Joan Allen Quotes

I was very shy, but was desperate to meet boys. So my sister told me to be a cheerleader. I didn`t make cheerleading squad, so I thought, "Why not try out for a play?" As soon as I did I found out I absolutely loved it. I could cry and scream and laugh, but in a controlled environment.

To tell you the truth, if Oliver Stone had wanted Pat Nixon to wear a G-string and swing from a chandelier, I would have played it that way.

I was a very good girl for a long time, that`s what really drew me to acting. The stage was the perfect place to be outrageous, to be sad, to be angry, to be all these different things.

er 50% of Americans don`t agree with the administration (of President `George W. Bush`); that`s a lot of people. But they don`t get the press. I know myself and my friends in New York were devastated after the last election (2004). We could hardly stand up it was so devastating. And those are the people that I`m around a fair amount.

I`m hard to pin down. I tend to look different in films. I get recognized sometimes. But I just live my life. I get on the bus, I get on the subway, it`s not a problem. I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingénue leading lady, who started out something like Michelle Pfeiffer or Jessica Lange. I`m a bit quirkier than that.

I was the good girl. The straight A student, on the honor roll, part of the choir . . . I played the cello badly. I did plays.

How do we escape who we are? I think going to college, I felt freer. I loved the clean slate. I wasn`t known as the sort of nerdy, studious girl. I met gay people for the first time in my life. I needed that expansion from a very conservative little town.

I think there`s been a tendency to place me in what has been characterized as the "moral center" of the film. In films like The Ice Storm (1997), The Crucible (1996) and Nixon (1995), that`s the sort of the persona that emerged.

I think I knew acting was what I wanted to do. But I was from this small town and there was no place for an adult to recognize it. I think the cheerleading thing was a way of performing. There was the boy element, but more important was the performance element. Once I got to high school and auditioned for a play and got in, I thought this was really what I was looking for. Once that had got cleared up, from 13 on, that was it.

Over 50% of Americans don`t agree with the administration (of President `George W. Bush`); that`s a lot of people. But they don`t get the press. I know myself and my friends in New York were devastated after the last election (2004). We could hardly stand up it was so devastating. And those are the people that I`m around a fair amount.

I think there`s been a tendency to place me in what has been characterized as the "moral center" of the film. In films like The Ice Storm (1997), The Crucible (1996) and Nixon (1995), that`s the sort of the persona that emerged.

I think I knew acting was what I wanted to do. But I was from this small town and there was no place for an adult to recognize it. I think the cheerleading thing was a way of performing. There was the boy element, but more important was the performance element. Once I got to high school and auditioned for a play and got in, I thought this was really what I was looking for. Once that had got cleared up, from 13 on, that was it.

To tell you the truth, if Oliver Stone had wanted Pat Nixon to wear a G-string and swing from a chandelier, I would have played it that way.

I was very shy, but was desperate to meet boys. So my sister told me to be a cheerleader. I didn`t make cheerleading squad, so I thought, "Why not try out for a play?" As soon as I did I found out I absolutely loved it. I could cry and scream and laugh, but in a controlled environment.

I`m hard to pin down. I tend to look different in films. I get recognized sometimes. But I just live my life. I get on the bus, I get on the subway, it`s not a problem. I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingénue leading lady, who started out something like Michelle Pfeiffer or Jessica Lange. I`m a bit quirkier than that.

I was a very good girl for a long time, that`s what really drew me to acting. The stage was the perfect place to be outrageous, to be sad, to be angry, to be all these different things.

I was the good girl. The straight A student, on the honor roll, part of the choir . . . I played the cello badly. I did plays.

How do we escape who we are? I think going to college, I felt freer. I loved the clean slate. I wasn`t known as the sort of nerdy, studious girl. I met gay people for the first time in my life. I needed that expansion from a very conservative little town.