Quotes

The hell of rejection and panicking about whether you've really fucked it all up by pursuing a life in the arts, that stuff's tough, but there's also a wonderful solace in it. You get to be alone with your work.

It's so weird being an actor because some days you're just swinging upside-down off the side of a spaceship shooting an alien and you think, "What the hell am I doing here? How did this happen?"

When you are the kid of an actor, it's always a very inviting world. Everyone is nice to you, the hair and make-up people braid your hair and play with you, and the costume department makes outfits for your teddy bears. It's really misleading, because then when you actually go to pursue a career in acting, you realize that people aren't so friendly.

I don't really care about the size of the part. It's just the scripts and the characters and the people I want to work with.

Self-promotion is not my strong suit, for sure. I don't look down on it; I just don't understand how to do it.

[on her father, Sam Waterston] People think the advantage of a parent in the business is that they'll open doors for you. But the true advantage for me is having someone who knows exactly what you're going through. The business is mysterious and hard to navigate, and he really feels that way too. So he's been more of a comforter than an advice-giver.

I want to work with great directors. I want to work with people who aren't afraid of taking risks and have an original voice. I want to play characters that surprise me, and when I first read them I don't know how I'm going to do it, you know?

I really love fashion but I feel like the older I get, the more I am drawn to the basic things in my daily life, because everything else is so goofy and crazy.

I'm grateful I was left alone with my work for a number of years. It's more pleasant not to have to defend or explain yourself so much. A lot of what we do is hard to put into words. And I find that I come up short or disappoint myself in trying to even talk about it.

[performing nude] I feel that nudity is sort of what we do as actors. It's all nudity, it's all vulnerable, it's all at least a little bit scary. But it didn't feel any more vulnerable or complicated than any other complicated, vulnerable scene I've played.