Anne Reid Quotes

If I only did theatre I would have had to waitress, and I didn't want to waitress.

Making a living out of acting sounded like science-fiction when I was growing up. I didn't know anyone around me who lived from anything related to art.

Well, I've thought many times when my career was in the toilet, that I was going to have to seriously consider getting another job, I don't know what I'd do.

As an actor, we're unemployed a lot, so I'm familiar with the stress of trying to get a gig, and sometimes you take shows that you don't really want to do to keep the money coming in.

People have this belief that actors are able to go out there and say, 'Oh I choose this job,' but most of the time we're just taking the job we can get. We don't just get offered thousands of jobs; we might earn one job a year and that's the one we'll take because we've got to pay the rent.

I find there aren't that many options as an actor.

You know, when you choose to make your living as an actor, it's all fine and good to look at it as some kind of artistic endeavor. At its best, it is that. But the fact is, most of the actors out there don't earn $3 million a picture and can't afford to take two years off between films and look for the right thing. Most of us are tradesmen.

Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.

I actually got a play from auditioning for something in 'Back Stage' magazine.

I've been in show business for 50, no, 60 years. I was approached in school to join a variety act.

I'm pragmatic. If this is going to make sense, get me a job, and in the end let me put my kids through school. I'll play killers. But my kids always ask me, 'Do you die in this one, too, Daddy?'

I am very fortunate to have a career. I always have to act. I don't know if I'll have a career to support it for the rest of my life, but I know I'll always act.

If my gravy train stops at SAG, honey, it's been a great ride.

Theatre is my first love. I don't understand why people say that theatre can't give you money.

I can't complain. I'm making a living out of what I do, which is really rare for a lot of actors. The hard part is staying confident and staying with it.

When you're an actor, you just hope you get a job to go to.

After 'Brothers & Sisters' ended, I was back to the old game as an actor. Doing pilot season, choosing a script and figuring out what I wanted to do.

Acting is wonderful, but it's not pulling in the type of money that I want. It's not bringing in the type of money that I am used to or the type of money that is going to supply my lifestyle. I'm a leisure girl; I like to be over in Italy or in Europe, you know shopping or vacationing, you know.

I was an actor before becoming a comedian.

Once I started working as a professional actor, it was like, 'Bye-bye waiting tables, bye-bye bartending, bye-bye all the cliched jobs actors do.' But after a year of not getting work, there's this really difficult conflict, like, 'Do I have to go back to being a waiter when people recognize me from a show?'

Actors, they come and go, you know.

I'm trying to treat it as a hobby. Making bread and butter as an actor is tough.

The word 'career' and 'actor' really don't fit in the same paragraph, let alone sentence. There is no career structure for actors.

Theater was always in the backdrop. Nursing was a way to pay the bills. I wasn't a nurse; I had a nursing agency.

I literally was saved by a role, from becoming a cab driver. I never did have to wait tables, though, so looking back I guess I had it pretty soft.