Melanie Lynskey Quotes

You get callbacks, and they either give it to what they call a 'name' performer, or they decide to go in an entirely different direction.

There's a few movies I wanted to do, and I didn't get to do them partly because they wanted me to be part of the horse and pony show, getting the money, and I'm just not doing that. There's a few movies that people wanted me to do, but they were too safe.

I resisted the film business as long as I could, because of the big circus act and the amount of money that it costs to make films - I saw my father suffer through that.

Films are now made by accountants. They pick a pretty young female or male face out of the air and give them a part - not because they think that person is right for it or is ready for it, but because they think that person will make them money.

I'm not in a rush to do anything. And I wouldn't say I pick and choose. When it comes to producers picking people for roles I don't think it's between me and Tom Cruise, do you know what I mean?

Hollywood executives believe that money is both the be-all and end-all to the moviemaking process.

It's really weird casting babies; it's kind of the dark underbelly of Hollywood, to meet babies and judge them.

When I first started out and would go on pitch meetings, there was always this kind of eye-roll that would come with pitching a horror movie when you were dealing with the studios. Unless it was viewed as a cheap product that could turn a lot of profit, there wasn't a lot of interest in making it good.

As an actor, you do feel very powerless... you are at the whim of the agent who submits you for a project, and then at the audition, you are at the whim of the casting director who will cast you or not.

I believe in the power that a casting director has.

Pilot season is always crazy because you audition for a million things, and really, in the end, it's not up to you.

When we were trying to find the woman to play Maura Isles, it was a no-brainer when Sasha came in. We just knew it was her, and she did such a fantastic job. She got the job, right then and there, in the room, and it was great. We actually played a little joke on her. She's a great lady and we've had a really, really fantastic time.

It's a terrible process, what you go through, during pilot season. All the shows turn themselves in and there is a good four to six weeks before you get phone call.

Having done television, I was used to either being aware whether I got the part within the same day, or within two, three days max.

You can make five massive hits in a row and still not get cast by the directors who you want to work with doing little movies.

I go in to Warner Brothers to test and in the waiting area I saw Allison Janney sitting there, who I did not know but I was a big fan of. I said to myself, "Wait a second. These guys might know what they're doing if they're hiring her."

It's a chain of accidents. When you step into Hollywood, you wind yourself into thousands of chains of accidents. If all of the thousands happen to come out exactly right-and the chance of that figures out to be one in eight million-then you'll be a star.

To be successful in show business, all you need are 50 good breaks.

There are so many third-rate people now who are more famous than people who should be famous, but sometimes people who could or should be famous are very boring, too.

I've never, ever, in my entire life, been upset at a casting choice.

I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director.

I started taping my dad's auditions when I was 11, when he was auditioning actors for one of his movies. I would see, over and over again, that there wasn't just one actor for the role. It was really clear that there were a lot of people who could play a character really well, and it would always come down to something kind of weird and non-obvious as to why a person was cast. If you're not right, you're not right, but that's okay.

It's always the script first choosing roles. [Then] whoever else is attached. I never like to be the first person attached, because I don't really trust what's going on, unless there's a really good director.

Deb Zane, our casting director on the Hunger Games was very sanguine, from the beginning, about just blocking out what everybody else says that they want.

Showbiz is great if you're successful.