Melissa Leo Quotes

I'm not particularly fond of the hybrid writer-director or actor-director.

I do get a fair amount of scripts; I got 'Frozen River' kinda just that way. I have a hard time turning my back on anybody who says they have something for me.

I think there has only been one time in my entire career that I've ever gone back to shoot a scene. And it was a scene that, when we were shooting it, we knew that it wasn't working. We knew there was a disagreement between the actor and director. So, we went back.

I love acting. I really do. I think that's maybe the one thing that is known about me.

I'm a very lucky girl who gets to act for a living! So why sit around griping and grousing about what's not there.

I'm very old-school. I like a director to direct me. I like to be the actor.

An actor has to be very, very careful, as one of the most wonderful props - and actors love props - is a cigarette. There's so much to do with it: you can bring it up to your face, play with the smoke. It's just the greatest - ever since I was 16 and in acting school in England, I've been playing around with cigarettes.

The key to acting has much more to do with listening than with talking.

The director is the captain of the ship, without question. No matter what their talent or energy level is, everyone on the crew has all eyes on the captain. If they come in going, "I don't know. Maybe we'll do this. Maybe we'll do that," you've got 10 days to shoot and they don't care what you're doing.

To get the hippie out of certain characters is probably the most difficult thing for me. I was not a hippie by choice but by birth.

People often expect me to be something other than what I am.

The climate informs the character.

I haven't had a lot of experience with glamour. I've never had to mask myself, as many now not-so-young actresses have had to do. Female actors in that regard have a different lot in life than male actors.

Through all of this lovely interviewing, and nice things people say, and the rest of it, I have learned that I am an actor. That is my profession. That is my job. That is how I make a living. So I am just out there making a living.

I think the funny thing about acting for me - and I hold it in a very holy, spiritual way - not to be overly fundamentalist about it, but it's that important to me - is that it is an ancient healing art.

My body has done for me all these years things I couldn't ever even dreamt to do for characters. It's a tool, molecularly speaking, and I need to take care of it.

Supporting actors are the support. You can't make a building without support. You can't buy dinner without support.

Acting is the business of truth, so that we can see ourselves reflected back and learn.

I have some close friends I keep in touch with. I knit. I watch a little too much TV. I ski, if the weather's right for that. If I can find a group of buddies, I go rock climbing.

Well, I don't think of myself as a feminist at all. As soon as we start labeling and categorizing ourselves and others, that's going to shut down the world.

The power of television - it's so present in our lives, we don't even know how powerful it is.

That's probably the biggest secret of acting: If the actor believes it themselves, they can make you believe it.