Teyonah Parris Quotes

You can ruin your life wanting to be an actor.

A lot of my friends are struggling musicians. Being a struggling actor, it's just frustrating because you're not allowed to do what you want to do.

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.'

To be honest, as an actor, job security is not a trait.

Most actors I'm in touch with are struggling financially.

I'm not one of these million-dollar actors. I have always been just a working actor. I probably work more than I would like to.

I worked check-to-check, worked in dead-end jobs my whole life before I got into stand-up, and even during stand-up, I was working at a retail job and Starbucks, all those places.

In 1993 after giving a blockbuster 'Aankhen,' I had no work. I was sitting at home for a year.

As children we had traveled only in cars and led a lavish lifestyle. After father and we parted ways, we had little money to afford even petrol; I used to travel to the Tollygunge studios in the south of the city from our Dumdum home in the north by bus. I would do any role that came my way: hero's friend, or brother, or son, just about anything.

When I moved to New York, I was waiting tables, painting in the daytime and working at night, and I felt it was possible to find a balance and just about get by.

'Damages' was cool. It brought me back to New York for a little while, so that was a lot of fun, and I was obviously very excited about the opportunity to work with Rose Byrne and Glenn Close. I'd been a fan of that show before I started working on it.

If I didn't get a job, between 16 and 18, that wasn't significant, I was just going to go to college. I didn't want to be a struggling actor at 36 with five kids, doing something I hated. You see the story so much. It's such a vicious business to be in when you're not meant to be in it.

When I was focusing on theater, I would go on for months without any work and could hardly pay the rent.

Paul and I were both struggling actors. One night he would serve me in a restaurant, and the next night I would serve him. It was what out of work actors did.

Being at the mercy of the acting profession, in the early days of one's career, is really brutal and feels like you have no control over your life, at all.

My dad was very much a struggling actor and spent more of his life as a postman, as a member of a tarmac firm, as a van driver.

I can't take much pride in my childhood acting. It feels like it happened in another lifetime, and even then, it felt like a hobby.

I love New York. I'm working on Broadway, and it's a great way for me to get my feet wet in acting and a great way to season yourself as a performer.

I was an out-of-work actor for 10 years.

There are schoolteachers around the country that work second jobs after their teaching duties are done: one woman in North Dakota I spoke to was heading off to clean houses after the final bell in order to pay her rent.

I was in a movie called 'Before & After' with Meryl Streep. I was edited out of the movie, but no one told me. I think I was 18 or 19 years old. I sat across from her and asked her every question about acting. I completely embarrassed myself.

My earliest memories were when my mom would put me in the plays that she was in because she couldn't afford a babysitter... she was part of this theater group.

I worked a lot of non-acting jobs for a really long time. They ranged from auto mechanic to landscaper to manual labor to working in a factory that made airplane parts. I even tried to go to school as a paramedic and ended up being an orderly in a hospital.

I did a lot of 'NYPD Blues' and 'Law & Orders' and a couple of other ones that were shot in New York earlier in my career.

I think a reason why actors get reputations for being crazy and neurotic is because your life task is constantly in flux.