Mallory Jansen Quotes

I can't tell you how good it is to go from 'Homeland' to be lucky enough to find 'The Blacklist' at the right time. It literally came at the very end of pilot season when I thought there was nothing left.

I was on a well-beaten path of actors - what we all call 'the Law and Order route'. I spent two years of auditioning for everything... and then 'The Wire' came up.

I think, being an actor, it's just a relief every time you get a part.

When I got the script for 'Mr. Robot,' I was auditioning for a bunch of stuff. I had an audition going for a movie at the time that I wanted to do.

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.

I'm very cautious about talking about how actors got where they got, as though there is in fact a plan or a way. There is no plan, there is no way, there's no sure set, there's no handbook, on how to get to be an actor.

I had been acting since I was seven years old, but I had a combination of things happen at about the same time. 'Austin Powers' came out on DVD, I got a series regular gig on 'Buffy' and 'Can't Hardly Wait' came out.

Yeah, I do feel badly sometimes, not for whose coming up and getting roles I'm not right for anymore but the people I compete with, who range from Uma Thurman on up.

A month and a half after my first audition, I won the role on 'Lost.'

A lot of girls ask for advice on how to get into acting, and I'm kind of the worst person to ask, because it just kind of fell in my lap... I was just in the right place at the right time.

I'm lucky to just be a working actor. There are so many great actors out there and I'm just lucky to have gotten work.

When I started as an actor, I kind of started with a couple features. I've been waiting for the opening.

When I was 8, my dad asked me if I wanted to audition, just for fun. I did just a little short film, and I liked it. I just kept doing it, and then I started getting bigger auditions for bigger roles.

I'm very grateful and fully aware that 90 percent of actors are not working. Going from public school teacher to a show like 'Grey's Anatomy', I love what I do.

I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out what will happen in an acting career.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of acting: character acting and lead acting. And in my life, to begin with, in the 1980s, it was all character acting. And then when, by fluke, through 'Four Weddings', I got into doing lead parts, it's a completely different thing.

I've been an actor for 20 years, and I think the first 14 years, it was all struggling. At first, it was all gangsters.

I think 99 percent of actors have gone through severe rejection before they ever landed a single role. I probably auditioned for 100 projects before I was cast in even the smallest role.

When I first auditioned for 'Stranger Things,' I was just living in Chicago. Just looking for a job. Working at a restaurant, doing commercials and bit parts on shows. I honestly would have been happy booking anything.

As a child, I always wanted to be an actor. But as I grew older, the acting dream kind of faded away, and I took to studying a lot. A few years later, a relative of mine who really wanted me to try my hand at acting sent my photographs to a few production houses, and like they say, the rest is history.

I had never imagined that after coming to Mumbai that, as an actor, my dates would be booked in six-eight months in advance.

About a year after leaving drama school or a year and a half - and I was working solidly ever since leaving drama school - I picked up 'Game of Thrones.'

I grew up on movie sets, so it was something I just found familiar. When I was growing up also, in high school, I would audition for things and my parents let me audition for things - with the thought that I wouldn't get them. And then I would get them... sometimes, and it would surprise them.

I'll keep on acting 'til they wipe the drool. I like the business. I like to do different parts and diverse characters. I haven't lost my enthusiasm yet!

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.