Struggling Actor Quotes

Hmm, limelight... No, I'm not Sienna Miller or Angelina Jolie. I'm very lucky and happy, but I still find it very difficult to get good scripts and good roles. It's really a jungle out there.

When I first came to Hollywood, I could not break into movies.

I did a little theatre work after that and the following year I got another part in a television series. Then it was almost to the end of the year before I got more work. That was coming to terms with the reality of the vocation I had chosen.

Hollywood sucks. I've got the bruises to prove it.

I'm in a position where I'm being continually knocked back for the kind of independent films I want to be in because people don't know who I am.

When you're just an actor, maybe not the top of the list guys, you get constant rejection and it's fun.

I'm a working actress in Hollywood. You unfortunately don't get the pick of the litter when it comes to auditions and jobs.

I never thought I had a career. I think Meryl Streep has a career. I have jobs that I am lucky to get... I'm one of those actresses who never turns down a part, no matter how small. I don't have the luxury of picking and choosing. I take everything.

I hung onto Hollywood by the skin of my teeth, and at first I fought over every piece of bread. Later, I got very small parts.

I came to Hollywood and nobody knew me. I was on a coupla TV shows.

I'm not of the manor born; I've never felt entitled in that way. I just came to Hollywood to be an actor. All that lifestyle stuff is something to be managed.

When you say a 'former child star,' you may as well say 'failed child star.'

I grew up poor, financially lower class. Worked in restaurants for 17 years while going to acting school and trying to become a working actor. Because I know what it's like to not have money, I turn down roles if I don't want to play them.

People call my family a dynasty, but I'm not sure what a dynasty actually is. And I don't feel part of one. It belies the truth of my real upbringing, which wasn't grand at all, and it flies in the face of the fact that, at root, I'm just a jobbing actor.

I was a struggling actor all my life.

I've been a working actor for many years, but it's not always been successful for me. I certainly struggled in the past.

I left my home in Massachusetts after college to move to New York City to pursue my dreams of acting. I took roles for free. I waited tables. I didn't care because it was work.

The tale of the actor struggling to make it is oft-told for a reason.

I've been an actor for 20 years, and I think the first 14 years, it was all struggling. At first, it was all gangsters.

I have the cliche 'struggling actor' story. I was waiting tables in New York, went out to L.A. soon after graduation to get some jobs, but it didn't work out. I wanted to cut my teeth in professional theater, so I came back to New York. It made my journey a longer one, but I really wanted to excel in the theater.

I kept auditioning, with no savings and no money, credit card debt gaining interest. I went on unemployment. I bought ramen noodles at dollar stores. I never had to - God forbid - live on the streets.

I was dirt-poor. I could barely hold down a job. Eventually, though, I started getting small parts on shows like 'Smallville,' 'Supernatural'... and lots of really bad sci-fi movies. I was running around the woods in wolf contacts, covered in fake blood made out of pancake syrup, roaring.

After my debut in 2001 in 'Aks,' where I had a small part, I had to work really hard to get work in the industry. For almost three years, I had no work.

The first eight years in Mumbai were specially tough. I knew during the first two months of my stay that there's no point waiting for hours to meet producers. They won't meet you and definitely won't give you a role.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I was straight out of grad school, and I didn't have a single credit to my name. I knew one person in town - another actor whose name is John Billingsley. I just had to audition and audition and audition. I was plugging away for 15 years. So I earned my stripes!