Pooja Hegde Quotes

I started studying at 26. Before that, I never thought of acting as something that I would ever try.

Even though I played national level badminton, I told my parents when I was in 10th that I was not interested in continuing. Being a model or actor fascinated me from a young age, and I even did a couple of ads when I was just eight years old.

I got the opportunity, and I grabbed it, and slowly, I started finding a lot of interest in acting.

When I did make the decision to focus on acting, I think my mother was just relieved for me that I had finally started to focus.

I didn't know what my passion was until I discovered the dramatic arts in junior high and high school and I realized, 'Oh, I like this. This is something I feel like I'm good at.' But, the idea of moving to Hollywood and becoming an actor was really unrealistic.

I dabbled a little bit in acting in high school, and then I forgot about it completely. And then at about 25 I went to a class. I don't think anybody in my family thought it was an intelligent choice. I don't think anybody thought I'd succeed, which is understandable. I think they were just happy that I was doing something.

My mom used to model when she was younger, before she went to law school, and I think she thought it was pretty cool. I think my parents saw that acting ultimately made me happy, even though it was a rough ride for a little bit.

I could have easily been too afraid to say 'yes' to Chicago, because it requires so much I haven't done before. If I am a flop at singing and dancing, maybe my love for it will carry me through.

I was a swimsuit model, and I got bored. Acting was challenging. It was very hard and intimidating. We choose to do things in life sometimes that scare the crap outta us. Performing in front of people was my challenge.

I made my first film when I was 35, so I firmly believe that you don't have to be one thing in life. If you're doing something, and you have a desire to do something different, give it a try.

I was anxious before I decided to go back to acting about what I wanted to do with my life. Once I realized I was sort of interested in acting, I've been pretty lucky and had all these great parts. And I feel pretty much like, 'What will happen will happen.'

At 17, I realized that it's going to be a tough decision to make, but I had the clarity of thought to walk out of cricket and try my luck in acting.

When I became an actor, I knew that there were only two ways of going about it - either I become an actor who has expectations, or the reverse of it.

I never thought I would become an actor. When I started out, I never thought I would come so far. Acting was not my passion. When I experienced the highs of being an actor, I started liking it, and it gradually became my passion.

I am going to branch out to acting and do more modeling.

It's kind of like OK, I want to be a singer. And I felt if I would have stayed with the 'Osbournes' and done the whole Osbourne thing... I would have been typecasted right away before I had a chance to experience other things.

When I was a VJ, people told me I will be an actor. I used to laugh.

When I was younger, I was almost too afraid to admit that I wanted to be an actor. I didn't know any successful actors in Kenya, so I felt like I could get away with going to college to study film more easily than I could with saying, 'I want to be an actor.' That's what I did.

I enjoyed living in Chicago and doing plays for little or no money. I never actually thought that I would leave Chicago, originally. I wasn't one of those people that had a plan to pack up the van and drive out to Hollywood. I didn't want to.

After five awful movies, I admitted failure and said I was not cut out to be an actor. But how many people get a chance to live their dream?

I looked for acting classes in Paris just to do something different than modeling. And then one day I just thought, 'Okay, that's enough, I have to start doing something.' I went to the acting agency and I just told them I wanted to act and asked them if they would give me a chance, and they did.

It's important to me to try and expose young people to the things they believe are off-limits to them. I tell them, 'There are no walls, only the ones we put up.' My advice to young people looking at my life is not to follow my footprint but to go out there and make their own.

I like the idea of being so passionate about everything I do and the fact that I might wake up tomorrow and say 'I want to be a chef,' and just pour myself into that.

Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it.

Everyone tells us you really don't know what you're capable of till you're in the middle of it.