Russi Taylor Quotes

I hadn't really thought about doing any acting at all post-'Center Stage.'

As an actor, it's much easier for me to get work in the movies because nobody knows who I am except for the work that I've done in another movie. I really enjoy that.

I carried on acting during school holidays and was all set to go to drama school when I was offered my first professional job appearing in 'King David' with Richard Gere.

Becoming an actress takes a lot longer than being a star. I don't want to be a star. I want to be an actress. I want to build a career.

I would advise anyone seriously interested in acting to study, train, and work as much as possible... You will know soon enough if it's the right avenue for you.

Before 'Grey's Anatomy,' I was doing musicals, plays, commercials, you name it.

I wanted to be a working actor, but I like being anonymous. So to me, voice work was the way to go.

I was an extra on 21 Jump Street when I was 19 years old.

'Angus' was my first real film, but I had been acting for about 3 threes before that as well.

I started out doing commercials, like Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. And I started to find there was a different life for me, in a different field. From there, I got a call from a director in Italy, and we did 'Indio' I and II, and that's where it started.

A lot of people didn't realize that I acted before I did anything else.

A friend of my mom's was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark, I had a couple of acting jobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followed through with it.

It always surprised me that I was getting acting work.

I'm down to act a little bit - go on a couple auditions or make one of those three-second cameos with one line.

I haven't been in a position to have the luxury to pick roles for most of my career, so I'm not practiced in that. Usually, when you want to be an actor, you take whatever comes along. If there's an audition, you go for it. If you get the job, you do it - just to get experience, to act, to meet people.

I started acting when I was 13 in New York. Worked there for a couple years, then auditioned for a show there that was going to be filming here. Ended up coming out, getting the job and just staying.

The first acting I ever did was an Italian commercial. Once I did that, I said, 'this acting thing is awesome.'

I had left school at 16, gone to stage school - and, until I was 22, I hadn't really played anyone but myself. Then in 1979, I made a film with Mike Leigh called 'Grownups,' which went out on the BBC, and overnight this new career opened up.

So most of my acting experience came in college when I was living away from them. I acted in various independent films, and I got some commercial work and stuff like that.

Really, voice-over is great. If it paid as much as on camera work, it's all I'd ever do.

I have my character actor side as a kid and my more leading man side. It's all been beneficial.

I guess I stopped acting when I was 18 and didn't pick it up again until I was 21. That wasn't the plan, though. When I first started at Yale, the plan was to do a movie each summer.

When I started as an actor, I kind of started with a couple features. I've been waiting for the opening.

I think I have always tried to do the smaller films. I like to jump around and there is something really nice for acting in a smaller film. But I think now, Hollywood's movies certainly involve a younger generation for the most part and so... I love going back and forth.

'Cuckoo's Nest' was my first film, and I had wanted to do film for some time, but somehow I had not clicked. I would go in for interviews or readings, and I never had the sense that I was anywhere near what they were looking for.