The conventional idea of beauty is so boring.
Just because we are women doesn't mean the only roles we can play are that of the finger-shaking girlfriend.
Why was it important for women to be only nice? Why can't she have dark layers? So when they came to me - films like 'Maqbool' and 'Astitva' - they just grabbed me, and I wanted to be part of them.
On the publicity tour of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' I was asked over and over again, if, as the writer, I felt it was a fair depiction of real life to have someone of my er, below average looks, hook up with hottie John Corbett.
The heroines in 'That's What She Said' are flawed, messy, damaged, hilarious and culpable and not really concerned about being acceptable to the audience in any traditional sense, which for me is what makes them all the more gorgeous. And the fearless truth of that is what makes it funny.
I never wanted to model myself on a female singer, which tells you a lot about my character. I didn't have a female role model. There just wasn't anybody around. I played with the boys and beat them at their own game.
I can't ever see myself playing the romantic lead because that's not me; I'm not that girl.
When you live your life in different ways, it makes people around you become uncomfortable. So deal with it. They don't know what you are going to do.
I wanted to show I had balls at age 60. Just because society says I'm old, doesn't mean that I am. I'm pursuing happiness, even if it makes the people around me unhappy.
There's this notion, kind of like unspoken, that you can't live your dreams and be a mom. You can't have a career and be a mom. There's still that preconceived notion, and I reject that.
I loved seeing a lead female character who isn't perfect and isn't demonized for it.
You're not taught to be ambitious as a woman. And so when you are, sometimes you shy away from it or you're scared of voicing your opinions.
And as a character, what I found very inspiring about playing Dharma, especially at that time, is that the women on television were more neurotic than they were free. And I thought, this is a rare bird and this is unique on television and I think it's really refreshing.
The performances that I love are ones like Gena Rowlands in 'A Woman Under the Influence,' where women are allowed to be messy and imperfect. It's that kind of woman that has always inspired me to seek roles that are a little out of the box. I just haven't always had the opportunity to do them.
It's wonderful to be appreciated for being quirky, and to see Zooey Deschanel and the quirky, indie film types get mainstream play is amazing for women, because women are much more complicated than what we've see on TV in the past.
I was not going to be a stupid girl singer. I was going to be way more than that.
I've had women tell me that when their daughters see them taking care of themselves, and being defined from within, and thinking for themselves instead of thinking about that silly culture out there, it's powerful modeling.
I will stand up for a girl who is being harassed or bullied for choosing to wear revealing clothes. I will stand up for that!
I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended.
Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions formerly associated with it, they can no longer retreat to the safety of those conventions.
When I read the script, I was like, Hello, woman in a box. I had to explore that to the end.
I put the cameras on her and told her to be obnoxious as she could possibly could be. She was.
There is a clear difference between sexist parody and parody of sexism. Sexist parody encourages the players to mock and trivialize gender issues while parody of sexism disrupts the status quo and undermines regressive gender conventions.
Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don't know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.
We're feminists. We're doing something that only guys are expected to do and doin' it right! At our concerts we'll do one hard-core rap song and then do one where we'll be real sexy.
