Jennifer Jason Leigh Quotes

"I could never play the ingenue, the girl next door or the very successful young doctor. That would be a bore."

On her best friend, Phoebe Cates: "Your best friend is the only one who would tell you the person you are in love with is a sexually ambivalent man-child."

I just don`t plan things. I live a month at a time.

I`m a typical middle child. I`m the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody`s happy. It`s hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy.

I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting.

People can have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. I`ve had guys, when I`ve been single, come out of the woodwork to date me and I`ve found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person - and that`s just not me.

I`d much rather be in a movie that people have really strong feelings about than one that makes a hundred million dollars but you can`t remember because it`s just like all the others.

But in mainstream movies the woman`s role is mostly just to prove that the leading man is heterosexual. I`m not good at that, and I`m not interested in that.

I like the comparison to Depp because with him, the way he transforms himself from role to role, he`s just this miraculous changeling and people really get behind it. But with me, people sometimes have a problem.

I think I live in this mythical world where doing the parts I do is not going to hurt me, and telling people my age is not going to hurt me. And it actually does. It`s a bit sick-making but, you know, I can`t change who I am.

Writing, producing and directing, I must say, is incredibly satisfying and gratifying. I`ve never been happier.

I love being in therapy. It`s just constantly fulfilling for me.

I used to hang out by the food table at parties because you don`t have to talk to anybody. If you do then you can talk about the food.

When I did Short Cuts (1993) with Robert Altman, I went up to him on the first day and said `Hi`, and he said `Hi, how are you? Could you get me a cup of coffee?` When I brought it back, it turned out he thought I was the PA. For him, I come alive on film. As a person, I don`t really register that much. I mean, he loves me, I don`t take it as a cut, although you could. But he says that as a person I disappear in a way. On film, I`m very mysterious, but in life I`m very dull. I don`t feel like I`m dull, but I don`t put out a lot.