Catherine Reitman Quotes

It’s the downside of a family business: anything good is because I’m somebody’s son; otherwise, I’m a schmuck.

My last name is good and bad. It's great from an opportunity standpoint. The bad news is that you're prejudged often.

People are always going to assume I got my roles because of my father. There's not much I can do about that. He and I talk about the business sometimes, but he's my dad.

When they talk to me, people say, 'I didn't expect you to be how you are.'

For somebody famous, it's weird anyway to meet someone, because they have a preconceived notion of who you are.

I do come shackled with whatever people think I am.

You know, sometimes an interviewer will look at me and say - you're bright! They're actually surprised I might be bright.

Actually, the curious thing is that the more you become a subject of admiration or loathing, the more you're examined under a microscope, the distance seems to open up between who you really are and the portrayals that people impose on you.

But the privileges that one has enjoyed and exploited can sometimes turn against you: nobody thinks of you as a director, you are always an actress.

Sometimes an interviewer will look at me and say, 'You're bright!' They're actually surprised I might be bright.

It's always nice when people discover I'm a normal person and not, because of my appearance, a half-crazed lunatic who may stab them with a Bic pen.

Sure, it does help you get into a room, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to deliver, and you have to be talented, because they're not going to hire me because my dad is David Cassidy, who was famous in the '70s.

I'm not trying to prove anything. People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That's why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field.

Some people assume I'm a spoilt trust fund kid who's never had to work for anything, while others think the best of me because of the good experience they had with my grandfather. It's difficult to digest the fact that they may never see me for who I am.

It's just sad that one's attitude is always speculated, even if you've not done something.

I have never used my family name to 'cash-in.' Unfortunately, such ridiculous charges come with the territory of coming from a famous and public family.

Whenever I go to a new team the jabs about being a Harvard guy are always more prevalent. This is mainly because people don't know much about me other than being the Harvard guy that did well on his Wonderlic test. The more time I spend with people, the less the Harvard stuff comes up.

Sometimes I might get in the door a little quicker than somebody else because of my last name. But if I'm not prepared, I'm not afforded the luxury of, 'Oh, he's a little green.' It's, 'He's not talented,' where the next guy can have a bad day.

From the first time I saw them, I knew they weren't just five dirty little boys from Liverpool without an education.

When you look a certain way, or you have a certain presence, people take someone else's word over yours.

If someone labels you, it is very hard to shake it off.

If you become famous and you start making money, then people want to give you things. It's the exact opposite of how it's supposed to be.

Sometimes acting and politics make a very bad combination. I think that sometimes people take me less seriously in my work for the UN because I am an actor.

The strange machinery by which a reputation precedes its source we all know is faulty. Yet how much faith we put in it!

People have a preconceived notion about who I am and it's interesting. It's like picking who you want to win for the Oscars and not seeing the movie.