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I Like To Put Perfume On My Pulse Points, But I Also Love The Way You Can Sense It - There Is An Atmosphere That Comes From Releasing A Scent In To The World - It's A Primal Thing. I Spray Around Me, Not Just On Me, And It Lingers In The Room After I Leave.

-Cate Blanchett

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I Like To Put

Cate Blanchett

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I Like To Put Perfume On My Pulse Points, But I Also Love The Way You Can Sense It - There Is An Atmosphere That Comes From Releasing A Scent In To The World - It's A Primal Thing. I Spray Around Me, Not Just On Me, And It Lingers In The Room After I Leave.

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If You Over Plan New Year's Eve It's Going To Be A Disaster So You Have To Be Alive To Changes.

I Think At The Prospect Of Bringing Children Into The World, Your Mortality Comes Very Much To The Forefront, Absolutely.

I Love Strange Choices. I'm Always Interested In People Who Depart From What Is Expected Of Them And Go Into New Territory.

Any Industry Loses Its Innovation And Loses Its Access To Creative Juices If You Don't Have Progressive Thinking And Diversity.

Creative Juices

I've An Enormous Respect For My Mother Who At The Age Of 39 Raised Three Children, And I Grew Up With My Grandmother In The Household. And So It Was A Really Strong Household Of Women - My Poor Brother! It Was Great Growing Up With So Many Generations Of Women.

I Never Really Think About My Gender, First And Foremost - Until A Door Is Closed To You. Until You Can See A Parallel Opportunity With A Man In A Similar Place In His Career And You Think, That Opportunity Is Not Open To Me Or My Fellow Actresses. That's Interesting.

I Think Pilates Is Great, Especially When You Can Do It With A Trainer Who Keeps You On Track.

It's Been A Long Time Since Universal Suffrage, And I'm Sick Of The Old White Men Running The Show.

What I Find Interesting Is This Ricochet Effect, That The Audience Perceives The Work And Then Does Something With It, Throws It Back To The World, And There's An Ongoing Interaction Between Work And Audience, Which Doesn't Belong To The Artist Anymore - From The Moment You Release It, It Doesn't Belong To Anybody.

You Know, When You See Yourself On A Big Screen, I Tend To Watch From Behind My Hands. There Is Absolutely The Regret. You Always Get That At The End Of Every Project. That's What's Great About Theater: At Least Every Night You Get The Chance To Go Out And Re-offend. I'm Endlessly Disappointed, Which Is What Propels Me Into The Next Project, Probably, Not To Repair The Damage But To Kind Of Hopefully Keep Developing. Otherwise There's No Reason To Keep Doing It, Is There?

Oftentimes You Walk On Set And Then Suddenly You're In Bed With Someone Who You've Never Met Before.

I Like To Put Perfume On My Pulse Points, But I Also Love The Way You Can Sense It - There Is An Atmosphere That Comes From Releasing A Scent In To The World - It's A Primal Thing. I Spray Around Me, Not Just On Me, And It Lingers In The Room After I Leave.

I Feel Like I've Been Marinated In Australian Theatre.

We Talked About Trying To Create An Image That Would Somehow, To An Audience, Create The Sense Of Awe, Wonder And Shock That The Troops Must Have Felt That Their Monarch - And A Female Monarch - Went To The Frontline Of Battle And Was Prepared To Lay Down Her Life. This Speech Is So Well Known And Has Been Done In Virtually Every Version Of The Events Of Elizabeth's Life.

Onscreen, Babies And Animals Are My Inspiration. They're So Alive And There And Not Messed Up In The Head The Way I Am.

When You're Directing Something, You Absolutely Have To Be Involved In All Layers Of The Process.

No, It’s Very Comforting Actually, To Know That You’re Sitting In A Long Legacy Of Actresses Who’ve Played The Role. I’m Absolutely All For Absorbing All Of Those Influences, So You Understand The Pedigree Of The Part As Much As You Understand The Figure In History… Because You Are Playing The Part. You Don’t Say: “gosh, I Want To Play Peter Sellers…” Because You Can Sort Of Do That In Your Own Bathroom.

I Remember When I Was 26. My Father Died When I Was Young And My Mother Didn't Have A Lot Of Money, So I Thought, 'i Want To Own A Flat By The Time I'm 26.' So I Worked Towards That, Literally Trying To Scrimp And Save. But Sometimes Those Plans Don't Go As You Expect.

It Seems Like People Increasingly Just Can't Be By Themselves Because They're So Used To Having An Epicenter On The Internet That Actually Exists For Other People. Until Someone Clicks Onto Your Facebook Page, It Doesn't Mean Anything.

The Word 'circumnavigate' Is Quite A Beautiful Word.

Beautiful Words

When You're A Performer, Of Course You Want An Audience, But It's Very, Very Different From Courting Fame.

I'm The Age I Am, But My Skin Is In Pretty Good Condition Because I've Been Consistent With My Skincare.

Violence And Racism Are Bad. Whenever They Occur They Are To Be Condemned And We Should Not Turn A Blind Eye To Them.

What I Love About The Theater Is That You Know Who You're Acting For: Your Audience. And The Thing I Find Really Hard In Film Is, You Don't. The Audience Is Invisible. And We're Sitting There, Hoping There's Other People Out There.

I'm Not Interested In Saying What People Should And Shouldn't Do. It Depends On How People Feel About Themselves. I Suppose Personally If You Do Anything Out Of Fear Or To Mask Who You Are, Then That's A Bit Scary. You've Got To Work With What You Got.

Being On Stage A Lot Is Quite Physical.

You Do Get Scrutinized In The Digital Age. You Know They're Zooming In On Every Pore, Which You've Got To Forget About.

The Notion Of Fate And Destiny Is A Very Greek Concept. Working In The Theater You Do Think A Lot About That, Because As A Storyteller You Do Think, 'at What Point Was This Always Going To Happen And What Part Have I Got A Hand In Being Able To Change Things?'

I've Got A Funny Old Face. Someone Described It Once, And I Think They Were Being Kind, As Character. But I Know What They Mean! I've Never Been That Conventional. I Suppose Maybe It Means That My Face Can Look Different In Different Lights, So I Just Try And Sort Of Keep It Simple When I'm Going Out, To Still Look Like Me.

Some Days I'm Very Lazy, And Some Days I'm More Inspired. I've Got Things I've Had Since I Was Fifteen - I Don't Throw Anything Away. I Prefer To Give It To A Friend So I Can Wear It Again...the Way I Dress Doesn't Necessarily Have To Do With Fashion, Or What Is Current, Or What Is In Right Now, It's More About Rediscovering Things.

There's An Expression In Australia That's Called 'go Bush,' Which Means To Get Out Of The City And Relax. I Try And 'go Bush' To Places Where There's No Cell Reception. But, I Don't Get To Do That Often, So For The Most Part, It's Just A State Of Mind.

When You're Onstage, You're Acutely Aware Of The Reaction Of A Particular Group Of People, Because It's Like A Wave.

I'm Scared Of Actors With A Scheme.

I Love Those Moments On Stage, On Screen And In Life When You Dispense With Language, When You Sort Of Transcend It In A Way, And Certainly The Experience Of Falling In Love, I Think, Defies Words, Which Is Why Poets, Painters, Musicians, Actors Have Tried To Describe That Feeling, Writers Have Just Tried To Put Words To That.

Falling In Love

I'm Not Interested In Playing Characters Who See The World Through My Prism. I Think The Journey Of Understanding Any Character Is To See How They Tick And How They Differ From You.

I'm So Misunderstood!

I Think We Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water. There's No Need To Be Drinking It If You're Living In Western Communities.

All Cities Do Face Similar, Significant Trends In The Future... Most Importantly Global Warming And Climate Change.

People Talk About The Golden Age Of Hollywood Because Of How Women Were Lit Then. You Could Be Joan Crawford And Bette Davis And Work Well Into Your 50s, Because You Were Lit And Made Into A Goddess. Now, With Everything Being Sort Of Gritty, Women Have This Sense Of Their Use-by Date.

I'm Partial To A Nice Cup Of Vodka. I Normally Just Drink It Really Simple With A Little Bit Of Lemon.

His [gough Whitlam's] Effect On The Geo-cultural-political Map Of Australia Is So Vast That Wherever You Stick The Pin In You Get A Wealth Of Gough's Legacy.

We're Growing Up With A Very Illiterate Bunch Of Children Who Have Somehow Been Taught That Film Is Fact When, In Fact, It's Invention. Hopefully, An Historical Film Will Inspire People To Go And Read About The History But In The End It Is A Work Of Fiction And Selection. As For The Armour Itself, No It Wasn't Particularly Comfortable.

I Don't Have A Sense Of Entitlement Or That I Deserve This. You'd Be Surprised At The Lack Of Competition Between Nominees - I Think A Lot Of It's Imposed From The Outside. Can I Have My Champagne Now?

To Become A Painter Or A Sculptor Or A Graphic Designer Is Quite An Isolated Way To Spend Your Life.

Absolutely, I Think That Is Where A Scent Is So Powerful Because It Harnesses Our Memory And Our Memory Is A Very Emotional Place. I Do Like The Smell Of Excitement.

Culture Civilizes Us, And That's Why Every Single Despotic Regime Has Tried To Smash [the Arts].

Every Single Pore - Not On The Men, But On The Women - Is Scrutinized, So I Am Really Grateful That I Feel Very Confident In My Own Skin.

O Matter How Much Research You Do, Or Invention You Do, Whether It's A Character From A Novel, A Completely Invented Character Or Someone Who Actually Existed, It's A Work Of Faction. By The Very Fact You Only Have An Hour And A Half Or Two Hours To Tell A Story, You're Telescoping Events And It Is, In The End, A Work Of Imagination.

I'm Always Without Sleep. I've Got Two Kids. I Understand Sleep Deprivation On A Profound Level.

I'm Not Particularly Interested In Playing Characters That Think The Way I Do.

It Was Fantastic To Be Able To Have My Kids On Set. Dash, My Eldest Son, Who’s Not Quite Five, Was Into Knights And His Godmother Had Given Him A Plastic Marks & Spencer Knights’ Outfit And [first Assistant Director] Tommy Gormley Said That He Could Stand To Protect Me During The Scene Where Clive [owen] Is Talking About The Immensity Of Sitting On The Throne. I’m Actually Looking Through An Archway At My Son Standing In His Knights’ Costume Protecting Me!

The Great Thing About Theater Is That When It's Great, You'll Remember It For The Rest Of Your Life. But If You Go See Ten Shows, You'll Only Get Five - If You're Lucky - That'll Give You That Experience. But The Rest, At The Very Least, Will Be Interesting.

Rest Of Your Life

Every Director Works Differently.

You Can't Really Achieve Anything In Three Years.

At The Moment There Are 1 In 8 People Who Have No Access To Clear Drinking Water, About A Billion People Worldwide, Which Can Make You Feel Quite Overwhelmed.

I'm Of The Opinion That It's Okay To Be Silent, To Not Speak If You Don't Have Anything To Say.

I Think Often Women Can Feel Isolated And Feel Like They Get Into A Rut And Don't Quite Know How To Get Out Of It.

If You Know Why Someone Is Doing What They're Doing, Why They're Behaving The Way They Are, Then That's Your Job To Reveal That, And Often That's Situational. The Storytelling Does That, And Then Some Of It's Your Job As An Actor To Make That Subtext Come To Life.

There's Plenty Of Girlfriend Roles Out There. They've Come My Way, And Many People Have Turned Them Down, And I Think, "oh Maybe I Could Do Something With This." It's Interesting When You Get Those Roles, Which Seem Like Nothing On The Page, And You Kind Of Subvert Them. It's Hard To Say No.

Becoming Artistic Directors Is An Enormous Responsibility And Not One That We Take Lightly.

Particularly At The Moment, It's An Incredibly Optimistic Thing To Bring Children Into The World.

To Those Who Voted For Me, Thank You. And To Those Who Didn't, Better Luck Next Year!

The Less One Can Think About Oneself, The More Interesting And Attractive One Becomes.

And Perhaps, Those Of Us In The Industry Who Are Still Foolishly Clinging To The Idea That Female Films, With Women At The Center Are Niche Experience, They Are Not. Audiences Want To See Them And, In Fact, They Earn Money. The World Is Round, People.

I Think Referendums Are Fantastic As Long As The Question Is Phrased In A Way Which Is Not Meant To Deliberately Confuse Or Confound People.

Marriage Is A Risk; I Think It's A Great And Glorious Risk, As Long As You Embark On The Adventure In The Same Spirit.

Look, It's One Of The Great Mysteries Of The World, I Cannot Answer That Question. I Think I'm Vaguely Blonde. To Be Perfectly Frank, I Don't Know.

If I'm Not Good At Acting, I'm Not Good At Anything Else.

The One Thing That All Great Cities Have In Common Is That They Are All Different

I Think Part Of The Disappointing Failure Of The Political Process In America Today Is That It's Asking Us To Forget Countries' Historic Connections To Other Countries, Or To The Laws That Have Been Made. They're Willfully Asking People To Forget Their Country's History, And Focus Only On The Present. It's Bizarre.

You Can't Be Trying To Make A Film That Pleases All People, You Know, So It's Not A Concern Of Mine.

Oh God, I Wish. I Really Wish. If I'm Time-poor, Which I Usually Am, That's The First Thing To Go. And I Know It Shouldn't Be, I Know I Should Be Really Regular, But I Like To Get It Done As Quickly As Possible.

Look, I Live In The Modern World As Much As Anyone Else.

I Couldn't Possibly Have Played Someone With Feelings Towards A Woman Unless I Had Those Feelings Myself.

When I See Daughters With Their Fathers I Wonder What That Would Be Like, Although Not In A Way That Immobilises Me.

Everyone Gets Obsessed With Anti-aging But I'd Rather Look As Good As I Can At The Age I Am.

Germany Is A Country That Has Absolutely Had To Since The Second World War Ask Itself Massive Moral Questions. And It's Reforged Its Identity Based On Culture. I Mean, The Amount Of Artists Living And Working In Berlin Is Unparalleled. It's One Of The Strongest Economies, Not Only In Europe, But Globally, And It's Because Of Its Understanding Of The Importance Of Culture.

That's Why So Many People Want To Play Hamlet: Because It's A Completely Demarked Role, And The Actor Playing It Has To Be Prepared, Through The Language, To Allow The Audience To See Into Who He Is.

I Think Marriage Is All About Timing. Getting Married Is Insanity; I Mean, It's A Risk - Who Knows If You're Going To Be Together Forever? But You Both Say, 'we're Going To Take This Chance, In The Same Spirit.

Maybe This Is My Morality Coming In Again But It Was Important To Me That The Actor [ In Notes On A Scandal] Was Above The Age Of Consent. Although Really, What's The Difference Between 15 And 16? It's The Law, Yeah, But He's Very Mature.

I Much Prefer A Natural Approach To Beauty. You Know, Coco Chanel Always Said To Take One Thing Off Before You Leave The House, And I Think That Also Applies To Makeup.

There's Not A Long, Entrenched Tradition Of Theatergoing In Australia.

Mind The Gap - It's The Distance Between Life As You Dream It And Life As It Is.

I Think When You Fall In Love, Whether You're Heterosexual, Transgender, Gay, Lesbian, Whatever, Straight, You Feel Like It's Happening To You For The First Time.

Falling In Love

If You Age With Somebody, You Go Through So Many Roles - You're Lovers, Friends, Enemies, Colleagues, Strangers; You're Brother And Sister. That's What Intimacy Is, If You're With Your Soulmate.

I Often Have A Few Scents Depending On If I'm Playing A Character. The Character May Be Wearing A Scent That Perhaps I Wouldn't Wear. We've All Got Different Moods And Ways We Want To Express Ourselves; Scent Is A Very Powerful Way To Let People In To Your Secret Life.

It Was Only When I Realized How Actors Have The Power To Move People That I Decided To Pursue Acting As A Career.

After A Run Of Several Night Events, You Begin To Appreciate The Solitude And The Quiet Backstage.

Please, I Need You To Save My Ass.

If You Know You Are Going To Fail, Then Fail Gloriously.

I Was But Three When He Passed By, But I Shall Be Grateful Until The Day I Die.

When Something Is A Vocation, You Don't Really Make A Decision About It.

There's A Lot Of Anti-semitism, And It's Not Just Against The Jewish.

I Could Do A Thousand Films That Are Easy For Me To Do-that's If I Don't Fall In The Next Year, Because Everyone's About To Fall. What's So Funny Is You Look At All Us Young Guys And We're Already Thinking, Well, I'm Going To Branch Out Into Directing, And It's All Going To Be This And That.

When You Go To A Concert, Part Of Being There Is That You're All Hearing The Same Thing. It's About Being In A Crowd. If You Go To A Gig And There Are Two People There, Then It's Not The Same Thing.

I Think When Something Is Apolitical And It Gets Politicised, Then It's Incredibly Disappointing.

You Know You've Made It When You've Been Moulded In Miniature Plastic. But You Know What Children Do With Barbie Dolls - It's A Bit Scary, Actually.

I Think You Need To Have A Healthy Sense Of Doubt Because I Think Doubt Leads To Inquiry.

Film Just Chews Up Actors Like Nobody's Business, And I'm Not Particularly Interested In Being Chewed Up. I Think The Camera Can Only Look At Somebody's Face For So Long. I Guess You Have To Accept The Roles You Think Are Right At The Time. You Can Build A Career, But These Days There Doesn't Seem To Be That Much Interest In People Being Actors.

My Husband Keeps Me Really Honest.

For Me, I Think The Bigger Something Is, The More Difficult It Is To Make It Nimble And Fleet Afoot.

I Believe That A Creative Career Is Only As Good As The Risks That You Take With It.

I'm Incredibly Lucky That My Profession Allows Me To Be Where I Choose, Really.

When You Fall In Love With Someone, You're Not Really Changing At All. You're Really Just Reliving Something That Already Happened At Some Point.

Falling In Love

My Dreams Tend To Be Like Dog Dreams. I'm Usually So Tired That I Hardly Dream At All. In A Way, I Do Think That The Zone One Performs In - Without Getting Too Ooga-booga About It - It's Like That Moment When You Wake Up In The Morning And You're Emerging From A Dream State But You're Not Quite Up. Where Are You? Can You Hear The Birds? Or Is That The Traffic? It's That Zone In Which I Perform. It’s Like One Foot In Reality And One Foot In A Dream State. I Spend Most Of My Life In That State!

It's Interesting When You Get Those Roles, Which Seem Like Nothing On The Page, And You Kind Of Subvert Them. It's Hard To Say No.

Working With Woody [allen] Is Like An Emotional Strip Club Without The Cash.

Things Present Themselves To You, And It's How You Choose To Deal With Them That Reveals Who You Are. We All Say A Lot Of Things, Don't We, About Who We Are And How We Think. But In The End It's Your Actions, How You Respond To Circumstance That Reveals Your Character.

I Went Through A Mod And Goth-phase When I Decided That I Wouldn't Ever Be The Bronzed Beach-bunny. I Started Going As Pale As I Possibly Could.

The First Thing Is To Accept That Theater Is An Unknown. If You Go To A Concert, You Know The Music. If You Go To An Art Show, You Can Literally See The Art On Your Phone Before You See It In Person. But With Theater, Often Times People Aren't Prepared To Take Risks, Even Though That's Exactly What's Great About It.

I Am The Age That I Am And I Am Trying To Do The Best With What I Got.

Fashion Is One Thing, You Kind Of Can Change Your Silhouette And Try This And Try That. But I Think That With Skin Care, You Know Anything That You Put Into Your Skin Goes Into Your Body, So You Want To Know It's Actually Good For You. So I Think I Don't Believe In Fashion When It Comes To Skin Care If That Makes Sense.

When I Have My Moments Of Insomnia, Youll Find Me On Style.com.

We Have To Band Together, But The Thing In America Is That People Are Terrified Of Losing Their Jobs... Maybe California Needs To Secede. The Only Thing That'll Make Any Difference Is The Money... Tax Dollars And Losing That Amount Of Money. It's One Of The Most Economically Powerful States, Isn't It? That's Where It Hurts.

You Don't Fully Understand The Meaning Of A Work Until The Audience Responds To It. Because The Audience Completes The Circle, And Adds A Whole Other Shade Of Meaning. Whenever You View Something, And This Is Why Great Works Of Art Survive Decades And Centuries, Is Because There's A Door Within The Work That Allows The Audience To Walk Through And Complete The Meaning Of The Work. An Audience Isn't Passive, Nor Are They Unintelligent.

That's Definitely True! It Was Before My Father Died, So I Can't Attribute It To An Obsession With Death. When I Was Seven, I Loved Those Old Sherlock Holmes Movies With Basil Rathbone. The Scarlet Claw Was One Of My Faves. And I Loved All The Halloween's And That Film About The Haunted House... Burnt Offerings, With Oliver Reed. Every Birthday Party Was A Slumber Party And We'd Watch Horror Films.

If You Think About Audrey Hepburn, I Think She Became More Beautiful When She Stopped Being An Actress And Started Working With Humanitarian Campaigns. The More Engaged You Can Become The More You Can Shed Your Self-consciousness.

The Thing I Love About Live Performance The Most, Is That The Doors Are Closed, The Lights Are Turned Down, And The Audience Has To Be Reverential To What's Happening Onstage.

I'm Old Enough To Remember The Days When You Spoke To One Person From One Outlet And That Was The Conversation. But Now What Happens Is You Speak To People And What You Say Gets Translated Into Portuguese, Then Into Mandarin, Through A German Prism And Then Back Into English And Bears Little To No Resemblance Between - To The Exchange Or - That You Had Initially With The Journalist Or To What You Originally Said.

I've Reprised Roles In The Theatre, Which Is Somehow More Accepted, And Where One Can Automatically Go Deeper And Further Into The Role.

If I Had My Way, If I Was Lucky Enough, If I Could Be On The Brink My Entire Life - That Great Sense Of Expectation And Excitement Without The Disappointment - That Would Be The Perfect State.

I Don't Understand A Way To Work Other Than Bold-facedly Running Towards Failure.

There Is Not A Lot Of Separation Between Work And Home Life.

Yaron Has Elevated The Way Australia Perceives Circus, Both Nationally And Internationally ... I Mean Remarkable.

Of Course One Worries About Getting Older - We're All Fearful Of Death, Let's Not Kid Ourselves. I'm Simply Not Panicking As My Laugh Lines Grow Deeper. Who Wants A Face With No History, No Sense Of Humor?

Personally, I Prefer To Play Against The Look: If A Character Appears Particularly Unhinged, With Makeup Running Down Her Face, I Like To Play Her As If She Has It Together. I Think That Juxtaposition Makes It So Much More Interesting.

Audiences Want To See Them, And In Fact, They Earn Money. The World Is Round, People.

I Finally Had A Honeymoon With My Husband In Italy.

I'm One Of Those Strange Beasts Who Really Likes A Corset.

I Think We Should All Feel Lucky And Blessed That People Are Still, In This Day And Age, Getting In Their Cars With Other People And Driving To A Location And Paying Money To Sit In A Theater And Watch A Play.

There Are Certain Things In Ancient Practices That Are Not Worth Adhering To.

I'm Not Sitting On A Soapbox Telling Women What They Should And Shouldn't Do, But I Know What Works For Me.

You Learn An Enormous Lot Through Failure.

An Actress Once Advised Me, 'make Sure You Do Your Own Laundry - It Will Keep You Honest.'

I Think Good Theaters Are Really Important. They Allow You To Exist In A Space With Other People.

You Will Not Leave The Theater With Nothing To Talk About. For Me, Comedy And Tragedy When You Get Them Both In One Evening, That's The Most Satisfying.

You Can Only Desire Something That You've Already Had In Your Life.

Women Have Been Doing Very, Very Strange Things For Centuries. I Mean Ancient Egyptians Were Already Doing That, But I Don't Necessarily Judge People Who Do. I Don't Really Think It Makes People Look Better; They Just Look Different.

I Love Theatre - It's Where I Started - And I've Directed A Play Myself. I'm Not Sure If I Want To Direct A Film, But Certainly, As An Actress, I'm Always Thinking, 'surely This Must Be My Last Film.'

Planning Cities Is A Necessary But Risky Business.

To Record Something On Your Iphone To Be Watched Later, That's Like The Opposite Of Theater. The Joy Of Being There Is Experiencing It With Other People. It Doesn't Translate Onto Your Phone. It's About Being Present.

If You Only Exercise Your Soloist Muscles, The Other Muscles Quickly Atrophy.

Actresses Can Get Outrageously Precious About The Way They Look. That's Not What Life's About. If You Starve Yourself To The Point Where Your Brain Cells Shrivel, You Will Never Do Good Work. And If You're Overly Conscious Of Your Arms Flapping In The Wind, How Can You Look The Other Actor In The Eye To Respond To Them?

The More You Do It, The More You Learn To Concentrate, As A Child Does, Incredibly Intensively And Then You Sort Of Have To Relax. I Remember The First Film I Did, The Lead Actor Would In Between Scenes Be Reading A Newspaper Or Sleeping And I'd Think, 'how Can You Do That?'

You Have To Surrender Less When You See A Film Than When You Go And See Something Live.

I Just Don't See Myself As The Heroine In My Own Narrative.

I Think That's What I Love About My Life. There's No Maniacal Master Plan. It's Just Unfolding Before Me.

Inquiry And Curiosity Is Really Important In Any Profession, But Definitely In What I Do. And In Parallel You Also Need To Be Confident Enough To Try Things. So It's A Tricky Thing Sometimes To Balance Those Two States.

When I Was Younger, I Was Actually Looking Forward To Getting Older, To Have More Insight, More Understanding.

Looking Forward

Someone Might Have A Germ Of Talent, But 90 Percent Of It Is Discipline And How You Practice It, What You Do With It. ... Instinct Won't Carry You Through The Entire Journey. It's What You Do In The Moments Between Inspiration.

In The Current Climate, Things That Are True, Brave Human Stories Become Political.

One Of My Favorite Moments Is Onstage, When You See A Dancer Leap, And You Think They're Flying, And Then They Fall. It's That Moment Of Suspension That You Look For, And Sometimes You Get It And Sometimes You Don't.

The Emoji Still Doesn't Really Speak To The Complexity That Actually - Or The Subtext That Goes On Between When People Actually Speak Face-to-face.

It's Part Of My Job. You Can't Play Veronica Guerin Sounding Like This. It Just Wouldn't Wash. But What I Find Fascinating About Doing An Accent - Unless It's A Farce - Is That It's Not Slapped On.

Wouldn't It Be Nice If The Internet Blew Up?

I Think Most Beauty Tips That Work And Last Are Kind Of Old.

I Have The Embarrassing Thing Where Often If You're Watching A Film, You Kind Of Go Through The Emotions And The Thought Stages That Your Character Went Through, But You Sort Of Do It With Tourette's. So I End Up Often Crying When I'm Crying, And Looking Angry When I'm Looking Angry, So It's Pretty Ugly.

With A Role Like Hedda Gabler, Which Is Incredibly Complicated, You Often Feel That You Haven't Even Scratched The Surface The First Time Around, So You Relish The Opportunity To Do It Again, Particularly With An Ensemble Of Actors And The Company We Assembled. But When You Do That In Films You Somehow Have To Make Some Attempt To Uncross People's Arms And You Have To Justify Why You're Doing It.

Art Civilizes Us And It Connects Us And Activates Us. And So It's Really Important To Connect With Compassion, With Stories About People Who Are Different From Us.

I Certainly Think That When I Flick Through All The Magazines At The Hairdresser's I Like To See And Am Drawn To Images That Have An Intelligence And Mind At Work Behind Them.

I Don't Consciously Think Of How Parenthood Has Changed Me But I'm Sure It Must Have.

I Think The Downside Of The Internet Is That Speaking-or Writing-has Become The Point In And Of Itself.

I Think The Terrifying Thing Is You See All These People Who Go To The Same Cosmetic Surgeon, And They End Up, After A While, Looking Like Everyone.

The Interesting Thing For Me About The Debate About Same-sex Marriage ... Is That It's One Of Those Issues Where It Has No Impact On Anyone Apart From The People That It Impacts Upon. So I Find It Quite Bewildering That It's - That It's So Complicated For People.

When You’ve Had Children, Your Body Changes; There’s History To It. I Like The Evolution Of That History; I’m Fortunate To Be With Somebody Who Likes The Evolution Of That History. I Think It’s Important To Not Eradicate It. I Look At Someone’s Face And I See The Work Before I See The Person... You’re Certainly Not Staving Off The Inevitable. And If You’re Doing It Out Of Fear, That Fear’s Still Going To Be Seen Through Your Eyes. The Windows To Your Soul, They Say.

I Had Never Done Anything With Blue Screen Before, Or Prosthetics, Or Anything Like That. Lord Of The Rings Was Like Stepping Into A Videogame For Me. It Was Another World Completely. But, To Be Honest, I Basically Did It So That I Could Have The Ears. I Thought They Would Really Work With My Bare Head.working With Martin Scorsese Was An Absolute Minute-by-minute Education Without Him Ever Being Grandiose About It.

People Love Events - They Love Performances, They Love Music - And I Think Australians Are Great Entertainers.

Sometimes I Think It's So Good Not To Win Those Things. And, Anyway, Who Wants To Peak When They're 28?

A Film Is Not A Documentary. And What's Wonderful About Film Is That It's A Real Provocation For People. I Never, Ever See Film As Being An Absolute Version Of The Truth.

Some Ideas, Like What You're Going To Do With Your Life, Take Time To Form.

My Kids Don't Watch Any Tv, But They Watch Videos And Films. I'm Sure They Watch It At Friends' Houses.

I Look At Someone's Face And I See The Work Before I See The Person. I Personally Don't Think People Look Better When They Do It; They Just Look Different.

I Don't Think About Being Beautiful Or Not Being Beautiful. ... It's More About Feeling Confident Inside Your Own Skin Really And Thinking About Yourself As Little As Possible.

Thinking About You

I Think Probably Winning These Things [an Oscar] Can Be A Bit Of A Curse Depending On Who You Are And How You Think. But I Haven't Been On A Journey To Get Anywhere In Particular, So That Hasn't Changed. And My Criteria For Choosing Projects Hasn't Changed.

I Was Quite Shocked At The Tone I Took And The Judgements I Had Of The Relationship That She Embarked On, You Know, Sex With A Minor. But It's The Stuff Of Great Drama.

As An Actor I Suppose You're Constantly Observing. I Don't Sit In Restaurants Making Notes, I Don't Live My Life In Order To Then Feed It Into My Work.

Don't You Find That Work, If You Love It, Is Actually Really Invigorating?

I Do Tend To Move On Anyway. This Is A Part Of My Life, But It Doesn't Rule My Life.

What You're Trying To Do As An Actor Is Somehow Trick Yourself Into Believing That These Words Have Never Been Said, And So You've Got To Discover Them For The First Time.

I Don't Tell The Truth, I Tell What Ought To Be The Truth.

Telling The Truth

I'm Not A Big Believer In Linear Paths. I Would Always Have These Sort Of Five-year Plans And Think, 'ok, I Wouldn't Mind To Try To Get Here In Five Years.'

Well, I've Never Looked Upon Myself As Being A Beauty, Per Se.

You Can't Really Watch A Theater Performance By Yourself. You Can Watch A Movie By Yourself, Though.

I Think It's Always Good To Take On Things That At First Seem Bigger Than You. Then You Just Try And Surmount Them.

Lazy Thinking Is Not Creative Or Productive.

Theater Is A Space Where You Cross Over From Everyday Life, Because There Are Real People In That Moment Moving In Front Of You-you're Being Invited To Believe In A Story And Cross That Bridge.

See The Opportunity In The Misstep.

I'm A Horrible Person. And It's Just Coming Out In My Work.

Horrible Person

We Change People's Lives, At The Risk Of Our Own. We Change Countries, Governments, History, Gravity. After Gravity, Culture Is The Thing That Holds Humanity In Place, In An Otherwise Constantly Shifting And, Let's Face It, Tiny Outcrop In The Middle Of An Infinity Of Nowhere.

My Everyday Beauty Routine Is Always Rushed And Pretty Simple.

Everyday Routine

I'm Not Dressing For Anyone Else. I Don't Really Subscribe To Other People's Idea Of What Is Beautiful. I Just Want To Feel Good.

It's Important To Travel And Move And Have A Continual Set Of Experiences So You've Got More To Feed Back Into Your Work. For Me, It's A Natural Thing.

I Think We Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water. There's No Need To Be Drinking It If You're Living In Western Communities. The Other Thing I Would Suggest - And I Feel It Particularly Here In Australia, Because We Have Very Severe Drought - Is To Be Aware Of How Much You're Actually Consuming. Right Now, It's Very Rainy, But That Doesn't Mean We Can Drink All The Water We Want. Conserving And Constantly Thinking, "how Much Do I Really Need?" Should Definitely Be Part Of Our Vocabulary.

It's Not The Normal Way To Look At Things But I Experienced Death At A Really Young Age And Because Of That It's Been Part Of My Mental Landscape That Death Is Really Very Possible.

Theater Is All About Foyers And Conversation And Digesting What You've Seen.

It's Not Just Women In Film, 18-year-old Girls Feel Pressure To Do Preventative Injecting. I See Someone's Face, Someone's Body Who Has Had Children And I Think, They're The Song Lines Of Your Experience, And Why Would You Want To Eradicate That? I Look At People Sort Of Entombing Themselves And All You See Is Their Little Pin Holes Of Terror... And You Think, Just Live Your Life, Death Is Not Going To Be Any Easier Just Because Your Face Can't Move.

I Discovered Early On That Some Performers Live Their Life In Order To Act, So All Their Relationships Are Simply An Experience That They Can Feed Back Into Their Work. Which I Find Vampiric.

Working With Martin Scorsese Was An Absolute Minute-by-minute Education Without Him Ever Being Grandiose About It.

I Think When You Have A Character As Richly Drawn, I Suppose Then There Are Subconscious, Mental Notes That You've Made.

I Live My Life Parallel With My Work, And They Are Both Equally Important. I'm Always Amazed How Much People Talk About Celebrity And Fame. I Don't Understand The Attraction.

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