Carla Gugino Quotes

Once the second season of 'Haven' rolled around, I really started to attack this acting thing and finally admitted, 'OK, I'm an actor now. This is what I'm doing. This is my new career.'

I would never accept a role that wasn't going to stretch me or challenge me in some way. I'd say Holy Smoke! probably did that more than anything I'd ever done. It took me to places I didn't actually know I could go to, and that's what I want my career to be all about.

I really want to play interesting roles, but you want to work, so it's a balancing game.

My curiosity and my appetite for evolving as an actor is one of the main components of me still working today in the business.

Sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable to not do everything. That was my modus operandi for many years, but I just feel like I want to do challenging roles.

I've evolved as a human being, and I've taken more risks. I've let go of judgment. I don't know when the best stuff is coming - I sink into the process in a different way. I paint more, and my vision is stronger, but I don't think my music is better, because nothing is ever better than your first material.

When I wanted to be an actress, I never wanted really to be the kind of actress I became.

I want to do only such films which will help me grow as an actor.

I want to do something that is meaningful. After working for all these years, I want to do better as an actor now and choose roles that are challenging and satisfying.

I went to Germany taking a chance on seeing what Europe was like, and taking on that new challenge. Obviously it wasn't for me at the time, but I always had that goal to come back to the U.S. and work hard and hopefully go back to Europe.

Just coming to terms with the fact that I got to play April Wheeler [Revolutionary Road] and Hanna Schmitz [The Reader] in one year, let alone in my lifetime. I'm very, very aware of how rare that is as an opportunity for any one person. I can't tell you how much I've been able to take away from these experiences creatively. I really, really learned so much about acting, about myself... all of those things. It's difficult to talk about the actor's process without sounding like an arrogant asshole but they really were very challenging.

I think the most important thing for me is a challenge. I'm not happy, creatively, unless I'm faced with a challenge. So, overcoming those challenges and really discovering characters that aren't like me helps me grow, as a person and as an artist.

I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made it.

I think all any artist or person wants to do is grow spiritually, emotionally, professionally and mentally.

I'm in the very fortunate position as a young actor to not have to take the first job that comes along. I'm not motivated by money at this stage in my life, I'm motivated by work.

I don't think an actor ever wants to establish an image. That certainly hurt me, and yet that is also what made me successful and eventually able to do more challenging roles.

I am capable of much more. I guess every artist feels that way. If you are satisfied, you begin to stagnate. I want to grow as an actress every day. There are so many things you can learn, and you can improve upon your skills and abilities every day.

I think as an actor you want to keep being challenged.

All I am hoping for is to be able to work - I think my best work is still ahead of me - I think all that I have been through in the last several years have only made me a better, more interesting actor.

'Transformers' was important and defining for me because it taught me about what kinds of movies I want to make and the kind of actor I want to be, and I have a long way to go before I become that actor.

I guess my break in America came a little too early. It would've been nice to have a few more years to find out what I'm like as an actor without a camera on my face.

I think some people in their 20s really get it, that acting is about creativity and the work. They get their maturity from their work.

People ask me, 'How's 'Teen Wolf?' and I tell them it's literally the best job I've ever had. It's hard. Everybody wants to be a series regular. It's something that a lot of actors would kill to have. That being said, it's very demanding of you, in so many different ways.

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.

Going from a child actor to an adult actor is not an easy thing, and I was sort of lost in a no man's land for a while, trying to figure out who I was as a person, and going from a young actor to an adult actor.