Vera Quotes

It would be difficult to decide in my roller coaster existence, just when I had my `Best Day.` Perhaps it was when I married my present wife, Vera. Or the day when my three children were born. Certainly the day I came away cancer-free from a prostate operation stands near the top. For now, everyday seems as if it should be the best day of them all. I like to think of them as such.

(On playing "Vera Charles" in Mame (1974)) You know, the real name of this show is "Vera". The only reason they changed the name was because Jerry (lyricist Jerry Herman) couldn`t think of a rhyme for it. Stephen Sondheim could have.

It`s for all the women who embrace my aesthetic, but can`t afford a Vera Wang dress. If women can get anything out of it - a little bit of me or a lot of me, that`s what`s important.

As Vera Drake, I feel Mike has used all of me as a dramatic actress, in a positive sense.

He`s the nicest ... because he works so hard, and I think he expects other people to work hard. And in my book, that`s enough. We don`t roll into rehearsal at 10.30 and have coffee. We start at 8am, we finish at 8 o`clock at night. I mean, you don`t want to dither around him. And I think that`s fine. I think he`s entitled to say what he wants and what he doesn`t want. He knows a lot about it. He doesn`t have to be nice if he doesn`t want to, just to be charming. (On working with Mike Leigh in Vera Drake (2004))

I`m not Susan Sarandon. I don`t want to bang a drum. I think I`m just going to say `I`m pro-choice` and leave it at that. (On her view about abortion, something she`s been asked a lot after her role in Vera Drake (2004))

I saw Vera Drake and Mike Leigh is a masterful filmmaker. I think it`s indisputable. He works with actors like no one else. It`s beautifully shot and beautifully played. And yet at the same time, I just want to scream! I say, would it have been a sin for her to take money for a job well done? Does she have to be sanctified? I can`t take it, just how all the liberals, we all go in to see the movie and in a sense it turns us all into martyrs for the good fight. But it`s clearly not an examination of the ethical nature and so forth, it`s just a given that this is the good fight and we are martyrs for this cause. There`s another movie, a lovely film, wonderfully directed, Maria Full of Grace. There`s a scene in the movie where you have this 17-year-old pregnant girl in Queens and she sees Women`s Health Services, and she goes there. What`s the purpose of the scene? All it does is tell us that the baby is okay. I just want to scream! She stays in American, 17, pregnant, no money, no friends, doesn`t speak the language. I mean, really, the only thing she`s equipped to do is be a prostitute. To me, it`s just the falseness of that stay-on-in-America, land-of-hope and so forth, the falseness just makes me want to scream. It`s faux-liberal, in fact. I guess it`s just being patted on the back, being told, `You`re doing the right thing.` There`s no questioning. There`s no examination. There`s no stopping to think.