Cynthia Nixon Quotes

What I like in L.A. is that it's a lot more brutal. In England it's, 'Have a cup of tea, have a chat,' and you still don't get the part. In L.A. you go in, do your bit, and if they don't like you, you're straight out again. In a sense, that's more honest.

I did a couple of movies in Brazil, and the actors were incredibly congenial and hung out together a lot. Even the biggest stars would do radio commercials - they're not put on a pedestal like they are in the United States.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened - as if somebody was trying to demote them.

In L.A., if you're an actor, your personal and professional lives are too intertwined.

L.A. is an intense industry town, and there's a side of it that's superficial, but I surround myself with the kind of people who don't let me get sucked into that.

When it comes down to it, it's about who you know, and who's a fan. It's about whether you're the right age, whether you're hot or not, whether the studio is into you or not.

I think Hollywood is interesting. As an actor, Hollywood would be a horrible place to go if you weren't actually invited.

If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there's only one topic of conversation.

Oh, well, in Los Angeles everybody is an actor, or a producer, or a writer, or a director, or an agent, or... So everybody understands the hours.

To pursue a career in Hollywood you have to have a personality bypass. Look at the top 20 stars in the world - there's probably only two actors among them. Hollywood's not about you as an actor. It's about your currency, what you 'bring to the table'. And I've never been one to jump through hoops for anyone.

I'll audition for something and then the feedback has been, 'The director wants you, the creative people want you, but the studio is saying no.' It's depressing, but I understand. People are investing a lot of money and they want somewhat of a guarantee; they want someone who's been on the cover of magazines.

When I was growing up, you'd read about actors, and they'd never tell you their age and how much they made a year as part of their definition.

The English don't like concepts, really, not from a pop star. It's alright if they come from an 'intellectual,', but from a pop star you're getting ahead of yourself. Part of the class game is that you shouldn't rise above your station, and to start talking about concepts if you're in the pop world is getting a bit uppity, isn't it?

A lot of times in Hollywood you're as good as your last job.

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

Unless you're a star in this town, you're really nothing.

'American Idol' gives people really wonderful opportunities, and they shouldn't take flak for what people do with that opportunity after they leave the show. A lot of casting rooms I was in, that was the only thing on my resume, and people would just be like, 'Oh, here's Katie Stevens. Another 'American Idol' girl who thinks she could be an actor.'

I was once up for a part, and the male star was also producing the movie. They were talking about meeting with him or having an audition with him, and then we get the message, 'He wants to have dinner with you.' I said, 'Is that the audition, or is it that he just wants to have dinner with me?'

When I was super famous, there was definitely a distinction between how one was treated if they were on TV and how one was treated if they were on film. I don't know that that distinction exists as much now.

You're only as good as your last movie, period. It's a business.

Hollywood is a strange place. The class structure here is more rigid than almost anyplace I've ever experienced. It's made more difficult by the fact that it's constantly changing. You never know what class you belong to unless you're one of the two or three people that have been in the same echelon for a long, long time.

Hollywood is a great place if you're an orange.

You cannot live in Los Angeles for any period of time without eventually trying to write a screenplay. It's like a flu bug that you catch ... Even the plumber has a screenplay in his truck.

When you're in Los Angeles, everybody you meet is writing a movie, and they want you to be in it. Every cab driver is writing a movie!

I went to Los Angeles, because I have a manager, and - I can't remember when, but we met in London maybe six months or a year beforehand, and he said, "Listen, if you really want to get a job out of L.A., you really need to come." And I was like, "Well, can't I send a tape or something?" And he was like, "No, no, you need to come."