Role Rejection Quotes

My agent knows what I'm looking for. And I'm also looking for a new agent, too, so I'm putting it out there. Again, I'm not going to turn down every role, because there is no bad role, really. It's all what you bring to the role, but that traditional, 'Stand here and open a rope,' I'm not doing it.

Finally, I was called for "The Office" and I was really lucky, because a lot of the shows that I went out for I would work my way up from, like, an audition with the casting director to the director to the producers to the studio, I'd go through seven auditions, and then they'd give the role to a famous actress.

...but there isn't going to be any First Lady. There is just to be plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt...I never wanted to be the president's wife, and don't want it now. You don't quite believe me, do you? Very likely no one would-except possibly some woman who had had the job.

Right before 'Brian's Song' there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed; my first marriage was on the rocks. The role of Gale Sayers had been cast with Lou Gossett, and then he hurt himself playing basketball. I was called in to read for the role. I was their last choice, and I knew it.

You can never fight for a part or can't beg them to do another audition. You can try, but that rarely works.

People asked if I could have played the Terminator. Are you kidding? Not a chance, I never could have played the Terminator.

I almost did 'Doctor Strange.' I went in to do a session to play Dormammu.

When I started off many years ago, I made a determination that there were certain roles I didn't want to play.

I don't like the idea of being a coach.

I didn't want to be Doctor Who in a 'Doctor Who' that I didn't like.

There's another girl who was going to play Hilary Faye and luckily she wound up not doing it.

I say I'm a rebel. I'm continually fighting against [sexism]. I don't take parts because they're for the sexy girl. I take the sexy girl parts and try to give them something else and make them a character.

I had started acting when I was 7, and I was always wrong. I would always get to the very end [of the audition], but I wasn't a perfect package of one thing. I wasn't a cliche, and it always worked against me. I wasn't pretty enough to play the popular girl, I wasn't mousy enough to be the mousy girl. Then there was a TV show that Toni Collette was starring in. And when a role to play a girl who was struggling with identity came, I thought: "Oh, this is what I was supposed to do. Everything's leading up to this moment." I was 18. I was like, "This is it." I didn't get it. And I was devastated.

Women are always self-effacing and self-denying. There's a term that enrages me, and I always used to swear that I'd never play characters described that way. The term is "long-suffering."

I'm certainly not going to play any of Matt Damon's roles in the future. But he will eventually grow into mine, since he'll be around for a long time.

I don't feel like a grandmother. I don't.

I worked so hard on that role [of Debra in Dexter]. And I barely worked on Rita. But I read for casting - both parts - and they said, "That's great, we're going to bring you in for producers." So I read for some producers - both parts - and they said, "That's great, we're going to bring you in to meet the creator." And I went in, and as soon as I walked in the room, he looked at me and he said, "Oh my god, you're our Rita!" And I said, "No! I'm Deb! I'm a total Deb!" "No, you're Rita!".

I - you know, I'm not an actor.

Sometimes, I can read a great script, and I don't like the part, or I don't think I'm right for it. I mean, there are times I've read really great parts and think there's so many other actors who could do this better than me. And I just say no to it.

I kept turning down roles because I knew I just wasn't ready for them.

I've never understood why you would turn down a great role.

I'm not an activist, I'm an actor. I don't want to be an activist.

Coming out of 'Spy Kids,' I immediately wanted to do more grown-up roles, and I was turning down a lot of the kind of younger, cheesier roles.

I'm not made to be a mother.

I worked as an actor for a few years before anything happened, so I'm used to going up for auditions, and then not getting the role. But sometimes I don't read the book of the film, in case I just totally fall in love with it, and then it just becomes an obsession and you want to do it so much because you've completely fallen in love with the story and the characters. And then, if the part doesn't go your way, it's heartbreaking. So, there's a certain amount of distance you have to keep before you can throw yourself in 100%.