Teri Garr Quotes

I do many commercials. All of them are interesting in their own ways.

The first part of my career, how I was paying the bills was commercials. I was just doing tons of commercials.

I have been doing commercials on camera since I was ten.

My first gig was a Corn Pops commercial. I did the first Vanilla Coke campaign. A Juicy Fruit commercial paid my bills for years.

In my last year of drama school, I was Abigail in 'The Crucible' and Nina in 'The Seagull,' and I did some Shakespeare with the RSC. That's what casting directors saw me in, and I got put up for a lot of period drama auditions. I always get told I suit the costumes. I don't think I have a very modern-looking face.

When I was little, my mom was an actress, and she still is now, and she'd go on commercial auditions, and if they needed a mom and a son, she'd take me along, and that's how I got started.

It's no stretch to picture me standing next to Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. Those are ethnic New York men. I'm an ethnic New York girl. Everybody has their limitations. I mean, I should never be cast as Queen Elizabeth.

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.

But I did make some money doing commercials. I did fourteen in one year.

For a while, I thought that I was only going to be cast in Second World War films.

I don't think a lot of people are calling me to play doctors and lawyers, which is fine with me. I can put a suit on, but I don't really like to.

I've actually had a great career in Hollywood. I've been a working actor my whole life.

I was in a play called 'Hood.' I was an extra in 'Passion of the Christ.' I did corporate videos, commercials, little university short films. Just anything that I could be a part of, really.

People always think that because of 'Dr. Quinn' that I just play nice family stuff. But the truth of the matter is that 'East of Eden' was a very successful thing for me in the past. I've played a lot of very evil people in my time.

I moved here to California when I was 13 to pursue my acting career.

I'll be with The Goat until the fall. Then I've been given three plays to look at and there have been a couple of films have come over the desk. I will probably not do either one of them.

I have about as much control over how I look as the guy who's short and looks more like a character actor - we both have the same drive to be actors and we both have the same drive to assume these different characters, it's just harder for me to get the chance because they look at me and say, 'Oh, he's this type,' and they stamp me.

I started in this business on soap operas.

Films are really cool because, every couple months, or however many times you can get a job because there's a lot of luck involved in that, you're playing a different character.

In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests.

If you're a 'character actor,' you get hired to play baddies a lot.

People were confused by me, and at first I was auditioning a lot for the crazy characters or the victim, someone who'd been attacked. Which is great, because usually those are the best acting roles.

You know, film is the ultimate goal in an actor's career. I mean, I still love TV. I have my feet firmly stamped in it. But my opportunities have been bigger and better.

I wanted to become a model and an actress.

I've done commercials that Sam Mendes directed. Paul Feig directed me in a commercial.