Elizabeth Banks Quotes

I still do commercial work as an actor, which I love, because it's very quick, and it definitely pays my bills.

I've been very lucky in the characters I've chosen. Up until last year I was a nobody. I did jobs I booked because I needed to put food in my mouth.

I landed about one a year. Just enough to make me question the gas money and all the driving in rush hour. When you audition for commercials, it's a lot of driving. What I netted wasn't exactly matching the hours I was putting in. I figured I'm not a face that makes people want to buy Lysol. Then I auditioned for Progressive.

As an actor, we're unemployed a lot, so I'm familiar with the stress of trying to get a gig, and sometimes you take shows that you don't really want to do to keep the money coming in.

Money was always on my mind when I was growing up. So I was always wondering how we were going to afford this and that. Acting seemed to be a shortcut out of the mess.

The average actor might only be able to book six to eight guest star jobs a year - that would be high. So when you start doing the math, you can't live on that in Los Angeles.

As an actress for most of my life, I am profoundly familiar with poverty.

When I was writing 'Withnail,' I was so busted flat that I had one lightbulb that I would carry around the house with me. I mean, really. No furniture, no money, and I was hoping to be an actor, but I could never get a job.

It always surprised me that I was getting acting work.

I'm down to act a little bit - go on a couple auditions or make one of those three-second cameos with one line.

I've got to love the film, not the money. Because I know what it's like not to have money - you still survive.

Nobody wants to sit where I'm sitting and say, 'Hey, this is the reality. I did two movies, six guest-star spots and I starred in a one-woman show, and I'm not making any money. I'm on TV every day in every country in the world, and I don't make any money.'

Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?

It's really hard to make a living as an actor. I'm grateful as I drive to work every morning.

The thing about acting is everybody thinks you make a ton of money. And the money is good when you're working. But you can go a long time between jobs.

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

I'm not going to pursue it the way that actors pursue it which means going to all of the auditions and getting a job and all that stuff, because I don't really need to get a job because I have a job as a writer/director. That's how I make my living mostly now. So I don't need to make a living as an actress.

I didn't come from any money, but even when I was on 'Big Love' - people think you're on a series and you're making bank.

I auditioned nine times for 'Delhi Belly,' and it was torturous!

The happiest I ever been was when I was a struggling actor. I've had big houses and small houses. I always had work available for most of my career. When I actually had to find jobs to make money, that's when I was happy.

I am, as they say, the classic starving artist.

My parents didn't have a lot of money, but we never knew that. They really did the best they could.

You and I can be busy, and we take a vacation from work. You can't take a break from being poor. You can't say, 'Hey I've had enough of worrying about money, I'm just going to be rich for a couple of weeks until I've recovered.'

When you grow up without it, you want to have it. It's funny, in America some people say, 'Why do you want to make money so much?' And I say, 'Well, I guess you didn't starve as a kid.'

It was not easy for my mother, being a struggling actress and raising a child. We were these two sort of vagabonds, never knowing where the money was going to come from. She always says she couldn't afford a babysitter, which is why she put me on the stage.