Latest Gena Rowlands Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I read the script of [Woman Under the Influence ] 50 times. And I thought about it. And then I did it.

  Gena Rowlands

  Scripts, Influence

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• A Woman Under the Influence was my favorite. I loved doing that. And it was challenging.

  Gena Rowlands

  Challenges, Influence, My Favorite

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Of course, much easier to do a film when you're doing an extremely emotional part than it is doing it onstage over and over especially.

  Gena Rowlands

  Emotional, Film, Easier

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• It was a very hard play [Woman Under the Influence] to do every night. And John Cassavetes said, "Don't worry. Don't even think about it, you're right. I hadn't thought of that." He said, "Just forget it."

  Gena Rowlands

  Night, Thinking, Play

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• John Cassavetes wrote A Woman Under the Influence as a play. He said, "Hey, I wrote you a play." And I said, "Great, let's read it." I read it and I said, "John, I couldn't do this every night and twice on Wednesday and Saturday".

  Gena Rowlands

  Night, Play, Hey

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It was more freedom than I think most people get when they're starting out - or even when they're not starting out. He [John Cassavetes] did his thing and I did whatever I thought.

  Gena Rowlands

  Thinking, People, Starting Out

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• Of course I would change anything if John Cassavetes said so - it's his script. But he was very easy about that.

  Gena Rowlands

  Scripts, Easy, Said

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• John [Cassavetes] loved actors. He gave them a lot of freedom. So if something came up that a certain actor just felt at the moment and said - that kind of improvisation he would accept. He gave very little direction.

  Gena Rowlands

  Actors, Littles, Kind

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• John [Cassavetes] had shot a great deal of Shadows and I had to go fulfill my contract in California, so he and all the rest of the Shadows cast came out to California and they finished it off and he cut it. He turned the garage into an editing room and he was by then a director of Shadows. That's the only thing he'd directed. But, he loved it.

  Gena Rowlands

  Cutting, Editing, California

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• So after the Shadows he acted and directed. And it worked out very nicely. And he wrote, obviously.

  Gena Rowlands

  Shadow, Very Nice

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• When I was in Middle of The Night, MGM came and offered me a contract and I said that when I got out of the play, I'd like to try it. I didn't know anything about making movies but I was certainly finding it interesting.

  Gena Rowlands

  Night, Play, Interesting

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• So many people mistakenly think that the rest of his [John Cassavetes] pictures and the ones we did were improvised, which isn't true. He wrote all the rest of them.

  Gena Rowlands

  Thinking, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Because John Cassavetes was so terrific in live TV, a lot of his friends had not been able to participate in that yet and so they asked if he would gather with them at night when I was at the play and tell them what live TV was like, what you had to adjust to because it was its own medium - it had many things you had to be aware of.

  Gena Rowlands

  Night, Play, Able

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• John Cassavetes was there at night while I was working. After they [with his friends] discussed as much live TV as they felt they needed to, they started improvising scenes just for the fun of it and one of those scenes everybody got very interested in and it turned into Shadows [1959]. That movie was entirely improvised.

  Gena Rowlands

  Fun, Night, Shadow

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I got a part opposite Edward G. Robinson in a play called Middle of The Night, which Paddy Cheyafsky had written. It played for a long time because everybody just loved Edward G. Robinson, everybody in New York wanted to see it. John and I were married at the time and put into a position where I was working very long evening hours and he was working in the daytime and so there was a lot of spare time.

  Gena Rowlands

  New York, Night, Opposites

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• He[John Cassavetes] was just being an actor. A very successful actor, especially in live TV. He did many wonderful performances.

  Gena Rowlands

  Successful, Actors, Just Being

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• John Cassavetes was a year ahead of me but we met there. What you do when you are at a school for drama, you do a play as opposed to a final. Anyone who wanted to come could just come. So he came, and I can't remember the name of the play, of course, it was a long time ago.

  Gena Rowlands

  Drama, School, Years

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• [John Cassavetes] came backstage afterwards and introduced himself and we talked a bit, and then went for a little coffee at the Russian Tea Room next door. It just...started.

  Gena Rowlands

  Coffee, Doors, Tea

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Paddy Chayefksy was writing and it was a time where everybody was happy to be there [on TV].

  Gena Rowlands

  Writing, Paddy, Tvs

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• It was a period when live TV was just starting and getting popular and they took it seriously too. Not so much like TV now. They did Hemingway and Faulkner - and they’re all wonderful artists and it just was very creative at that time.

  Gena Rowlands

  Artist, Creative, Tvs

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which was in Carnegie Hall, which itself was exciting - just to walk into it.

  Gena Rowlands

  Art, Dramatic, Carnegie

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• I think that I was lucky to have that period of time [ like coming to New York] because everything was so exciting and new.

  Gena Rowlands

  New York, Thinking, Lucky

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I'd wanted to be [an actress] all my life.

  Gena Rowlands

  Actresses, Wanted

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• So I went home and I told my mom that I wanted to quit and be an actress and she said, “Huh, that sounds fascinating. It’s wonderful!” And I told my father and he literally said, “I don’t care if you want to be an elephant trainer if it makes you happy.”

  Gena Rowlands

  Mom, Father, Home

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 13, 2016.

• When I went to my parents I was at the University of Wisconsin, and I just couldn't wait anymore to go be an actress.

  Gena Rowlands

  Waiting, Parent, Wisconsin

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com