Kevyn Aucoin Quotes

Most female actresses will have a very difficult time being made unattractive.

Beautiful actors are learning what beautiful actresses like Charlize Theron discovered a while ago - that they get taken more seriously when they trash the same beauty that got them taken seriously to begin with.

If you are a 19-year-old woman, there are very specific things that directors and the people in positions of power in the industry - who tend to be older men - are going to want you to be and do. They are not going to want some chatty, difficult, slightly spoilt girl.

At the time, 1980, people regarded actresses involved with production with a certain amount of fear, resentment and anger.

Sadly, in any industry and in any work-related environment, females always strive to achieve a certain amount of perfection, whether that be skinny or pretty. It's a constant, in our society.

It's more acceptable for guys to get old and craggy and become wonderful character actors as they get older, but women aren't allowed to get old and craggy in the same way.

Men are very tough, very critical of me. I think they expect you to basically just be a picture. They don't want to hear you speak.

I didn't like when people said that actresses have shelf life.

In this business, certainly it's a lot crazier for women than it is for men, but there's such a thing where there's a lot of judgment on the way you look and on your body.

I prefer the Telugu film industry, as women are respected more than they are in the Tamil film industry. In Tamil cinema, they care only about their hero, who is God.

I think women were just accepted more as songwriters when they sat on a stool with a guitar and had scruffy hair. It was quite insulting really, because it was like saying that if you're pretty and slim and glamorous there's no way anything could be going on between your ears, you just like doing your makeup.

A director has to be on the set when the crew is called and is the last one to leave at night. I'm not saying it's not possible, but that's partly why we're not seeing more women.

When I was younger, I felt very much like, 'Oh, I have to be a certain way, I have to look a certain way.' You really, really don't. That's the way women are treated differently than men. I mean, I've had actors argue with me about this.

It felt amazing to be one of a handful working female directors in Hollywood.

As an actress - and as an actor, too, but it's worse for actresses - you constantly get picked apart for how you look.

Being beautiful is not so fun when you're in a business with all men.

What is frustrating is being told that no matter how hard I've worked, it counts less than my appearance. Although if you're not considered conventionally attractive, that also becomes an issue: you know, you're a feminist because you couldn't get a man.

As women, we tend to take the easy way out in showbiz. I have done movies where all I did was look pretty in every frame.

When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.

A high-powered, successful woman doesn't necessarily have the same support behind her that a man in that position would. Plus, she's expected to be a domestic goddess, as well as the best wife, mother, friend, and lover. But it's not just in politics: you see it in acting, too, and in journalism.

It seems women are expected to be so much more than men, which means we have to work that much harder. We're the ones under the microscope. We're expected to sound perfect. We're expected to look perfect all the time. We're expected to be style-setters, whereas the boys roll onto the stage in their jeans, T-shirts and baseball caps.

I understand, as the young, attractive woman in film, that there's always going to be people seeking out extra salacious things for you to do.

Just because I'm a woman does not mean I have to deal with everything to do with food.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

Hollywood can be hard on women, but it did not cause my problems.