Olivia Williams Quotes - Page 2

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• My agents were like "Come to L.A., we've got meetings for you." I was like "No, I'm doing this now." Then my father became very ill back in England, and I didn't want to be away. I went back to England and did a bunch of crazy indie movies, all of which I loved with a passion, and none of which did any business.

  Olivia Williams

  Father, Crazy, Passion

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Carey Mulligan is completely self-possessed. She knows what she's doing, and again, quite like the big-hitters I was talking about, my job was just to feel and reflect back the amazing performance coming my way. If anything, I was slightly pathetically flying in her tailwind. She's an extraordinary actress.

  Olivia Williams

  Flying, My Way, Extraordinary

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I am a pathetic and gushing Nick Hornby fan, and I wanted to be in High Fidelity, and I wanted to be in About A Boy, and those two directors - one who's a dear friend, and one who has never cast me in anything, despite my pleading... So there was another Nick Hornby script going around being cast by a friend of mine, and she said, "There's a very small role in it, but you'd be right for it." I was like "I don't care how small, I'm going to be in this Nick Hornby film."

  Olivia Williams

  Boys, Care, Film

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• My parents are both lawyers, and my father always said his best cases have been returns, cases that come into his office from another lawyer. So he said, "Never be ashamed to take a return." All my best roles have happened because someone else dropped out at the last minute, and God bless those actresses for their queeny fits, their sprained ankles, their better job turning up, because that's how I've got my best work.

  Olivia Williams

  Father, Office, Parent

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• It was as big as a Beatles concert, I guess. Friends was unbelievably popular in Britain, and it was incredibly exciting. I had never experienced anything quite like that before in my life. I was honored to be a part of that.

  Olivia Williams

  Exciting, Honored

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• It was fine when I was single and childless. Carrying the responsibility of screwing up your kids at the same time is huge. I remember when I got Peter Pan, and I told my mom and dad and my friends I was leaving - again, I was cast way late on - in the next two days to go to Australia for four months, and they all went "Bye! See you in four months!" But no one said "We need you," and I really knew that it was time to think about someone else for a change.

  Olivia Williams

  Mom, Dad, Kids

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• The excruciating moments of drama are when people are allowed to show or say what they feel.

  Olivia Williams

  Drama, People, Moments

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• We had an ancient Russian acting coach at my drama school who said the worst offense you could commit was to let your subtext show. That is the point of acting, is to be saying one thing and not be allowed by society or your predicament to show what you're really feeling. In a way, I think that's why the therapy generation has killed script writing, because all you ever get is people going, "Hi, I'm feeling really angry right now."

  Olivia Williams

  Drama, Writing, School

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I thought "I've coped with some crazy situations, and I can do this." But working with Roman Polanski is so different from the fashionable and accepted way of directing now.

  Olivia Williams

  Crazy, Different, Accepted

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• The phrase you usually hear after a cut is "That was great. Perhaps we could have another go. Maybe try it this way." Even that much direction is prefaced with a lot of praise and encouragement. It's quite like how you deal with toddlers: positive reinforcement, and then a little suggestion that you might want to try something different. Roman Polanski will stop the take and shout, "No, no, no!" Which is somewhat alarming the first time it happens.

  Olivia Williams

  Encouragement, Cutting, Trying

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I was lucky, because Ewan McGregor had already been shooting with Roman Polanski for about a month before I got role. And he did a faultless impersonation of what it was going to be like. So when direction happened, it was like, "Oh yeah. That's what Ewan said was going to happen." And so it was a little bit less debilitating than it might have been.

  Olivia Williams

  Lucky

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Roman Polanski actually said as much to me once. He had his head in his hands, and I said, "Roman, I've got to tell you, as an actor, seeing the director with his head in his hands... Look, I really want to do what you want me to do." And he went away and he came back, having obviously thought about what I said. And he said, "When my head is in my hands, I'm closing my eyes and trying to remember what I saw in my head, before any of the stuff."

  Olivia Williams

  Eye, Trying, Remember

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• My analysis of the situation was that Roman Polanski wasn't trying to break us down or get a performance out of us by destroying us. He was absolutely, very simply, trying to recreate this clear picture in his head. And the pictures he creates are absolutely perfect, and they are exactly what he saw in his head.

  Olivia Williams

  Perfect, Trying, Break

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Ewan McGregor and I said this to each other after we saw The Ghost Writer. Every time Roman Polanski did a "No, no, no!," he was right. It was really as if a sculptor was asked to sculpt the embodiment of despair - that was the attitude he would strike. But as with every sort of inspiring teacher you ever had who was strict and scary, when you get it right, the sun comes out, and it's worth it.

  Olivia Williams

  Teacher, Attitude, Scary

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• When Roman Polanski did give you a "Great, great, great!" you were just like, "Thank you, Lord, for this magical moment."

  Olivia Williams

  Giving, Moments, Lord

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I don't tend to spend the whole day in the personality of the person I'm playing.

  Olivia Williams

  Personality

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I guess maybe I was hired to play in the Doll House because of my dinner scene in The Sixth Sense, which has been scrutinized a thousand times as to whether you know Bruce Willis is dead, or whether I'm talking to myself. I think that maybe if that could be my forte, to do a scene and be able to say it could be read this way or that way.

  Olivia Williams

  Thinking, House, Scene

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm 5'9" and have the body of an English person that doesn't know how to diet.

  Olivia Williams

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I really needed to have something in my life, because I realized there were other things more important than my career. So I love having my children and my family.

  Olivia Williams

  Children, Important, My Family

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• There are movies where I've walked onto the set and felt, "This is home," and I'm confident in myself and my work, but that was my first experience of live TV. At that stage, Friends was at its unassailable height of popularity and brilliance.

  Olivia Williams

  Home, Popularity, Brilliance

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I hope I never get in the situation where I refuse to audition, because I think people have a right to see you interpreting the character, and if you don't do it the way they want you to, they have a right to say, "No."

  Olivia Williams

  Character, Thinking, People

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• The trouble with audition process is, when you're an unemployed actor, it's the only time you get to act, and it can be quite fun. If you feel in control of the material and you feel that the people are pleased to see you and are excited by you auditioning for them, it can be a really rewarding process. But it can also be a very humiliating process.

  Olivia Williams

  Fun, People, Trouble

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• It's funny, when people want things to be very truthful and you're dealing with an inexperienced actor. I'm of the school that believes things like that have to be very carefully choreographed. You need people there to say, "It's going to happen like this."

  Olivia Williams

  Believe, School, People

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• When The Sixth Sense was the No. 1 movie in America, I had a Canadian boyfriend whose only assets at the time were a guitar and a van. I don't know what I was thinking.

  Olivia Williams

  Thinking, Sixth Sense

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I am the worst judge of how a movie is going to do. I always have great and ambitious hopes, but none of them see the light of day.

  Olivia Williams

  Judging, Ambitious, Worst

  Source: film.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

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