Sarah Paulson Quotes

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

It was an interesting way to come across in my first big role. To work with Robert DeNiro was very exciting.

The reality is that I'm an actor from the Midwest and I was 40 movies into it before I started 'Entourage'.

I'm one of the only actresses in Los Angeles who has never waited tables - yet - and I'm so terrible at holding trays. When we shot the 'Vampire Diaries' pilot, I totally spilled water all down Nina Dobrev, and she had to get her hair and make-up redone.

I think every young actor in Los Angeles went up for that role. It was between Frankie Muniz and me, and he pulled out, so I got the role.

I decided to go to school for advertising and graphic design. That was what I was gonna do but acting is that thing, it's like a splinter in your mind and you can't get rid of it. So I decided to move to L.A. a few years ago and it just snowballed into this thing called 'The Hunger Games.'

When I moved to L.A. in 1989, the very first thing I did was this horrific pilot called To Protect And Surf.

'Naked' propelled me into a whole other league. America started calling. I went over to Los Angeles and met all those people, and I started doing a few American films of various levels of quality.

I never thought I would do something in Hollywood after I started with a series in the West, which was a small stint.

I remember I once had a meeting with Sydney Pollack and the playwright Tom Stoppard, and they thought I was English. I said, 'I'm just from the Valley!' Just from the San Fernando Valley!

The first time I ever actually had a line was on 'A Different World', my best friend Cree Summer's show. I was in L.A. visiting her, and she said, 'Hey, there's a walk-on part, why don't you audition for it?'

I got my SAG card quite unexpectedly. I was here in Los Angeles doing a play called 'Vanities' - it was 1976, I believe - and I got invited by Dustin Hoffman, whom I'd met in New York, to come audition for a movie he was directing.

I think 'Nick and Norah' was a huge deal for me. It was my first foray into the studio world, and that character was such a gift.

In five years, I had done 13 films, which I think broke Elvis's record.

I remember when I was about 18, Sean Penn made a bet with me. He had just directed his first movie, and he's like, 'By the time you're 30, I will bet you $500 that you'll be sick of acting.' I'm still waiting to collect, because I'm not.

When I first moved from Chicago to L.A., I starred in the 'Vacation' movies as Audrey Griswald, and that was like the starring role in a Warner Brothers movie. I thought everything was made, and then six months later, I'm back auditioning.

I was in Nashville quite a bit when I shot 'Nashville,' and I was in Los Angeles when I shot in 'Supergirl'.

I don't live in Los Angeles. I work in Los Angeles, and even that - I audition in Los Angeles; I very rarely film in Los Angeles. I don't hang out with producers on my off-hours, so I don't even know what that world is like.

I started doing movies when I was 14.

'Power' is Andy Bean's first television job, ever. Talk about sticking the landing at first go!

It feels good to be featured in a film poster. I didn't have it in the beginning of my career.

Director Baz Luhrmann flew me to New York to read for 'Moulin Rouge!' Maybe I was a little blase about it.

The first audition I did was for 'Trapper John, M.D.' I was surprised to get the part, and then to have it last for seven years was a bonus.

Chris McQuarrie cast me in 'Mission Impossible' because he'd seen 'The Crown' and loved it.

Los Angeles is where I became an actor.