.
![It was nice that there [ in the Bourne Ultimatum ] was a reference to the relationship . It's very subtle - it's actually without dialogue. I do think it's powerful even without words.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/julia-stiles-122445.jpg)
It was nice that there [ in the Bourne Ultimatum ] was a reference to the relationship . It's very subtle - it's actually without dialogue. I do think it's powerful even without words.
Fundamentally women and men are different.
In my worst moments, I try to think about loving instead of hating. Creation versus destruction, know what I'm sayin'?
I am forever a romantic. I try to bring that into my work. I try not to be fooled by romance. Or work.
As an actor, you're only one little piece of the puzzle; you're fulfilling someone else's vision. If you're involved earlier on, you're kind of creating your own.
We can become very short-sighted in terms of objectives. The first thing to go during times of economic crisis and budget cuts is funding for things that are essential and not-quantifiable, like the arts. Save Big Bird
I never think of myself as an actor who takes work home with them.
It's not my job to critique the writing. I'm there to serve it. I had to figure out a way to make it work.
I'm not good at keeping secrets. If I'm entrusted with a secret from a friend, I can do that because I'm a good friend, but I don't like having secrets, it makes me nervous.
Yoga has stopped me from destroying my joints after running. It slows me down.
I think I was born an artist. But the key is that I have a mom that encouraged and supported my artistic side. She still has the stick-figure drawings framed.
![I do think that the more takes you have the more opportunity to experiment [but] at a certain point, there are diminishing returns. There's only so much variety you offer.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/julia-stiles-122433.jpg)
I do think that the more takes you have the more opportunity to experiment [but] at a certain point, there are diminishing returns. There's only so much variety you offer.
I did a different production with a different director and Bill Pullman. Oleanna - the one you saw - we were doing right after Bourne Identity or right after it came out.
With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are.
I tend to gravitate toward the more powerful roles. As opposed to the doe-eyed girl who bats her eyelashes and runs around in towels, you now what I mean? Because that kind of makes me want to vomit.
The thing with the Bourne movies is that they're so big in scope and the production value is so high and it takes so much organization.
I took the role of Ophelia in Hamlet because she is so naive, loving, and innocent.
It's fun to stay at the Y! M! C! A!
I remember seeing Janet McTeer in A Doll's House. My grandmother took me and we had seats in the very back row, but her performance was so powerful - it was very accessible. I felt like I was much closer than I was.
I really like Shakespeare a lot. The characters that he writes for females, I think, are really great and a lot more compelling than what modern writers write, which is weird because they didn't have actresses then.
I did a run of a play over the summer in a really tiny theater in New York and that was rejuvenating for me. I directed a short series for Hulu called Paloma and being in an editing room, I learned a lot about acting.
If I'm gong out to a club I like to have fun with it. I'll use blue or red sparkly eyeliners and glittery eye shadows. Then I'll put on some blue mascara. I focus on the eyes.
Yoga has stopped me from destroying my joints after running. It slows me down. My brain and body can go into overdrive - yoga teaches me to focus on the moment and not get ahead of myself.
I'm going to Columbia University but I'm trying to keep that low-profile because I don't want weird people following me there. I want the experience of normal college life.
In my early career, I look at that time as a series of trial and error and learning as I go.
My regular school didn't know what to do with me!
Make yourself useful, not just on a day to day basis, but as a lifetime thing.
When I'm working, I need to be pretty disciplined, but I do like to enjoy my food. I like to keep it fresh and wholesome. Preparing your own food can be a great way to unwind.
Obviously, if I'm in Argentina, I'm going to have a steak, but I don't love meat, really. I always think about where the food came from and who had to get it.
'Big Night' is the best food movie ever made. It's such a celebration of food, and the Italian tradition of celebrating people. Plus, everything looked delicious!
I always thought it would be really fun to play a villain. I feel like I haven't done that yet. Not an anti-hero, not someone who is flawed, but somebody who is just straight-up bad.
Sometimes I think it's easier to play someone who's very, very different from yourself. Besides, I wouldn't want to play people who are just like me; that would get awfully boring very fast!
I wish I could be on 'Politically Incorrect.' Because Bill Maher basically dismisses teenagers, and I think I could give my generation a good name.
I was reluctant to join Twitter. My biggest concern was, I don't want these thoughts that pop into my brain to be immediately broadcast. There's a danger in that. And also - who cares?
I love baseball. As a teenager, I was a contrarian and picked the underdog instead of just rooting for the Yankees. It's a hard team to root for, but there's something that always keeps me hopeful.
Compared to film or television, theater is more interactive, collaborative.
I just thought 'Blue' was a great premise and a great set-up for conflict. I love the idea of exploring a character who's living a secret life and is going to drown in the lies she's telling.
I don't naturally have a good metabolism, but I am lucky in that I am naturally drawn to healthy food.
I'm slowly working up the courage to sing in front of other people, but I can carry a tune. I do some mean karaoke.
One minute, I really am in awe of filmmakers, and I want to be working in film, and then the next minute, I get the itch to get back on stage.
I love the sun and salt water, which is not good for your skin and therefore not good for your image. I'm terrible about protecting my skin as well.
My mother always taught me to think about things from other people's perspectives and think about where they're coming from.
I watch comedies most of the time. That's what I gravitate toward. But I think the kinds of roles people see me in are sort of the opposite of that. I'm not really sure why.
I think Latin guys are really sexy. They generally fit into that whole tall, dark, and handsome thing.
It would be great to go to school all year and do movies during the summer, but it doesn't work that way. I'm not Julia Roberts, so I have to be flexible.
I feel like I'm constantly trying to avoid awkwardness. I always try to pretend that the awkwardness doesn't exist, and then it just becomes more awkward.
Whatever its origin, I'd like to see a cure for the Incredibly Shrinking Actress phenomena.
If Beyonce needs another back up dancer, I mean, I could make time.
It actually makes perfect sense why women in Hollywood get so skinny: because it's a way of controlling how people see you.
I tend to shut myself off from people. It's gotten harder and harder for me to meet new people. It takes a lot of effort to open up to them and spend time with them.
My grandmother took me to a lot of theater. I was exposed to performance quite a bit - everything from Broadway to off-Broadway and dance and music as well. I was very lucky that way. It was a very rich childhood.
I would give anything to sit down with my maternal grandmother and have a cup of tea and play Scrabble. She died 10 years ago.
I am not a fan of rats or pigeons. In New York City, they have become very confident. When I was a child, you went on the subways, and the rats would stay down on the tracks, but now they hang out on the platform.
I love podcasts! I wish I had my own, although I think there are already too many podcasts, so I don't know how I would create a new one.
We don't have cable, so I don't watch a lot of traditional TV. I watch a lot of Netflix, and there's this thing in Canada called Show Me, and then I also get things from iTunes.
Some of the best projects I've worked on - 'Dexter,' the 'Bourne' series - were leaps of faith. I couldn't read the scripts in advance.
I was in the video for Cyndi Lauper's 'Sally's Pigeons' when I first started acting.
Sometimes I have these abstract ideas and then lose track of myself.
Even after such milestones as Kathryn Bigelow winning an Oscar, there still seem to be few women in leadership roles.
I worked regularly from very early on, and some of it was probably a bit premature.
I pretty much grew up in public.
So I am happy to have fans, especially if it enables me to keep working. And I am really grateful when people respond to my work.
I met this homeless man who had never owned a shirt in his life. He had taken his pants and worn them as a shirt and I thought it was so creative. He was liberated from the conventions of fashion.
 and then lose interest and move on to the next one. ){kind=small}
I think audiences, producers and directors included, develop crushes on actors (actresses in particular) and then lose interest and move on to the next one.
I am a big fan of horror movies but I had never thought that I had wanted to act in one because I don't think that actors get to do much in them. They're usually just reacting.
I think that ultimately I just have to be myself. You know, I don't do anything that outlandish anyway.
I like analyzing human behavior. It's complex. That's what keeps me going.
I wear everything from hip-hop baggy pants to beautiful Armani dresses. I also like to mix vintage clothing with designer pieces.
I always feel like a goofy little kid.
I am ambidextrous. I write with my right hand but played basketball in high school with my left.
There are a handful of actors who sustain interest because it's exciting to watch them get better at what they do. I want to be one of those actors.
Julia Roberts taught me how to knit on the set of 'Mona Lisa Smile.'
The true test of a relationship is traveling together.
I'm going to Columbia University but I'm trying to keep that low-profile because I don't want weird people following me there. I want the experience of normal college life.
I become so sentimental on planes: I could be watching 'Bridesmaids' and start crying.
I actually have this fantasy of giving up my cell phone.
With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are. The exercise in theater is night after night, you are doing the same play, but you have another opportunity to explore.
I directed a short series for Hulu called 'Paloma,' and being in an editing room, I learned a lot about acting. It gave me a new bolt of energy in terms of my interest in filmmaking because it made me realize how collaborative filmmaking can be and also that you're not just limited to one job.
I'm voting for Hillary Clinton, proudly. I think it's her time. I think she's very experienced, I think she'd make a good president. I also think it would be monumental to have the first female president in the United States.
I'm terrified at the prospect of Donald Trump becoming president. I think he's disgusting, he's offensive. I think that it would be embarrassing for our country to have him sit down with world leaders and try and have a conference or even take a photo op. So we'll see what happens, but it's a very pivotal time in the U.S.
I went to a Chekhov play with my grandmother, and at the end, I was talking about how the first act was so boring. And my grandmother didn't see that at all. I realized it was because I need, like, the constant images changing. I wrote a paper about this.
I think the culture of the red carpet is too much like a modern-day coliseum. If you're being photographed all the time, and you don't like having a bad photograph taken, and if you're super, super thin, chances are you're never going to look fat in a picture.
Dating in college and dating in Hollywood are actually really similar in that the relationships don't last long. Other than that, lots of people in Hollywood tend to be narcissistic, and it's hard to have a relationship with someone like that.
I think with '10 Things I Hate About You,' I was an angsty teenager, and in some ways, I responded to that character. That was one of my first big jobs, so I think maybe I lucked out, and casting thought that I was a good match for it. Since then, as I've gotten older, I'm a much more happy, joyful, almost carefree person.
I love the interactive nature of theater. I just craved it. As much as I love working on a film or TV set, most of the storytelling happens in the editing, whereas when you're doing a play, the storytelling is in your hands as an actor.
One of the wonderful things about 'Jason Bourne' and that franchise is getting to work the same people sporadically and over the course of many years. I'm not so keen on having to get to know a whole group of people.
In terms of directing a feature, I'd want the story to be right - you know, it's a year of your life, and you have to be focused on one thing, so I want it to be a story that I really, really care about and will enjoy making.
The best working experiences I've had are with directors who want to create with you while you're on set. I prefer a much freer environment. That's why I'm always trying to mess things up, just to know that I can!
My musician friends could always practice what they loved doing, but I can't go on a street corner and start reciting a monologue. Acting is very collaborative, and you always need other people with you - mainly an audience.
We're not doing brain surgery. We're not saving lives... Even if you're doing Shakespeare, it's still entertainment. We're just entertaining people. We're just doing the stuff that comes on in between the ads.
The platform doesn't really matter to me, whether it's stage or theatre or even a web series. I just am more interested in, like, if it's a story that I would want to watch and if it's a character that I feel like I can contribute something to, then that's really what gets me.
At the heart of any drama, there's conflict. When you are acting, you get to play out the confrontations you want to have in real life but can't. Or the emotions that you would want to have in real life, but sometimes they are too difficult.
