Allison Tolman Quotes

Improv training allows you to get out of your head a little bit and take more risks, which is something I would like to continue to improve upon.

In theater, we know a scheduled season months in advance.

I read the 'Fargo' hashtag and what people tweeted at me and every article and every comment on every article. I really just ate it up. But I wasn't prepared for hearing what everybody thought of me.

I saw 'Fargo,' not when it came out, but probably a few years later, and went through multiple viewings - I'm sure my tape has been worn out.

Coming out of Dallas and doing commercial work in Dallas - if you had improv background in Dallas, then you were instantly shot to the top of the list of commercial bookings because they loved improvisers because you could elevate the material.

Our TV and movie cops are usually in heels and pencil skirts.

It's scary to not know when your next job is coming, and that is a daily fear when you are trying to act full-time.

I do find that when I see women who flesh out the television or film world and make it look more like the world I actually live in, I gravitate towards those characters.

I really respect the Coen brothers as directors and as creative individuals and with the way that they handle the industry and the business side of things.

I've done some version of that Minnesota accent - that Midwestern accent - in sketch comedy for years. It's the quickest way to symbolize you're a mom.

I was working, like, 14-hour days on 'Fargo,' and now if I schedule more than two things in a day, I'm like, 'Whoa, you guys. That's two train rides, and I have to plan for an hour-and-a-half lunch with my cat.'

I need an office and a place I can sit down to get away from television and just write.

The thing about theater that always and still kind of makes me edgy is that you work and work and work and work, and then you're just in performance mode, and then you have to just be on; the work is done, and then you just have to do it over and over again, so you're just constantly at that performance level.

I moved to Chicago and I did theater, and then I started writing and I stop acting and I did sketch. You know, I did all of the things that, if you were serious about doing television, don't do.

If you only live in the world of the actor, and if you only live in the world of auditions, etc., then you don't really have a whole lot to offer when it comes to playing the humans that you're trying to audition for.

I taped my original audition for 'Fargo' with my agency in Chicago, Stewart Talent.

It's interesting to play a female character who's not ever using feminine wiles to get things done.

I never really acted full-time. I certainly had gotten past the point where fame and fortune was something that I was dreaming about or anticipating.

I worked in IT for about three years for a tiny firm with ten other people.

I'm from Texas, and Texas has a reputation that far precedes actual Texas, and it is irritating sometimes.

I moved to Chicago when I was 28, and I wasn't completely idealistic about going to Second City and making a living from comedy, but I knew it would be great for the resume.

I haven't been recognized out in public or anything. The strangeness of celebrity has been relegated to Twitter, which is kind of manageable.

What is right is not always popular.

My mother has stories of leaving me in the bath as small kid, like a 3-year-old, and there being mirrors on the side, and her going to get a towel and coming back in, and me making faces at myself, like, 'Now I'm happy. Now I'm sad.'

The best thing I ever learned when I first started acting is that you audition, and then you forget about it when you walk out the door. Even when you have a callback, you can't bank on things until you actually book that job, or your heart will just be broken over and over again.

I know the benefits of having a really great improv show are amazing because it was this one rare and fleeting thing that was incredible, but the risk just didn't appeal to me. I liked the control of sitting down and writing things.

I guess my interest in performance has evolved and changed many times over the years.

Body-shaming is something I feel really strongly about. I think about my niece, I think about my friends who have daughters being on the Internet and reading these things, and it just makes me furious. It makes me so angry.

Someone asked me about how it feels to wear the same costume every day and whether it gets tired or boring, but the good thing about it is that you know what to expect, every day.

I've met a lot of really friendly people who are incredibly happy for me, which is really flattering and humbling.

I don't think I have ever worn more outfits over the course of four days than I did Emmy weekend. You barely sleep. You don't eat.

Most of the time you spend filming a show is time you spend without the cameras on, when you're not acting.

I've always had a day job and never been just acting.

For me and accent work, I think once you've figured out where that energy is, where the sound is in your throat or your mouth, it's a whole lot easier to do.

I don't think you realize how often on television people are not like anyone we know or have known.

Whenever I've done a sketch in which I'm asked to play a mom, my brain goes to Minnesota. It makes the character seem matronly, warm, the kind of person that takes care of you and brings you Campbell's soup when you're sick. It's a great shortcut.

At Clements, I was an officer in Thespian Troupe No. 3689.

'The Secret Garden' was the first musical that I fell in love with when I was a kid. My mom took me to see it, and it was the first one that I owned the soundtrack to and listened to over and over again.

When you go in to do a screen test, you negotiate your contract and sign all your paperwork before you even get on a plane.

I'm hoping I can evade a type and go for roles based on what I consider plausible and what I consider good.