“I think action should be revealed through character, so if you have a plot problem, it's probably a character problem.” IfsThinkingShouldCharacterProblemActionPlot Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think most actors jump at the chance to do something where the camera's on them all the time.” ThinkingActorsChanceCameras Author:Zoe Kazan
“And I think the female creative urge is intrinsically biologically linked to our ability to give birth to a child, even if we've never... I've never given birth, but I feel like it's part of our psychology.” IfsThinkingGivingFeelsChildrenGivenAbilityCreativePsychologyBirthFemaleUrgesLinked Author:Zoe Kazan
“I love bad movies, whereas going to the theater for me is a painful experience. I think it's really hard to sit and watch actors do something live and have it not go well.” ThinkingWellsHardActorsWatchesTheaterPainfulBad MoviesPainful Experiences Author:Zoe Kazan
“I read a lot of plays as a kid, but I didn't see that many plays, so I feel better-versed in film history and film structure. I just think it's easier to think in pictures.” ThinkingFeelsPlayKidsFilmEasierStructureFeel BetterFilm History Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think movies have much more magic than the theater. Theater can be a magical experience, but movies thrust their subjectivity on you in a more profound way.” ThinkingWayMagicTheaterProfoundThrustSubjectivity Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think the written word is my first love. I was just a very imagination - centered child and a big part of that imaginary life came from reading.” ThinkingFirstsChildrenBigsReadingImaginationWrittenImaginaryFirst LoveWritten WordImaginary Life Author:Zoe Kazan
“It's fun for me to be with someone who loves reading as much as I do, because he'll give me things to read that I wouldn't normally seek out, and I think vice versa.” ThinkingGivingReadingFunGive MeVicesVice VersaLove Of Reading Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think, a lot of times, directors assume that whatever they get from you the first time, whether it be at an audition or on set, is all that you can bring.” ThinkingFirstsDirectorsFirst TimeAssumingAuditions Author:Zoe Kazan
“So often you're asked to play impossibly perfect version of yourself on screen that it's nice to get to bring in those parts that you think aren't as worth looking at.” ThinkingPlayPerfectNiceScreensVersions Author:Zoe Kazan
“My grandmother told me: "We all dated lots of different boys because no one was having sex or kissing. It was just going out for sodas and getting to know people. It didn't seem like there was a threat." I think now we have more ideas of people having premarital and unprotected sex.” PeopleThinkingKnowsIdeasDifferentSeemsSexBoysKissingThreatGrandmotherGoing OutMy GrandmotherHaving SexSoda Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think from my earliest childhood, I liked to tell stories, put on plays and write things. It's funny to think of it as an "artistic bug" because I didn't necessarily want to be an artist. It's just who I was and how I communicate.” ThinkingWantWritingPlayStoriesArtistChildhoodCommunicateArtisticBugs Author:Zoe Kazan
“There are a lot of words that I knew first as a reader, and I never put the pieces together in my brain. The word segue I thought was pronounced "seeg," I think until I went to college, which is horribly embarrassing.” ThinkingFirstsTogetherBrainPiecesCollegeReaderEmbarrassing Author:Zoe Kazan
“When I would get close on a part but wouldn't get it, I would be like, "They made a mistake," which is not how I think about things now. I both admire it and I'm grateful for the modicum of health, knowledge, and humility that I have acquired over the last 10 or 15 years.” ThinkingYearsMadeWould BeLastsMistakeHumilityGratefulAdmireMade A Mistake Author:Zoe Kazan
“I don't love the word "quirky." I think it's a word that's a catchall. It's a word that doesn't stand in empathy with the person, it stands in judgment of them. It's a very externalized word.” ThinkingJudgmentEmpathyQuirky Author:Zoe Kazan
“I don't think a lot of people are like, "I'm just quirky!" Or if they are, it's a stage they're going through as they figure out who they are. I never felt like I was choosing roles that were quirky.” PeopleThinkingQuirky Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think everyone is always asking themselves, How is my work meaningful, how is my life meaningful? As I get older, I feel like who I am as a person and a citizen is more important than who I am in my work. But I do think it reframed slightly for me, how much I have to care about a project in order to want to do it. Sometimes, obviously, you have a take a job for money. But I think I'm quicker now when I get a script that's, say, borderline misogynist, I'm not going to go in for it. I'm thinking more about what I'm putting into the world.” ThinkingWorldImportantSometimesCareMeaningfulMeaning Of LifeMeaningful LifeLife MeansBorderline Author:Zoe Kazan
“I don't feel like it's a time to be shy about raising my voice, and I don't think that the things I'm raising my voice about should be alienating. If it's alienating to a "fan base," then I'm not responsible for that.” ThinkingResponsibleShy Author:Zoe Kazan
“Most of the things I'm talking about are essential human rights. I don't think it should be political to say that children should be able to have lunch at school when their families can't afford to feed them properly, or to say women should have access to basic health care, or that Muslims deserve equal protection under the law, or police shouldn't be killing black people and getting away with it - it shouldn't be a political thing to say. A lot of people on the right standing behind Christian values should be standing with us, because equality is a basic tenet of Christianity.” PeopleThinkingChildrenCareSchoolChristianPoliticalValuesBlackChristianityEqualDeservePoliceKillingHuman RightsProtectionHealth CareGet AwayBlack People Author:Zoe Kazan
“Lena Dunham or Miranda July, those people are sort of thinking about their work in a slightly different way than I do, where their whole body is a seed of what they're creating. I can't imagine watching Miranda's movies with anybody else playing her role, she's so integral. But for me, it feels more like every story is really individual. If I thought of something else, or thought it should be my body representing it, I'd fold my body into it. But most of the time I'm writing to get something out of my body.” PeopleThinkingWritingDifferentIndividualImagineMiranda Author:Zoe Kazan
“I just went through my childhood attic with my sister. I'm not an expert, and I don't mean to put myself in that category, but thinking about Malcolm Gladwell and the 10,000 hours, I was like, Here are my 10,000 hours!” ThinkingMeanHoursChildhoodMy Sister Author:Zoe Kazan
“There are people a lot smarter than me investigating nature versus nurture who would have a lot to say about that, but I think it's an enormous privilege to be born into a family where my parents had enough time to read to me and listen to my stories and foster my imagination. It's a privilege to have time to investigate your imagination. And not to have, like, an amount of stress on you as a kid that prevents you from maturing creatively.” PeopleThinkingEnoughKidsParentImaginationStressMatureNurtureMy Imagination Author:Zoe Kazan
“I was 14, when I wanted to be an actor. My parents were basically like, "This is a very hard life, and you have to be really serious about it, and show us that you're serious about it. You can't drop out of school." They strongly encouraged me not to act professionally until I finished college, which I didn't. And I think they should have been horrified! It's a really hard life. I'd be really scared if I had a child who wanted to be an actor.” ThinkingChildrenSchoolParentCollegeSeriousScaredHard Life Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think even probably the people we look up to the most, and think are on the Mount Olympus of actors - they're still experiencing nervousness.” PeopleThinkingLook UpNervousness Author:Zoe Kazan
“I've always really been interested in the Pygmalion myth and both what it has to say about creativity and what it has to say about relationships between men and women. I'd been thinking about what I would want to do with that if I was going to write on that theme, and one morning I woke up and Calvin and Ruby Sparks were in my head.” ThinkingMenWritingCreativityMorningMen And WomenMyth Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think for acting on stage and in film, one informs the other. Obviously, they require really different kinds of discipline and really different kinds of work. It's more along the same continuum, for me.” ThinkingKindDifferentFilmActingDisciplineDifferent Kinds Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think film writing, you're thinking in pictures, and stage writing, you're thinking in dialogue. In film writing, it's also, you only get so many words, so everything has to earn its place in a really economical way. I think for stage writing, you have more leeway.” ThinkingWritingFilmDialogue Author:Zoe Kazan
“I think a large part of an actor's job in preparation is just making the words feel organic to them, and obviously they came out of me, so they felt organic to me already. And then I think then it was all about clearing away all the other voices.” ThinkingPreparation Author:Zoe Kazan
“I grew up in LA, and I don't think I've seen LA onscreen in a way that felt real to me. There are definitely movies, but they are few and far between. I wanted to see a movie that was set in LA that wasn't about the film industry. LA is such a lonely place to be alone. In New York you can just walk out and be among people. You're on the subway among people, you go to cafés, you can talk to people. In LA, no one talks to each other, you're in your house, you're in your car, even when you take walks there's no one on the street.” PeopleThinkingRealFilmHouseCarLonely Author:Zoe Kazan
“I have a sister that I'm very close with, and that relationship is probably the most intense relationship of my life to date, probably of my life, period. I think that when you're close with a sibling, especially a sister, it's a relationship unlike any other.” ThinkingIntenseSibling Author:Zoe Kazan
“I am very much in the instant-gratification camp. I am too much of an actor not to be. I am used to doing my work and having someone comment immediately. So I think that I'm a little hooked on that gratification structure.” ThinkingCommentGratification Author:Zoe Kazan
