Gena Rowlands Quotes

He[John Cassavetes] was just being an actor. A very successful actor, especially in live TV. He did many wonderful performances.

You can go on 'Saturday Night Live' now and not even play live.

The behind-the-scenes kind of process at TV, especially live television - that was super scary, but I think it's made me more comfortable now. If I ever have to go on live TV, I at least remember what it was like when I was 16.

When I was on Saturday Night Live, I was furious at some of the choices that were being made. None of us are all happy about every choice that's being made, but that's another part about being there for a while. You start seeing why they do it, and you've just got to try to get your punches in while you can.

I had great fun in the 'BroomCupboard,' learning the skills of live TV.

I feel like when you're dancing, especially how we're doing it on live television, you need to give that energy to the camera which is mainly with your face.

If you drop a line in the theatre, you can usually find a way round it. But you can't do that as easily on television - you're in the hands of too many people.

'Grease Live!' was... it was a chore! It was interesting: one of, if not the most, magical television experience I've had in my career, where the people are concerned.

The thing is that, not only do you learn so much about being in front of a camera and stuff being on 'Monday Night RAW,' but at the same time, I'm not really acting on 'Monday Night RAW.'

I worked on a weekly one-hour show live from Los Angeles called 'The Dixie Boat Show.' We only had one camera, so there was a lot of panning because it was always on, and anything that went wrong, from actors fluffing their lines to sets falling down in mid-scene, you let it go by.

Live television is just like competing on live TV. You're never going to be perfect. You just try to prepare the best that you can and execute the best that you can and try to be in the moment.

Live television is the hottest medium. My passion for sports debate runs hot enough without a camera transporting it into your living room with 10 times more impact.

I don't think musicals are my thing. I'm not a big fan. Definitely have to get on the stage and do something like a straight play.

We still play three or four hits every night. Now, we don't play them like the record. We try to find new ways to do it.

To me, getting up every single night and trying to reach out to an audience, and trying to dig deeper and further in the play to serve the writer and to understand yourself in that context is how you continue to grow and learn.

I guess because theater's so ephemeral and it's gone. You make this nightly contract with the audience and you redraw that contract for the next night, whereas film and television, it's forever. I suppose it's always about adopting personas, never about being yourself. I think they call it a "shy man's revenge."

In a sense, touring is crazy. You go city to city playing the show over and over again. But there's something magic about being in front of people, so it's not like going through the motions every night. It's a different experience.

I feel like you've gotta be able to get up every night in front of a live audience. Whether it's 10 people or 50 people or a hundred people, whether you're in a rock band or doing the comedy circuit.

I enjoyed living in New York City, I liked the premise of the show [Saturday Night Live], I liked working with a different host every week and different musicians. I always thought, "This is great. I never expected to get this in the first place, so I'm just happy being here."

In the theater you rehearse for a minimum of five to six weeks. And then you get to play it. Which means you get to get better. That's the great thing about the theater.

John Cassavetes was there at night while I was working. After they [with his friends] discussed as much live TV as they felt they needed to, they started improvising scenes just for the fun of it and one of those scenes everybody got very interested in and it turned into Shadows [1959]. That movie was entirely improvised.

I think every show I do, whether I am doing eight shows a week of a Broadway show... I think, "that's a show I'll never get back"... I go home at night and I think to myself, "that was my favorite".

I'm one of those pathetic actors who will say yes to every play reading just because I do miss the stage so much. What I really miss about the theater is that in the end, it's yours to give. In television and film, it's yours to do and someone else's to take and someone else's to give. As much as I love television - the biggest luxury of all is to know that you have a job to go to - I do miss that connection and having that power over my own performance on stage.

I've always felt kind of safe on stage, protected. I've talked to other performers about this and they feel the same things, particularly in the live arena. I never get nervous going on stage to do a play. Doing film or television I'll have more butterflies.

Every night I get up on stage, I love it. I never get like, 'Oh, I'm bored, I want to go home.' I never, ever get like that.