Jackie Shroff Quotes

It's just a fact of life that I don't think I've ever been taken particularly seriously in movies by movie makers. I don't know why.

The reality is that there are so few roles out there for women and for women of color, and I'm a character actor, this I know. And I'm getting to see more of the roles that are out there, but there aren't many. And zilch have been studio movies. Zilch.

Hollywood does not write parts for people like me, an elderly gentleman, and when they find out you're crippled, forget about it. No, I'll never work again.

There's still a massive inequality between the genders. If you look at the trajectory of a male actor's career, there's no hesitation or hiatus. But women after the age of 35 to 40 are rarely placed in the centre of the story.

In 1998, the acting roles suddenly bottomed out. I was no longer getting scripts; even my agent stopped calling. When I finally got him on the phone to ask him what was going on, he paused, then said: 'Well, Christine, you're 45.' I got rid of him.

There are a lot of limitations and stigmas that are placed on young actors, specifically young black actors.

You are as old as you look. If you are fit and pretty at an X age, why won't filmmakers want to cast you, whether you are married or not?

There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.

I like to work and there's no movies for actors, period, especially black actors. When white actors are like, 'Man, there's no work out there,' then black actors are like, 'Are you kidding me?'

The studios always had their idea of what I was, and they'd give me the dumb-blonde roles.

Just because I'm the top-grossing actress of all time does not mean I'm the highest paid. I've had to fight for everything that I have. It's such a fickle and political industry.

I'd say 50 on men is like 33 on women in Hollywood. The standards - it's just the way we do our storytelling. And I hope it will change, because I think it's dumb.

It's very rare that Black actors get an opportunity to do period pieces and to have a breadth of characters to choose from in their work.

Hollywood stops hiring their star leading ladies when they turn 40. It's very defeating.

In my 20s, I was going round seeing agents who were patronising because I was fat and a girl, which was a double whammy. I knew what it was to feel out-of-the-loop.

I hate stereotypical roles.

There was an obvious display of blatant sexism when I couldn't get signed. They didn't say I was ugly. They didn't say that they didn't like the music. They said I was too old! At 26! So Badly Drawn Boy, Doves, Elbow, James Blunt - you can be a gnarly old beardy bloke with a bit of a paunch and that's all right?

There is a vast difference in the pay package of every actor. Actors are also exploited at various levels, but when we are established, we get paid fairly well. But at times, if an actor asks for a hike, he/she may even get boycotted.

Age is definitely an issue for women in TV. There comes a point - especially if you're a woman - when your career just falls off a cliff. I'm not being self-pitying. That's just the way it is.

After the age of 30 in the movie profession, you're pretty well over as far as the casting people are concerned.

It's true that old actors don't die, their parts get smaller. You're less likely to get the part, many parts, if you're playing people your age as opposed to people who are younger. There are fewer parts around.

The only way to avoid age discrimination in Hollywood is to die young.

It's interesting because First Wives Club was the first movie that made a shitload of money that starred all women over a certain age. That was a milestone that made you think, "Oh, things are going to change."

Each year we go to the Cannes film festival and I tend to have all my friends pile in the back of my car and we'll drive from London. The poor production company think they're only putting me up and suddenly they've got eight people sleeping on my hotel room floor.

Book-publishing is all about politics. Agents, editors, which books will be puffed, which ignored, etc.