Annette Bening Books & Quotes

“It used to be the one or the other, right? You were the 'bad girl' or the 'good girl' or the 'bad mother' or the 'good mother,' 'the horrible businesswoman who eschewed her children' or 'the earth mother who was happy to be at home baking pies,' all of that stuff that we sort of knew was a lie.”

Children Home Earth Used Lying Mother Girl Stuff Horrible Used To Be Pie Baking Good Girl Good Mother Bad Girl Bad Mother

Author:Annette Bening

“I still remember the five points of salesmanship: attention, interest, conviction, desire and close.”

Stills Remember Desire Interest Attention Five Conviction Salesmanship

Author:Annette Bening

“I like that I've been through things, that when something happens, it resonates with something that already happened. It's not that things like loss are more or less painful. But they're deeper. I find that fascinating.”

Happens Loss Happened Painful Deeper Things Happen Fascinating

Author:Annette Bening

“I always wonder about people's history and their lives, especially people that are a little bit more distant, who obviously have had some kind of a thing and you know there's some reason why they're not able to connect. It's not because they don't want to. They don't have the ability.”

People Knows Want Kind Littles Reason Able Bits Ability Wonder Little Bit Reason Why

Author:Annette Bening

“I've always been pretty levelheaded. In show business you need to have a certain internal stability.”

Needs Shows Certain Internals Stability Show Business

Author:Annette Bening

“We're not all evil or all good, and we all make mistakes to one degree or another.”

Evil Mistake Degrees Making Mistakes We All Make Mistakes

Author:Annette Bening

“In a film, if you can capture what's going on underneath, you can begin to make a connection between the character and the people watching it.”

People Ifs Character Film Connections Capture

Author:Annette Bening

“I think what's interesting about the whole paparazzi thing is that unless you're Brad Pitt or Madonna, you can pretty much avoid it. You know when you're going to an opening that you will be photographed, so that's fine. And you know the restaurants that have paparazzi, so you don't go to them.”

Thinking Knows Whole Interesting Fine Opening Restaurants Paparazzi Brad

Author:Annette Bening

“I fall in love with all the people I'm working with, women, directors, everybody. As actors, that's actually one of the real pleasures of the work. You have this weird opportunity to get unnaturally close to people very quickly.”

People Real Fall Actors Opportunity Pleasure Directors Falling In Love I Fall In Love

Author:Annette Bening

“If you're an actor, you have to find a way to make peace with all the media attention.”

Ifs Way Actors Attention Media Making Peace

Author:Annette Bening

“I had never met an actress or an actor when I thought that I might like to be one. I had never been around people in show business or from the theater or from movies or anything. And I say that as an encouragement, I don't know some people who want to be doing what I'm doing or be involved in film. You don't have to be from it to get interested and get involved. I certainly wasn't.”

People Film Encouragement Show Business Get Involved

Author:Annette Bening

“Movie is a near art form. It's showbiz and people want to make money. And generally people are financing things because they think it will make money whether it's a cable news show, a cable show, or a feature film, or whatever it is. So that's the part of it that drives it, I think, is really the dollar.”

People Thinking Art Film Making Money Financing Showbiz

Author:Annette Bening

“I'm just as intrigued by acting as ever. It's an ongoing process. There's no arrival. There's no point at which you say "Oh, OK, done it, got it." It just doesn't happen. And that's true of any creative endeavor. For me, it's just a lifelong interest. I'm very much interested in the craft. I started by doing plays and it took me a long time to feel comfortable doing movies, working with cameras. I felt like I was a theater actress pretending that I was a movie actress for quite a while. Now, I just love the process of working with cameras and being on a set and trying to put a film together.”

Trying Long Done Together Film Interest Acting Creative Pretending Lifelong Intrigued

Author:Annette Bening

“One of the things on a very practical level as an actor or actress is that when you do a play, you do the entire story every time you do it. You have eight shows a week. You have a rehearsal process of four to five to six weeks. And then once you're in performance, everybody else goes away and you're there with your fellow actors and the audience and the material and your life becomes about that. And you go through the story from the beginning to the end every time you do it and depending on how long you do it, that's where the craft comes in.”

Long Audience Week

Author:Annette Bening

“There's a lot of different ways of going about teaching acting and ultimately you have to just kind of create your own. You have to be the author of your own acting school in a way. I mean you can take from this and this and you can watch people and you can watch performances on the stage. You can watch movies. But ultimately you have to figure it out for yourself.”

People Kind Mean Different School Acting Teaching

Author:Annette Bening

“All of modern acting comes from Stanislavski, who was the Russian partner to Chekhov. When Chekhov was writing his plays, Stanislavski was running his theater. And Stanislavski really was the first inventor of modern acting and then everything that came out of the method and Stella Adler and the great teachers really came out of him.”

Writing Running Acting Teacher Modern Inventor Great Teacher

Author:Annette Bening

“Modern acting is method acting, most of it. And there are sort of different schools, so I guess I'm not really from one school or another. I had a number of different teachers but they were all kind of drawing from the same pool, which is - What do you want? What are you doing to get what you want? And, what is in the way? These are basic acting questions. Knowing the answers to those questions. So you're talking about objectives and actions and obstacles. That's a sort of shorthand that gives you a language.”

Giving Kind Different Action School Language Acting Teacher Modern Obstacles All Kinds Pool

Author:Annette Bening

“I love watching people listen. And on film often some of the best moments if you think about favorite moments on film, often the person isn't even talking.”

People Thinking Moments Film

Author:Annette Bening

“That's one of the most important things about acting is not just when you're speaking but when you're taking in from someone else. So I often go to the theater and I'm watching the person who's not talking. I love that.”

Important Acting

Author:Annette Bening

“A lot of acting is working with your own psyche in order to allow yourself to be open and reveal yourself. But then of course there's a healthy part of you that says, "Well, don't do that." You know, you're going to be in front of people. You could look foolish. You could get it wrong. You could be too big or too small or not realistic or whatever those things are. People might criticize you. There's all kinds of reasons not to be open. But you do want to be open.”

People Kind Reason Acting Healthy Foolish All Kinds Criticize Realistic

Author:Annette Bening

“As an actor, you want to be open to the unexpected. So in order to be open to that, you do have to get out of your discursive mind just like in any creative process, this isn't just about acting. So you have to learn a little bit how to work with your own mind.”

Mind Acting Creative Unexpected Creative Process

Author:Annette Bening

“We all have our insecurity and that's normal. And you have to learn to accept that about being an artistic person or aspiring to be an artistic person is that fears and insecurity, they don't go away.”

Accepting Artistic Insecurity Going Away Being An Artist

Author:Annette Bening

“You have to learn to deal with your own, for want of a better word, insecurities, fears. They don't go away. And that's normal. It's human. You don't ever really want to lose that. What you want to do is learn to manage it and to work with yourself. But there's a part of you that has anticipation and fear. And so the important thing to know is that there's nothing wrong with that and that that's normal. You have to learn how to deal with it, certainly, but it doesn't keep you from doing it. And that doesn't go away ever.”

Important Manage Insecurity Going Away Anticipation

Author:Annette Bening

“It's always tricky to watch yourself, always. When I first had to watch myself, it was really hard because I'd done quite a few plays and I've never seen myself. So I was professional but I'd never watched myself. So I was like hearing you know... I'm sure you guys are all much more familiar with that because everybody has a phone, and everyone's taking pictures of themselves and making movies of themselves. And so people are more accustomed to it now. So I had to get used to it because there's a lot to be learned, of course, as an actor. When you watch yourself, you learn a lot.”

People Done Guy Familiar Tricky Taking Pictures

Author:Annette Bening

“Of course, you can never watch something like somebody else watches something like you, but nonetheless, you have to try. So I think on camera you learn a lot about how much the camera does for you, which is what is the great luxury of movie acting. Or acting whether it's TV or movies or whatever it is, that the camera's really such a gift because there's so much that it sees and does if you're willing to just be open and expose yourself and all of that. So you also learn what doesn't matter. And sometimes when you think about things, you think things matter that don't matter.”

Thinking Trying Sometimes Acting Like You

Author:Annette Bening

“Movies are details. Movies are billions of details that come into a certain moment. So with all the years and months and weeks and days and minutes of preparation, then finally you're shooting and it all comes down to these moments when you're shooting, which is sort of insane when you think about it. The details make a difference.”

Thinking Moments Week Insane Preparation Making A Difference

Author:Annette Bening

“Sometimes people don't rehearse at all, but you might have had a chance to rehearse for a few days, or even more than that. Then in the moment when the camera's running is the only time it matters. So whatever you've discussed or thought about or discussed with the director, the other actors, hopefully there's a part of the experience that you've left open so that only in that moment the camera catches it. That's of course the hardest thing to do because everything is planned and you have thought about it in advance.”

People Sometimes Moments Running Chance Hopefully

Author:Annette Bening

“I can be very snobby about fiction, especially contemporary fiction. I can be kind of overly demanding, I think. But this is, I think, a good time. A lot of fiction comes out right now. So, I like reading the memoir. I love memoir, the biography, auto bio.”

Thinking Kind Reading Memoir Good Times Be Kind

Author:Annette Bening

“Some people say talent is energy and that's a very interesting way of thinking about it. In other words, people with talent have a lot of energy.”

People Thinking Energy Interesting Talent Very Interesting

Author:Annette Bening

“Once I get on something, once I have something that I'm working on, then I become very obsessive. In a good way. I mean,... is there a positive way to say obsessive? It's a good thing and if you're out there and you're working on something right now and you're crazed and you're up in the middle of the night, or you can't stop thinking about it, or you have to keep reading other things about the subject that you're working on or whatever. That's good and I think that's necessary creatively.”

Thinking Mean Night Reading Good Things Obsessive

Author:Annette Bening

“People always ask us women about how we balance our lives. Rarely do they ever ask men this but we are asked this and it makes a lot of sense - balance, right? It sounds right. And of course you do have to balance because otherwise you'd go crazy. And you do have to find ways of doing things in a sensible manner, raising children and all those choices. But then there's a part of creativity which is irrational and which is obsessive and then that's also part of what we do. So, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's part of what makes someone good.”

People Thinking Men Children Choices Creativity Crazy Balance Ask Me Sensible Irrational Raising Children Obsessive

Author:Annette Bening

“Most of the people that I've worked with when shooting films that I really respect, there is a point which you do become obsessed in a good way. And because it's a collaborative medium, you're not by yourself in a room tearing your hair out, you're in a room with a bunch of people. And we're all tearing our hairs out, or trying to get something right, or caring deeply about something. But that's fun.”

People Trying Film Fun Caring Obsessed

Author:Annette Bening

“This is a good thing to say to film students. If there's a story point that you don't feel right about, that there's a question you have - "Does it really make sense?" Or, "Is that plausible? Is it implausible? Is it set up?" Or whatever. Go at it. Don't let it go. If there's a question in your mind, you're probably right. You probably do need to work on it and think about it more.”

Thinking Mind Film Students Good Things Make Sense Let It Go

Author:Annette Bening

“You read something and you know it's not there yet. There's a little section here that... this part's good but that is a little not, it doesn't quite work. That doesn't quite work. That's easy. To say, "OK, now, this is what I think will fix it." That's harder. And most people can tell you what's wrong with something. Very few people can say what they would do to fix it.”

People Thinking Easy

Author:Annette Bening

“If you push in every time there's a big moment, then the tenth time you push in, you're not going to get the same effect. Or if you have too many close ups, then when you have a big moment and you want a close-up in order to make a point, it doesn't mean anything because you've already been doing close-ups. It's like writing in all capitals. Then after a while that doesn't mean anything. So, just because you can do something with a camera doesn't mean you should.”

Writing Mean Moments

Author:Annette Bening

“You end up loving every character that you play but a lot of the people I've played, I should just say for myself, I played, I wouldn't necessarily want to continue playing them. I've done them. It's like going on a trip. You go, you're amazed, you're glad you're there but you're glad to get home. And that's how I feel most of the time.”

People Done Character Home Glad Amazed

Author:Annette Bening

“Why I love acting is that it's totally subjective and I like that. I like that.”

Acting

Author:Annette Bening

“One of the things that I love when I go to a film or when I'm reading some book or whatever, is to be told a secret I thought only I knew and then someone says, "Oh my gosh, you know, too." And film can take us into private moments in a way that the theater, I think, kind of can't, and that's one of the reasons I like doing films. And the way a book can is that these little secrets and the private things that go on in our minds that maybe we haven't shared with anyone, and then someone writes it or shows it to you in a film, you think, "Oh, that's me. Oh my God, that's me, I have that secret."”

Thinking Writing Mind Kind Book Reason Moments Film Reading Secret Oh My Gosh

Author:Annette Bening

“The films that are interesting you never can stop... there's no end point, you just keep thinking and musing about it.”

Thinking Film Interesting

Author:Annette Bening

“Things either become unclear in a story or they're just ambiguous with no real point. So defined gray area with clarity that also works in the narrative, that's tricky.”

Real Clarity Tricky Ambiguous

Author:Annette Bening

“Maybe that's one of the virtues of the 2016 election that we're going through is all of this racism and xenophobia and sexism and whatever else you want to say is being exposed, maybe that's a blessing. I'm trying to look at the positive side of what's been happening in our country, which is frightening.”

Trying Country Virtue Blessing Racism Election Sexism Frightening

Author:Annette Bening

“You can't ask the guy with the checkbook to always be the person. So, we actors have to try. And believe me, it's not just young people who are struggling with this, trying to get things of substance made because of the proliferation of technology that it's just harder and harder to get things that really matter made. But they are being done and you just have to fight the good fight and try to... if you have something that you have written, you have to do your best to try to get it made in whatever way you can.”

People Trying Believe Done Guy Fighting Technology Struggle Believe In Me Good Fight

Author:Annette Bening

“Acting is not about being famous, it's about exploring the human soul.”

Humans Soul Acting Fame Exploring Human Soul Being Famous Good Acting

Author:Annette Bening

“Don't wait to have a baby! Do it now!”

Waiting Baby

Author:Annette Bening

“We want to be seen for who we really are, and each person has his own complex story and reasons for doing what they do.”

Want Persons Reason Stories Complexes

Author:Annette Bening

“I think where I've instinctively found myself is that I am somewhat guarded in my public life. Being interviewed or being photographed or just in public attention, I have a certain reserve. But when I'm working I feel like I'm very open. At least I like to believe that I feel like nothing is held back when I'm in front of a camera. That's my job.”

Thinking Feels Believe Jobs Certain Found Attention Fronts Cameras Reserves Public Life Back When Guarded

Author:Annette Bening

“I knew I wanted children in my life. The acting was always in relation to it. Life at home is chaos. They're wonderful. They're such interesting human beings. I just love it. I'm lucky.”

Humans Children Home Wanted Human Beings Interesting Acting Wonderful Lucky Relation Chaos

Author:Annette Bening

“I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.”

Way Soul Able Remember Acting Cameras Hearing Hopefully Your Soul Mask Another Way Liberating Good Acting

Author:Annette Bening

“I am really looking forward as I get older and older, to being less and less nice.”

Nice Being Nice Looking Forward

Author:Annette Bening

“Right now, I love the fact that I have so many opportunities, but I know this privileged position cannot last. That doesn't mean that I'll stop working. I picture myself as an old actress doing cameos in films with people saying: "Isn't that that Bening woman?"”

People Knows Mean Facts Lasts Film Opportunity Position Right Now Actresses Privileged Cameos

Author:Annette Bening

Annette Bening Books

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