Paige Quotes

You see some of these actors, they have a permanent smile on their face. How can they do that? It really fascinates me.

People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at the time. I had to step away for the sake of the machine. I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable having to smile in someone's face when I really didn't like them or know them well enough to like.

When I first came into the business, I had to, for the sake of being able to sell myself as an artist, always be happy and jovial and smiling. I was the happy nice girl, and I am the happy nice girl, but I have my moments, too.

I guess I kind of realized that my whole life isn't one giant press junket. I don't have to be smiling all the time and always have the perfect answer.

I'm a very positive person, but this whole concept of having to always be nice, always smiling, always happy, that's not real. It was like I was wearing a mask. I was becoming this perfectly chiselled sculpture, and that was bad. That took a long time to understand.

Even if you're unhappy, just pretend that you're happy. Eventually, your smile will be contagious to yourself. I had to learn that. I used to think, 'I'm being fake,' but you know what? Better to be fake and happy than real and miserable.

I never faked anything. I never played the Disney game of smiling and being a princess and then suddenly having a hard time, saying, 'That isn't who I really am.'

I didn't want to make a caricature version of Elektra.

As a heel, you get to make twists and turns that really sell that character so that you can get that genuine kind of heat from people that want to hate you.

I feel that I don't have to have it all together all the time. I don't have to be this smiling face for the public.

It's hard for me to fake smile. I personally think I look stupid fake smiling.

When you're acting you always want to come across as if you're not acting. For me, my take is always to have it feel like you're watching someone on film and that comes with a lot of preparation time.

I'm more interested in talking about what I do. And I don't think people are interested in my personal life. I've never had a Hollywood life. I've always been a worker. But it's true: If you know something about a person outside of the movie that is really repulsive to you, it's hard to shake. So I prefer to do my speaking through the work. I don't want people to know anything about me, because that's not important. I'm more interested in the me that takes shape through these characters. The other stuff is personal and too easy to trivialize out of context.

Every gay who is in the closet is ultimately a threat to the freedom of gays. I don't want to seem intolerant to them and I think we have to say that to them with a great deal of affection, but remaining in the closet is the other side of the prejudice against gays. Because until you challenge it, you are not playing an active role in fighting it.

When we approached the project, the very first thing we did was take each character and say, "Okay, where would this character be?" We didn't want them to be caricatures of themselves. We wanted them to live and breathe, and grow with the audience and with us.

Absolutely, I think coming out has allowed me to align who I am with with my creative self.

Acting is really important to me, so I think it would be really hard for me to do something I didn't believe in.

Sort of what you do in drama school when asked to play something way out of your reach. Anyway, we used to laugh a lot about that. I used to say I'm not going to act old, Penelope. I'll just be myself.

Acting is the only time when I truly maintain the spontaneity that I want to be present at all times.

Why would I want to read something about somebody that's just a really nice, decent person who overcomes terrible trials? That's not how life is to me.

I think you have to be true to the script that you're given.

I've never played anyone but myself on screen.

Many times - especially when I'm playing an historical character - I want to be really on target with how I create that character and really nuanced with who that human being might be. But I don't want to lose the likeness of me or the depth of my own personality. So meditation and my spirituality has helped me to realize that, yes, I want to get out of the way but I also want the ability to hold on to what the audience likes of what they see of me.

I was really, really, really nervous when I got this role because I did feel it was important to make Alice [Cullen] just as lovable as I read her being on paper and, kind of, full of vitality. In my head she is just this light and breath of fresh air in very dramatic settings - because I feel like we're always extremely dramatic in this film. I wanted people to be able to relate to her.

Acting seems much easier than singing, in fact, because you are putting on a costume - whereas here you are taking everything off.