Lesley Manville Quotes

'Fargo' was the turnaround for me, in terms of film, because it was a part; it wasn't a line.

In high school, I wanted to be an actress. Until I got to college and took some creative writing courses. Then I decided I wanted to become a novelist.

As soon as I got my proper first job, I never did acting again. I think the last thing I did was a Mike Figures film, and then I got a series with the BBC. I'm glad of the experience, because I think it's very, very good to understand what actors go through.

Everything I thought about acting and having a movie career has changed from what I thought when I started.

The joy of 'Crash' was that it was all about the work. It was my first real part. Before that, it was a line here and there, maybe a scene. 'Crash' was five scenes, a beautiful arc, a little vignette of my own. It really meant something.

Playing Juliet in 'Heavenly Creatures' changed my life, and the role of Clementine in' Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' opened many new doors creatively.

'Crystal Fairy' was one of the first movies I did after I recommitted to the idea of acting.

My university organised a casting call for a film and I won the role. I played a character who was dying of cancer. I remember in the middle of shooting going, 'Oh my God! Why did I decide to do this?' But people noticed me in it and I started getting invited to castings.

I actually felt like I was starting a new career as a news reporter while playing in 'Pinocchio.'

I never thought I would become an actress.

I am looking at acting in a different way now. I always looked at it as equity to build the other things I was doing; now, I consider it a career.

'Mr. India' was a turning point. Before that, Hindi moviegoers saw me just as a glamour girl. After 'Mr. India,' they felt I could act.

My first mother's role was in 'Aradhana.' But after that in mid to late 1980s, I was being offered more roles of mothers.

'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' was this role that utterly fell into my lap and changed my life.

It's not an understatement to say that I owe everything as an actor to 'Merlin.' It was pretty much my first job, and I didn't know what I was doing for many years on it. It wasn't until the third and fourth series - the fourth series especially - that I really found my feet with the character, and as an actress.

On my fifth film, it was then that I stopped dancing.

Acting is a life experience. I'm always learning things when I'm making a movie. So the fame part of it is fine when you consider what you get out of this job.

I actually wanted to be a police officer like my dad for the longest time, up until my sophomore year in high school when I started doing plays. I did plays when I was little, but in high school, I started getting into acting.

Cinema and, most of all, films have changed my life much more than theatre or television. And that is the reason why I'm an actress.

I hadn't done comedy before 'Fresh Meat' - I hadn't really been seen that way, and then 'Fresh Meat' came out, and suddenly a lot more comedy scripts were coming my way, which was really great.

It was really unusual to go from being in university for four years to all of a sudden acting every day. I'd never been able to do it exclusively like that. It was always sort of like my secret thing that I did privately.

I don't know if you ever say to yourself that you want to be an actress. It eventually becomes a social function - you are an actress and you make a living out of it, but at the beginning it's more a matter of how to survive, or how to exist in a certain way.

'Tyrannosaur's an arrival for me, but it's also the first step into a new career. I don't want to be moonlighting at this, like I have done with acting. Y'know, I think I've found my career at 37 years old.

I don't have any desire to ever act again full time.

I was 12 years old, so auditioning for a TV show was something I didn't even think really happened. The next thing you know, I ended up booking the gig and I did four seasons on 'Emily of New Moon.' I got to learn on the job and kept going from there.