Latest Annette Bening Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Maybe that's one of the virtues of the 2016 election that we're going through is all of this racism and xenophobia and sexism and whatever else you want to say is being exposed, maybe that's a blessing. I'm trying to look at the positive side of what's been happening in our country, which is frightening.

  Annette Bening

  Country, Blessing, Racism

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• You can't ask the guy with the checkbook to always be the person. So, we actors have to try. And believe me, it's not just young people who are struggling with this, trying to get things of substance made because of the proliferation of technology that it's just harder and harder to get things that really matter made. But they are being done and you just have to fight the good fight and try to... if you have something that you have written, you have to do your best to try to get it made in whatever way you can.

  Annette Bening

  Believe, Struggle, Fighting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• One of the things that I love when I go to a film or when I'm reading some book or whatever, is to be told a secret I thought only I knew and then someone says, "Oh my gosh, you know, too." And film can take us into private moments in a way that the theater, I think, kind of can't, and that's one of the reasons I like doing films. And the way a book can is that these little secrets and the private things that go on in our minds that maybe we haven't shared with anyone, and then someone writes it or shows it to you in a film, you think, "Oh, that's me. Oh my God, that's me, I have that secret."

  Annette Bening

  Reading, Book, Writing

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• The films that are interesting you never can stop... there's no end point, you just keep thinking and musing about it.

  Annette Bening

  Thinking, Interesting, Film

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Things either become unclear in a story or they're just ambiguous with no real point. So defined gray area with clarity that also works in the narrative, that's tricky.

  Annette Bening

  Real, Clarity, Tricky

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• You end up loving every character that you play but a lot of the people I've played, I should just say for myself, I played, I wouldn't necessarily want to continue playing them. I've done them. It's like going on a trip. You go, you're amazed, you're glad you're there but you're glad to get home. And that's how I feel most of the time.

  Annette Bening

  Home, Character, People

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Why I love acting is that it's totally subjective and I like that. I like that.

  Annette Bening

  Acting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• You read something and you know it's not there yet. There's a little section here that... this part's good but that is a little not, it doesn't quite work. That doesn't quite work. That's easy. To say, "OK, now, this is what I think will fix it." That's harder. And most people can tell you what's wrong with something. Very few people can say what they would do to fix it.

  Annette Bening

  Thinking, People, Easy

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• If you push in every time there's a big moment, then the tenth time you push in, you're not going to get the same effect. Or if you have too many close ups, then when you have a big moment and you want a close-up in order to make a point, it doesn't mean anything because you've already been doing close-ups. It's like writing in all capitals. Then after a while that doesn't mean anything. So, just because you can do something with a camera doesn't mean you should.

  Annette Bening

  Writing, Mean, Moments

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• This is a good thing to say to film students. If there's a story point that you don't feel right about, that there's a question you have - "Does it really make sense?" Or, "Is that plausible? Is it implausible? Is it set up?" Or whatever. Go at it. Don't let it go. If there's a question in your mind, you're probably right. You probably do need to work on it and think about it more.

  Annette Bening

  Thinking, Mind, Let It Go

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• People always ask us women about how we balance our lives. Rarely do they ever ask men this but we are asked this and it makes a lot of sense - balance, right? It sounds right. And of course you do have to balance because otherwise you'd go crazy. And you do have to find ways of doing things in a sensible manner, raising children and all those choices. But then there's a part of creativity which is irrational and which is obsessive and then that's also part of what we do. So, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's part of what makes someone good.

  Annette Bening

  Children, Crazy, Creativity

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Most of the people that I've worked with when shooting films that I really respect, there is a point which you do become obsessed in a good way. And because it's a collaborative medium, you're not by yourself in a room tearing your hair out, you're in a room with a bunch of people. And we're all tearing our hairs out, or trying to get something right, or caring deeply about something. But that's fun.

  Annette Bening

  Fun, Caring, People

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Once I get on something, once I have something that I'm working on, then I become very obsessive. In a good way. I mean,... is there a positive way to say obsessive? It's a good thing and if you're out there and you're working on something right now and you're crazed and you're up in the middle of the night, or you can't stop thinking about it, or you have to keep reading other things about the subject that you're working on or whatever. That's good and I think that's necessary creatively.

  Annette Bening

  Reading, Mean, Night

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• I can be very snobby about fiction, especially contemporary fiction. I can be kind of overly demanding, I think. But this is, I think, a good time. A lot of fiction comes out right now. So, I like reading the memoir. I love memoir, the biography, auto bio.

  Annette Bening

  Reading, Thinking, Be Kind

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Some people say talent is energy and that's a very interesting way of thinking about it. In other words, people with talent have a lot of energy.

  Annette Bening

  Thinking, People, Interesting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Of course, you can never watch something like somebody else watches something like you, but nonetheless, you have to try. So I think on camera you learn a lot about how much the camera does for you, which is what is the great luxury of movie acting. Or acting whether it's TV or movies or whatever it is, that the camera's really such a gift because there's so much that it sees and does if you're willing to just be open and expose yourself and all of that. So you also learn what doesn't matter. And sometimes when you think about things, you think things matter that don't matter.

  Annette Bening

  Thinking, Trying, Acting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Movies are details. Movies are billions of details that come into a certain moment. So with all the years and months and weeks and days and minutes of preparation, then finally you're shooting and it all comes down to these moments when you're shooting, which is sort of insane when you think about it. The details make a difference.

  Annette Bening

  Thinking, Preparation, Insane

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• Sometimes people don't rehearse at all, but you might have had a chance to rehearse for a few days, or even more than that. Then in the moment when the camera's running is the only time it matters. So whatever you've discussed or thought about or discussed with the director, the other actors, hopefully there's a part of the experience that you've left open so that only in that moment the camera catches it. That's of course the hardest thing to do because everything is planned and you have thought about it in advance.

  Annette Bening

  Running, People, Chance

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• You have to learn to deal with your own, for want of a better word, insecurities, fears. They don't go away. And that's normal. It's human. You don't ever really want to lose that. What you want to do is learn to manage it and to work with yourself. But there's a part of you that has anticipation and fear. And so the important thing to know is that there's nothing wrong with that and that that's normal. You have to learn how to deal with it, certainly, but it doesn't keep you from doing it. And that doesn't go away ever.

  Annette Bening

  Insecurity, Important, Going Away

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• It's always tricky to watch yourself, always. When I first had to watch myself, it was really hard because I'd done quite a few plays and I've never seen myself. So I was professional but I'd never watched myself. So I was like hearing you know... I'm sure you guys are all much more familiar with that because everybody has a phone, and everyone's taking pictures of themselves and making movies of themselves. And so people are more accustomed to it now. So I had to get used to it because there's a lot to be learned, of course, as an actor. When you watch yourself, you learn a lot.

  Annette Bening

  People, Guy, Done

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• As an actor, you want to be open to the unexpected. So in order to be open to that, you do have to get out of your discursive mind just like in any creative process, this isn't just about acting. So you have to learn a little bit how to work with your own mind.

  Annette Bening

  Creative, Mind, Acting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• We all have our insecurity and that's normal. And you have to learn to accept that about being an artistic person or aspiring to be an artistic person is that fears and insecurity, they don't go away.

  Annette Bening

  Insecurity, Going Away, Artistic

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• That's one of the most important things about acting is not just when you're speaking but when you're taking in from someone else. So I often go to the theater and I'm watching the person who's not talking. I love that.

  Annette Bening

  Important, Acting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• A lot of acting is working with your own psyche in order to allow yourself to be open and reveal yourself. But then of course there's a healthy part of you that says, "Well, don't do that." You know, you're going to be in front of people. You could look foolish. You could get it wrong. You could be too big or too small or not realistic or whatever those things are. People might criticize you. There's all kinds of reasons not to be open. But you do want to be open.

  Annette Bening

  People, Healthy, Acting

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

• All of modern acting comes from Stanislavski, who was the Russian partner to Chekhov. When Chekhov was writing his plays, Stanislavski was running his theater. And Stanislavski really was the first inventor of modern acting and then everything that came out of the method and Stella Adler and the great teachers really came out of him.

  Annette Bening

  Running, Teacher, Writing

  Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com