Kim Fields Quotes

I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.

I had a fear that I'd be typecast, but I don't really have that fear anymore.

The funny thing is I'm not even Latin. I was constantly getting Latin roles, and I was like, I even was nominated for an award, and I was like, 'Let them know at the NAACP, the first white woman. Let them know I'm totally grateful, but I'm not Latin. I can't do that. I play Latin.'

At first I was always cast as the girlfriend. It was a long time before I got to play characters who were people.

I've definitely been typecast, but I have time to do other things and I was glad to have the chances I did.

The girl-next-door image is a sort of joke; for years, I couldn't get any roles other than as somebody dark.

Before 'Lucky Louie,' nobody would ever cast me to play a mom or a wife; nobody ever saw me in that role, which is weird, since that's who I really am.

I've always wanted to play a normal woman, and I think I have been offered these parts where I play a kook because I'm not the idea of what a normal woman is.

I have played a lot of roles in my career where I'm the sexual interest. I'm always having to fight that.

For me, playing a mother was a point of resistance; the question of 'will I get typecast' was going on in my mind.

It's taken a while for me to convince people that I can do something other than Scully. And it still takes effort.

I wander around in corsets in my house all the time. I'm a lot girlier than the roles I play, but I don't believe there's anything wrong in this business for being typecast.

I believe every pencil has to be sharpened every now and then to stay sharp, or you dull out. So my records, I chose to speak on what black people do, what white people do, what women do, what men do.

Women lose their lives not knowing they can do something different. Men eat themselves up believing they have to be the thing they have been made. Children go crazy. Really, even children go crazy, believing the shape of the life they must live is as small and mean and broken as they are told.

When I was a child actor, I had the fear that I was going to be cast as the tree.

Well, I was always cast as an artistic homicidal maniac. But at least I was artistic!

That's what we're all doing: paving the way, finding the roles that have the complication instead of the one that's always got it together or the dedicated housewife or the wild one who smokes cigarettes and sleeps with anybody.

I think of myself as a fairly decent human being and it gives me great pain to be considered for all the mean S.O.B.s that come along. I've played bird decapitators, puppy stranglers, woman beaters, wife poisoners, child molesters - every goddamn thing you can think of. It was quite scene there for a while. But I think the image is changing...I hope to God the old image is fading from people's minds.

I'm a believer of destiny and I believe I'm destiny's child. I've seen the highs and I've seen the lows and I believe things happen for a reason and always for the best. Maybe this was all meant to be and maybe Big Brother worked as a catalyst in a bigger issue like racism, which was important to be broached. Maybe it had to happen this way and I'm glad that I could help it.

To be a man requires that you accept everything life has to give you, beginning with your name.

If you get too well-known in comedy, I do believe it blocks people from taking you in drama.

My identity might begin with the fact of my race, but it didn't, couldn't end there. At least that's what I would choose to believe.

I believe every child is born with a gift from God - big or small - and that we should all make the most of our talents.

I believe that things kind of happen for a reason. But at the same time my real mission is just to continue working in the movie business with the scripts I enjoy, characters that challenge me and people that I admire. It's such a great business when you're in it and the ability to do things that even surprise you is continually evident. For me, it's just about challenging myself - that's the biggest thing - and taking care of my child and paying my bills.

Look at the parts the Oscar-nominated actresses played this year: hooker, hooker, hooker, hooker, and nun.