Gene Kelly Quotes

My mom always had me and my brother watching old Fred Astaire movies.

I loved old black and white movies, especially the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. I loved everything about them - the songs, the music, the romance and the spectacle. They were real class and I knew that I wanted to be in that world.

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.

The musicals that I loved, growing up - many, many. 'Singing in the Rain,' of course, is a classic, I love 'Meet Me in St. Louis.' I love 'Funny Face,' Stanley Donen's beautiful movie. It's really countless for me.

It's true that I am surrounded by beautiful women in the movies. But the romance is only on screen.

As a little girl, I didn't dream of being a ballet dancer; I dreamt of being a movie star like Ginger Rogers and dancing with Fred Astaire. I used to watch the Sunday double-bills on TV and Iong to be part of what seemed a perfect Disneyland world. Astaire was a genius.

Compositionally I always wanted to be like Fred Astaire.

Certainly the movies were always in the air for me. I come from the era when actors thought it was a big deal to be in the movies.

A question I get asked a lot is 'What is it like to play the straight guy all the time?' And I'm totally okay with it.

Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.

I wanted to be Gene Kelly. Well really, I just wanted to dance with Cyd Charisse.

For a woman, body image is always a palpable thing. Weirdly, for me, the only time I don't care is when I'm in character.

Certainly, I've loved musicals for a while, so I did some short films in college that had musical numbers and things like that, so I've kind of been obsessed with Fred and Ginger and Vincente Minnelli and Stanley Donen and Jaques Demy forever.

Film buffs who don't live in Hollywood have a fantasy about what it's like to be a director. Movies and the people who make movies have such glamour associated with them. But the truth is, it's not like that. It's very different. It's hard work.

I was brought up in a house full of women; the first time I realised no one was interrupting me was when I was on stage - that's probably the subconscious reason I became an actor.

We need to see men and women as equal partners, but it's hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy!

I remember the first time Bill Fichtner and I had a scene together. I've seen him in a few movies, from 'Armageddon' to 'The Perfect Storm' and 'Contact,' and suddenly he's on a bunk bed and I'm on a bunk bed and we're doing this scene together. That was a real 'pinch me' moment.

The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event.

There were many good actresses in my time like Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds, but I was the only dancer.

The first time I saw 'Sunset Boulevard' I was probably eight or nine years old, and it really struck me how it's so simply put and elegant, yet there's so much going on.

I was a momma's boy. I didn't get anything from Dad, except my body and baseball knowledge. The only time I spent with him was at the ballpark.

I did love 'The Artist.' I've seen it four times, and every time I see it, it gets better and better.

The only time a wife listens to her husband is when he's asleep.

I have to go back to my younger days, when I just adored Hollywood musicals.

The only time I've ever danced every day was during 'Dancing with the Stars' and in the two-week rehearsal for 'Dirty Dancing,' and that was only to do a particular dance.