Anna Torv Quotes

My first experiences with fashion were dressing up. It was always about fantasy for me. Dressing up as characters . . . I always thought that's what clothes were - that they would make you into the person you wanted to be. I'm an actress, so I love to act, and I think that's one of the most important things - the thing that makes you feel like another person.

I think it's always difficult no matter how similar your characters are to yourself to get into that mindset, because however much they are similar to you, they're not you.

I'd like to think that I don't have a stock character that I go to. I'm lucky in that when you get to initiate your own scene, you get to play whoever you want. That's really kind of cool, but all my characters are short. I look on the videotape, and I thought they were taller, but they're all 5'2".

We all become what we pretend to be.

Sometimes an actor performs a character, but sometimes an actor just performs. With writing, I don't think it's performing a character, really, if the character you're performing is yourself. I don't see that as playing a role. It's just appearing in public.

I think all characters that we play are facets of ourselves.

Sometimes I like to think that characters you play are all the other people you could've been in a lifetime.

I think when you're playing a character in any film it's so crucial to have the costume that makes you feel like you're going to be that character.

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.

I have played several characters that are crabby and cranky. I don't know if I'm just not a very well-developed human being or if I don't know myself very well, but I tend to find I can take on elements of the characters that I'm playing. When I was playing a character like Becky Freeley in Miss Guided found that I was insanely positive and happy all the time.

I was very soft. I gained a lot of weight with my second child and was very on the couch. And [my manager] said, "You know, this is a softer role [in Misteress]. She is a softer character. She's a lesbian that's always the passive half of the relationship."

I think the beautiful thing about acting is you don't really know who you are. You're able to be whatever you want any day during the week.

I always say that I can play sort of six variations on one girl, all of whom are a variation on me. Maybe I'll think of myself as an actor if, like, I do a corset drama.

I'll be able to pull off playing an unlikable character because inherently, I think I'm likable.

I was blonde most of my life and I had to dye my hair for a role. I couldn’t believe the difference when I went red. I just felt ‘wow, I’m home’. It’s great. You do something stupid when you’re blonde and you’re dumb. Do something stupid when you’re red and you’re a character.

You got to constantly be in character.

...and yet I am what they think I am.

I would introduce myself if it were not useless. The name I had last night will not be the same as the name I have tonight. For the moment, then, let me say that I am thinking of Sam Slovoda.

I'm aware of the power of looks. I've wanted to play roles that have gone to much better-looking people and you just think 'Oh well, that's the pin up guy's an actor like my friend James Mcavoy, who's gorgeous on screen. I'm not that. But at least I don't have to worry about taking precious care of my face because it's my commodity. That's a great freedom. I'm not afraid of being heinous for the sake of a part

I think I had the good fortune to watch Sly the Artist [Sylvester Stallone]; to watch him in all arenas. As an actor, not many people get to see him turn that character on, they don't understand that he's playing a role.

Journalists often ask me: "Aren't you sorry that after all the work you've done, you're best known as Magneto and Gandalf?" But that's what I've always wanted - not to be known as myself. I want to draw attention to the characters.

The very act of thinking about power in our lives and experiences creates a process of revelation and self-analysis that may even make us look at ourselves in a new light... thinking about power and its complex manifestations may not simply lead to a better understanding of the abstract complexities of society, but may have an effect on one?s own image and identity. Perhaps a warning label should be placed on the cover.

Acting is a marvelous profession ... If you can spend enough time playing other people, you don't have to think too much about your own character and motivations.

If you speak in a different accent, you begin to move in a slightly different way. You think in a slightly different way. It's part of trying to find what makes a character.

I am definitely a lot more girly that the characters that I play.