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Geena Davis

Geena Davis Books

Actress

Geena Davis is an American actress renowned for her performances in film and television. Born on January 21, 1956, she gained fame in the 1980s and 1990s with her roles in comedy and action movies. She won an Academy Award for her performances in 'The Accidental Tourist' and 'Forrest Gump'.

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Related Quotes

“The most common occupation for women in G rated films is royalty - which is a great gig, if you can get it.”

Ifs Reality Film Work Justice Common Family Class Comedy Equal Occupation Royalty Equal Rights Gigs

Author:Geena Davis

“I had a deliberate plan to get into movies by becoming a model, so I went to New York and got a job pretending to be a mannequin in store windows.”

Jobs Plans New York Becoming Models Window Stores Pretending Deliberate

Author:Geena Davis

“This dapper little mouse that wore such cute clothes and said such interesting things, yeah. I thought it was a great idea to have a mouse like that in your family, so now I get to see what it was like.”

Littles Said Ideas Interesting Clothes Yeah Cute Our Family Mice Interesting Things Great Idea Dapper

Author:Geena Davis

“I immediately noticed there were far more male characters than female characters in the programs, even now, in the 21st century.”

Character Century Female Program Males 21st Century Female Characters

Author:Geena Davis

“The fictitious worlds created for kids are nearly bereft of female presence. It's sending a very clear message from the beginning that women and girls do not have half of the adventures, that they're not as important. We're teaching kids that girls and women don't take up half the space in the world.”

World Important Kids Girl Space Half Clear Teaching Adventure Messages Female That Girl Bereft Teaching Kids

Author:Geena Davis

“The most important thing is to change what children see from the beginning. To not create a problem we have to fix later.”

Children Important Problem Important Things

Author:Geena Davis

“My theory of everything is that we are training kids to have gender bias against girls, therefore when you are an adult, you don't see it. We think it's normal.”

Thinking Kids Girl Theory Normal Training Adults Gender Bias Gender Bias

Author:Geena Davis

“We have it in our heads that women only need to take up a certain amount of space and then we've done right by them. It's the same in every profession. We get a handful of women professors, a few female board members - that looks normal.”

Needs Looks Done Certain Space Amount Members Normal Female Profession Boards Professors Handful Board Members

Author:Geena Davis

“I had a pretty poor self-image for a long time. I broke into acting as a model in New York. I was never anything like a "supermodel," but I made a living at it for a couple years. The thing was, I was convinced that I was tricking everyone into thinking I was attractive.”

Thinking Years Long Made Self Poor Acting New York Couple Long Time Models Convinced Broke Attractive Supermodel Poor Self Image

Author:Geena Davis

“I remember very distinctly being so tall I didn't fit sleeves, so I ended up modeling lingerie and bathing suits, sleeveless stuff, basically. I didn't have a good body, but I believed I knew how to stand or pose to mask it.”

Body Remember Stuff Fit Suits Mask Tall Modeling Sleeves Bathing Lingerie Bathing Suits

Author:Geena Davis

“I was tall from minute one. Always the tallest kid by a large margin. And my fantasy was to take up less space in the world.”

World Kids Space Fantasy Minutes Tall Margins

Author:Geena Davis

“All I wanted, to be petite and attractive. I was afraid I'd never stop growing.”

Wanted Growing Attractive Petite

Author:Geena Davis

“Once I fix what kids watch, I'll be moving on to everything else.”

Kids Moving Watches

Author:Geena Davis

“I used to be very unathletic. I was always so gangly and self-conscious about my height. I had convinced myself I was uncoordinated. And as a result, I didn't want to try stuff.”

Want Trying Self Used Stuff Results Conscious Convinced Used To Be Height Self Conscious

Author:Geena Davis

“My thing in high school was being the tallest kid in class. Always. I was always the tallest kid in class.”

Kids School Class High School

Author:Geena Davis

“I was all limbs and I was very convinced that I must be uncoordinated, so I didn't want to try any sports. And the girls' basketball team was constantly like, "Please, please just come play."”

Want Trying Play Girl Sports Team Please Basketball Convinced Limbs Basketball Team

Author:Geena Davis

“I got cast playing the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. I don't know how to play any sport, including baseball, but I trained really hard. They had these great coaches, and they started saying, "Wow, you have some like really untapped athletic ability."”

Knows Hard Play Sports Ability Know How Player Baseball Including Casts Coaches Wow Athletic Baseball Player Great Coach Best Baseball Athletic Ability

Author:Geena Davis

“I wanted to take up a sport the real way and see if I actually had athletic ability. And then I happened to see it was during the Atlanta Olympics. And there was a lot of coverage of archery because the U.S. men's team won all the medals. And I thought, "Wow, that's beautiful. And it's so dramatic, a beautiful sport. And I wonder if I would be good at it?"”

Ifs Men Way Real Would Be Wanted Beautiful Sports Ability Wonder Happened Team Be Good Dramatic Wow Olympics Medal Athletic Coverage Atlanta Archery Athletic Ability

Author:Geena Davis

“I always want a challenge. My whole career has been based on trying to avoid female characters that don't get to do anything. And it's really hard to avoid those.”

Want Trying Has Beens Hard Whole Character Challenges Careers Female Female Characters

Author:Geena Davis

“So many female characters are the girlfriend of the person having the adventure. I want to play baseball, I don't want to be the girlfriend of the one [who plays].”

Want Persons Play Character Adventure Female Baseball Girlfriend Female Characters

Author:Geena Davis

“I just passed on some a script that I was sent, because I said, "I haven't yet played the person staying home, the one that says, 'Good luck, honey,' or whatever." And so that's what I look for. Therefore, by virtue of that exclusion, I'm always trying to find roles that are challenging.”

Trying Looks Persons Said Home Challenges Roles Virtue Havens Luck Scripts Staying Honey Good Luck Always Trying Exclusion

Author:Geena Davis

“The main thing about archery is a battle with yourself. You can ruin it all. Once you have learned the technique, the point is to recreate the perfect technique over and over and over.”

Perfect Battle Technique Ruins Archery

Author:Geena Davis

“It's a horrible and wonderful battle with yourself, to stay calm, stay in the moment. My coach said, "Stay here, not at the target. Don't be down there." It's why they call it the Zen art.”

Art Said Moments Wonderful Battle Calm Coaches Horrible Target Stay Calm

Author:Geena Davis

“Instead of trying to manufacture feelings, use the way you already feel. Or at least add that in.”

Way Feels Trying Use Feelings Add

Author:Geena Davis

“The second I finish shooting something, I know I could have done it better if we started right then.”

Ifs Knows Done Shooting

Author:Geena Davis

“On film, you can't do it over again. And you do have to stop shooting at a certain point.”

Film Certain Shooting

Author:Geena Davis

“Ridiculously - fortunately - my first job was with Dustin Hoffman. I had a little part in this movie called Tootsie. And he taught me how to watch dailies. That it was very important.”

Firsts Littles Important Jobs Watches Taught

Author:Geena Davis

“I do have a very chill - I can watch all my movies. A lot of people don't like to watch their work. I watch everything. All the time.”

People I Can Watches Chill

Author:Geena Davis

“I told my parents when I was three that I wanted to be in movies. I don't know what I saw at three years old that would make me decide that's a job and I want to have that job. But I was very confident, very sure that's what I wanted to do. I didn't do anything about it. I didn't prove it to myself or anything. I just knew.”

Knows Want Years Wanted Jobs Three Parent Saws Prove Three Years Prove It Three Year Olds

Author:Geena Davis

“When it came time for college, I told my parents I was going to major in acting. And they were so removed from anything to do with show business - my dad built our house and my mom grew our food.”

Shows House Parent Acting College Grew Mom Dad Majors Built My Dad My Mom Show Business

Author:Geena Davis

“After a couple of rehearsals and a couple of takes, Sydney Pollack says, "Come here. Why are you not nervous?" And I [say], "Do you think it would be better if I was nervous?" And he says, "No, it's just I can't understand it - how you would be first time on a set, you're acting, when he flubs his line you make up a new line. It's very interesting." It's not that I think I'm great; that's what I knew I wanted to do.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts I Can Would Be Wanted Lines Interesting Acting Couple First Time Nervous Very Interesting Rehearsal Sydney

Author:Geena Davis

“I almost never get nervous. I have ice water in my veins.”

Water Nervous Ice Veins Ice Water

Author:Geena Davis

“The only time I got the absolute most insanely nervous in my life was at the Olympic trials, because archery is a horrible spectator sport. Nobody goes and watches an archery tournament. Because the targets are three-quarters of a football field away. Who can tell who's winning? You can't even see your own target from where you are.”

Three Winning Sports Watches Fields Football Absolutes Trials Horrible Nervous Target Where You Are Quarters Only Time Spectators Tournaments Archery Football Field

Author:Geena Davis

“My scripts are always filled with notes. I like to just analyze everything from the point of view of the whole picture, of the movie, my whole picture.”

Whole Views Filled Notes Scripts Point Of View Whole Picture

Author:Geena Davis

“Obviously, movies don't almost ever shoot in sequence.”

Author:Geena Davis

“The only movies I saw till I was 17 were made by Disney. My parents had this thing. Disney was like, you know, "Ford is a good car. Disney makes good movies that are good for kids and safe."”

Knows Made Kids Parent Saws Car Like You Safe Good Movie

Author:Geena Davis

“I watched a lot of series. I didn't watch a lot of movies on TV. But I watched Gilligan's Island and Star Trek and all that stuff.”

Stars Stuff Watches Tvs Series Islands

Author:Geena Davis

“I really only did theater in school in college. I did summer stock a couple of times in the summer, and plays that the school put on. But I knew I wanted to be in movies.”

Play Wanted School College Couple Summer Theater

Author:Geena Davis

“I love theater. Just, it never spoke to me.”

Author:Geena Davis

“Nobody ever said, "Well if you want to be in movies, you should go to L.A." Everybody else was going to New York. So I went to New York with them. And then I was like, "How am I supposed to get a movie?"”

Ifs Want Should Wells Said New York

Author:Geena Davis

“I think I always had joie de vivre. But I had pretty bad self-esteem growing up and much of my adult life.”

Thinking Self Growing Up Growing Self Esteem Adults Esteem Joie De Vivre

Author:Geena Davis

“I once read a quote that I think was Michelle Pfeiffer in an article, who said that she thought people went into acting because maybe if you could convince millions of people to like you, you will finally like yourself, approve of yourself. I don't know if that may have been a part of it.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows May Has Beens Said Acting Millions Like You Convince Articles Like Yourself

Author:Geena Davis

“I had very, very bad self-esteem - that I was a fake, everybody was going to find out, that I didn't deserve to have success, just about my looks and really, really bad self-esteem.”

Looks Self Self Esteem Deserve Esteem Fake

Author:Geena Davis

“When I was a model, actually, for a little while, my friend that I worked with a lot, she had horrible self-esteem too. We decided that the exact moment when we actually thought we were attractive, we wouldn't be anymore. We would just, like, miss it.”

Littles Self Moments Missing Self Esteem Models My Friends Decided Horrible Esteem Attractive

Author:Geena Davis

“It's partly because our culture so hyper-sexualizes females that if you don't measure up to whatever we're forced to think is the standard, then you feel inadequate.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Culture Standards Female Inadequate Hyper

Author:Geena Davis

“Women are in many ways second-class citizens in the United States in 2016, because of the way that we're portrayed in popular culture.”

Way States Culture United Class United States Citizens Popular Culture Second Class Citizens

Author:Geena Davis

“I was lucky enough to be in some movies where I had powerful characters or I got to be the president on TV for a little while. Very short administration.”

Littles Enough Character President Powerful Tvs Lucky Administration

Author:Geena Davis

“I'm so not a party person. I'm so not social and don't go to parties.”

Persons Social Party

Author:Geena Davis

“My sons last summer, they won a trophy from their surfing camp and they came home and went right over to the shelf and put it up next to my Oscar. That's where we put our trophies.”

Home Lasts Next Son Summer My Son Camps Oscars Shelves Surfing Trophies Last Summer

Author:Geena Davis

“I think if you're doing a play, you're rehearsing enough that you get to a point where it's freeing again. But in a movie, if you rehearse too much, now you've just shown everybody what you're going to do. And any element of surprise or impulsiveness is taken away.”

Ifs Thinking Enough Play Taken Too Much Elements Surprise Rehearsing Element Of Surprise

Author:Geena Davis

About the Author

Born: January 21, 1956
Known for: Actress
Quotes: 130

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