Kate Mara Quotes

It's not like I had big dreams to go to California and become an actor. I loved doing my shows at school and community theater, and I probably would have settled in New York because it was closer. I was going to go to NYU.

I've been in showbusiness all my life, but as an actress I have never been overly driven.

Well, I'll keep on auditioning and one day maybe I'll go to LA and try out for films there.

I'd always dreamt of acting but, in Adelaide, we don't have exposure to the opportunities that make stardom a possibility.

There's this assumption that as an actor, Hollywood is always the end point, but I never thought along those lines.

I would love to do more television.

A lot of kids think they can just go to Hollywood and become an actor or actress. It's not that easy. There are millions of kids who come out here wanting to act. So, you have to have a plan, and you have to stick with that plan, because it's not going to be easy by any means.

It's not like you do 'SNL' and then get handed movie roles. You work, you audition for stuff and try to get it. I think, a lot of people, it's the goal to be in movies or just to be working in general. But yeah, some of us get lucky and get some movie roles, and it's nice.

I have friends that are much better actors than I am that had to quit the business because they couldn't survive the auditions or the rejections, or people just didn't realize how good they were.

I was embarrassed that I even wanted to become an actress because coming from L.A., with two older sisters in the business and a mom who had been a ballet dancer, it was such a cliche.

I try and get out there and audition as much as possible.

In L.A., you constantly go on auditions, and you're usually not what they're looking for - you get used to going back and back to the same show, and nothing happens.

I was going to move to New York after college and had no interest in pilot season. I'd seen what happened on TV shows because of my dad, and I didn't want to open myself up to that. But 'Pretty Little Liars' had a very early audition, and my agents encouraged me to go even though I didn't think it would be my thing.

I really think that everybody would like to be an actor. Why wouldn't they? It's great work if you can get it. The one thing that prevents most people from saying, 'I'm just gonna go to Hollywood!' is that it seems unrealistic.

I'd knocked on doors when I'd gone to theater school in Los Angeles the summer of my junior year, trying to find an agent and submitting headshots, but nobody would see me, and I knew it was virtually impossible to get an audition if you didn't have an agent.

I'd love to be on a TV series someday, but I believe you get the jobs that you're meant to get. If the job that I'm meant to get is another musical or another play or film or TV show, I'm just happy to keep working.

My father is an actor, so he brought me into his agency when I was young. It wasn't something I wanted to do until high school, when I started taking theater and really liked it. Then an agent found me and wanted me to come out to Los Angeles and give it a shot. I gave myself six months, but it only took me like a week to get a job.

I didn't start out to be a movie star. I started out to be an actor.

I'd like to one day be able to say, 'I was in more than one play on Broadway.'

From an actor's point of view, you never really like to hope that anything will go beyond the pilot. I'd always say to my agent every time I filmed a pilot, 'Great! Well, I'll see you at pilot season.'

It's not every day people fly you to New York for auditions.

I actually got a play from auditioning for something in 'Back Stage' magazine.

Most child actors were lucky enough to get the part in the first place.

It's so hard coming out of drama school to claim your right to be taken seriously and even get auditions.

I never wanted to be a star, I just wanted to get work.