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In High School, I Was On The Youth Advisory Council For The Mayor's Office Of Los Angeles, And That Was Kind Of My First Experience In The Bureaucratic System. We Tried To Get Things Done, And Nobody Was Really Interested In Getting Anything Done.

-Rashida Jones

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In High School, I

Rashida Jones

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In High School, I Was On The Youth Advisory Council For The Mayor's Office Of Los Angeles, And That Was Kind Of My First Experience In The Bureaucratic System. We Tried To Get Things Done, And Nobody Was Really Interested In Getting Anything Done.

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Well, I'm Not A Method Actress By Any Stretch Of The Imagination So The Best Thing That I Can Do Is Be As Real As Possible And Find Whatever Commonality In That Character That I Can See Myself.

I Really Like The Relaxed Glamour Of The 70s.

I'm Lucky Because I Have So Many Clashing Cultural, Racial Things Going On: Black, Jewish, Irish, Portuguese, Cherokee. I Can Float And Be Part Of Any Community I Want. The Thing Is, I Do Identify With Being Black, And If People Don't Identify Me That Way That's Their Issue. I’m Happy To Challenge People's Understanding Of What It Looks Like To Be Biracial, Because Guess What? In The Next 50 Years, People Will Start Looking More And More Like Me.

I Have Friends Who Have No Choice; They Came From Whatever Town, They Didn't Have Anybody In Entertainment And They Just Knew They Wanted To Act And They Did It.

In 2002 Mom And I Got A Chance To Act Together In A Play Called 'pitching To The Star,' With Her Brother, Robert Lipton. The Three Of Us On The Same Stage - That Was Such A Special Experience For Me.

I Love Fashion, But Maybe I Love It Peripherally.

Invest In Your Brain, Invest In Your Talents. Those Things Can Appreciate And They Get Better As You Get Older.

Ads Featuring Real Women And Real Beauty Are Such A Necessary Component To Offset The Potentially Dangerous Programming Out There For Little Girls.

I Think It's A Relatable Concept - When You Have A Long-term Relationship Or Marriage, And You Want To Try To Be Friends With That Person, Because You Kind Of Grew Up With That Person And They Know You Better Than Anyone, And How It's Just Impossible To Make That Transition Seamlessly.

I've Been Really Lucky With Acting, In That I Can Do Things I Believe In And Feel Good About, And Feel Good About Myself. If For Some Reason One Day That Ends, I Won't Do It Anymore. If I Feel Like I Have To Compromise Myself To Continue To Be In This Industry, I Don't Want To Do That.

There's People Who Watch Shows While They're Preparing Their Dinners, And They Don't Want To Focus, And They Don't Want To Be Challenged, And Whatever. And Then There's People Who Want To Really Sit Down And Get Into A Character In A World, And Feel Like They're Expanding, Or They Have Complex Relationships, Or Whatever.

I Think I'm A Natural Appreciator Of Comedy. I Was Definitely Not The Girl In Junior High That All The Guys Wanted To Date. They Wanted To Date My Friends - Which Was Great, Because I Had To Be Funny.

I'm Not Easily Offended. I Have A Pretty High Tolerance For Raunchiness Or Shock Value, So I'm The Wrong Person To Use As A Gauge.

In High School, I Was On The Youth Advisory Council For The Mayor's Office Of Los Angeles, And That Was Kind Of My First Experience In The Bureaucratic System. We Tried To Get Things Done, And Nobody Was Really Interested In Getting Anything Done.

I Don't Want To Be An Artist, Go On Tour And Make A Video And Wear Sexy Clothes. I Would Just Love To Make Music.

Fail Fast. Fail Often... The Most Talented People In The World Have Bad Ideas. That's A Good Thing To Learn.

There's A Definite Responsibility That Comes With Being Famous. You Shouldn't Be Able To Just Dress Up And Look Pretty.

My Pet Peeve And My Goal In Life Is To Somehow Get An Adjective For 'integrity' In The Dictionary. 'truthful' Doesn't Really Cover It, Or 'genuine.' It Should Be Like 'integritus.'

When A Thing You Love Faces Adversity, You Start To Feel More Protective Of It. Also, You Take An Inventory All The Time. You Ask Yourself, "is This Worth All My Fighting?"

I Pretty Much Borrow My Entire Beauty Regime From My Mom.

For The Most Part, Having More Money And More Fame Make Your Life Harder. It Just Does. I've Seen It Happen With People. You Know, It's So Hard To Stay Normal. It's So Hard To Stay Happy. It's Hard To Remember Why You Were Doing What You Did In The First Place.

I Don't Think Any Other Emotion Is The Equivalent Of Laughter. So I Do Whatever I Can To Laugh All The Time And To Hide My Pain.

Music Breaks My Heart Constantly.

Mostly, Though, College Was Me Trying To Look Cooler Than I Was. There Were Definitely Some Carhartt Jeans And Backward Kangol Caps In My Repertoire.

There's A Sense Of Entitlement And Isolationism That I Think Is Really Dangerous, And The Way Globalization And Technology Have Been Used Isn't Really For The Best.

I'm A Sponge. I'm Obsessed With Comedy. I'm Obsessed With The Idea That You Can Make Somebody Laugh, And I Love To Be Around People Who Can Make Other People Laugh.

People Are Not Enjoying Life Because They're Trying To Be Something Or Brand Themselves.

I Took A Groundlings Class In My 20s, And I Was Terrible. They Didn't Even Pass Me To The Next Level.

The Minute You Feel Like There's Nothing Left To Learn, Whether It's With Your Career Or Life, You're Done.

In Elementary And High School, I Never Considered Acting As A Profession.

I've Never Been In A Writer's Room.

I Love Romantic Comedies. I Have A Deep Respect For Them. I Think They're Really Difficult To Write And Write Well.

Everything French Is Amazing, Especially Creme Brulee, But Then Burnt Sugar Works For Me In Any Capacity.

Auditioning Is The Worst.

You Can Love Somebody And It Can Change Your Life But It Doesn't Mean That You're Necessarily Right To Be Together Forever, But That Love Will Change Your Life Forever. And That's Okay.

Sure, Being Good At Your Job Is Really Important, But In Acting, So Much Of The Decision's Already Made The Minute You Walk In The Room Because They're Like, 'his Hair's Good Or She's Got The Right Skin Color' Or Whatever. It's So Random, But It's So Physically Oriented.

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I Know My Mom Said As Early As She Can Remember Letting Me Watch Tv, My One Treat A Week When I Was Like 6 Was To Stay Up And Watch 'saturday Night Live.'

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Smiling Is Definitely One Of The Best Beauty Remedies. If You Have A Good Sense Of Humor And A Good Approach To Life, That's Beautiful.

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I Realize My Need To Be Liked Or My Need For Strangers To Rate Me Well, Even With Their Words And Their Thoughts, I'm Not Alone In That, And The Whole Thing Is Set Up Culturally So We Feel That Way.

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I Think Part Of Being An Adult Is Leaving The Fairytale Behind.

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.

I Was Like, 'oh, My God, Girls Are So Pretty And Soft. No Stubble Burn! What Am I Doing With Guys?' [i] Haven't Dipped Back Since, But I Was Very Appreciative Of The Experience.

I Have A Father Who Came From Nothing And Conquered The World. The Last Thing I'm Going To Do Is Sit Here And Spend His Money And Try To Look Pretty. That's Not Interesting To Me At All.

I Tend To Leave The House Without Makeup All The Time. I'm Kind Of Lazy That Way.

Be Friendly To Everybody; Protect Yourself; People Sometimes Want A Piece Of You For No Good Reason; And Always Do Things Out Of Love Not Fear.

When People Don't Know What You Are, You Get Your Heart Broken Daily.

My Mother And I Are More Than Best Friends; We Are Partners In Crime. After She And My Father, Quincy Jones, Separated When I Was 10 Years Old, My Sister, Kidada, Who Was 12, Went To Live With Our Dad, And I Stayed With My Mother.

Women Tend To Double-speak - I'm Definitely Guilty Of That.

I'm Terrified Of Performing Live.

Performing Live

I Think You Make Mistakes, Especially In Your Twenties, Where You Date Guys You Wouldn't Even Be Friends With - Ever.

The Justice System Is Flawed, And That Just Because You're Overtly Guilty Doesn't Actually Mean You're Actually Going To Go Away, To Jail.

I Love Guys And The Way They Think; They're So Straightforward - And Women Can Learn From That.

I Have No Issues With My Identity.

Good Rom-coms Have Some Reflection Of The Way Things Are, The Sign Of The Times.

I'm Friends With A Lot Of My Exes, But It Took Time. We Didn't Just Get Into It. I Don't Think You Can Be Friends Until You're Cool With Them Dating Someone Else. That's When You Know.

Women Can Do Anything, And I Want To See That. I Want Them To Make More Movies For Girls, And Just For Girls. I Want Studios To Start Doing That.

You Can't Be An Openly Gay Movie Star. You Can't Be An Openly Gay Pop Star, Really - Minus Ricky Martin.

I'm Generally A Pretty Friendly Person.

Friendly Person

It's Downright Undignified How Many Blazers I've Bought Over The Years. And Will Continue To Buy. They Immediately Give Shape And Add Authority. With The Perfect Blazer, Anything Is Possible.

Timing Is Everything With Relationships.

Timing Is Everything

There Was A Time When I Let Go Of The Reins And Thought, What's Meant To Happen Will Happen. That's Probably One Of My Biggest Faults As A Person, And Something That I've Had To Work Really Hard On: Believing In This Idea That The Universe Will Decide For Me. The Universe Is Not Going To Decide In Your Favor.

Spy Plots Are Hard, Really Hard.

It's Hard To Find Female Leads That Are Flawed And Interesting And Dynamic.

People Are Very Nice To Me, And They've Been Nice As My Career Has Gotten Better And I've Gotten More Jobs. But The Reality Is That If I Decided Tomorrow That I Didn't Want To Act Anymore, It's Not Like People Are Going To Be Like, "please, Come Back!"

If I Can Surround Myself With Hilarious People Every Day, I Will Always Want To Go To Work.

My Dad Always Tell Me To Make Decisions From Love And Not From Fear.

You Know, I Definitely Have An Inclination To Work In The Public Sector.

Mom Is The Most Unconditionally Loving Person I Will Ever Know, And She Has Always Supported Me On Every Level.

I Don't Really Mess With Instagram Much, But I Get Why People Love It. Because To Me, It's Better To Tell A Story Through A Picture Than 140 Characters.

Just Because A Situation Is Grim Doesn't Mean You Don't Have Every Right To Smile.

Marriage Feels Like An Industry With Catering And Really Expensive Bands.

I'm Lucky Because I Have So Many Clashing Cultural, Racial Things Going On: Black, Jewish, Irish, Portuguese, Cherokee. I Can Float And Be Part Of Any Community I Want.

I Totally Believe In Romance And Love And All That.

I Know That In Life There Will Be Sickness, Devastation, Disappointments, Heartache - It's A Given. What's Not A Given Is The Way You Choose To Get Through It All. If You Look Hard Enough, You Can Always Find The Bright Side.

I Do Have Very Strong, Very Conflicted Feelings About Rating Systems And Social Media.

My Parents Are The Coolest Of The Cool On Every Single Level, And It's Because They Have A Deep Appreciation For Every Moment Of Their Lives.

Chemotherapy Is Brutal. The Goal Is Pretty Much To Kill Everything In Your Body Without Killing You.

I Probably Wouldn't Be Acting If I Didn't Grow Up In Hollywood.

I Do Feel There Is A Certain Amount Of Distance And Apathy That's Created When You Feel Like There's A Distance Between You And The Other People. So It's Very Easy To... When You Have An App That Sets It Up Where You Very Clearly Swipe Somebody's Face Off Of Your Screen Because You Don't Like The Way They Look, You're Asking People To Not Appeal To Their Best Selves. You're Asking People To Be Brutal.

I Love Going To Weddings.

I Think There Is This Thing Where People Are Impressed - It Gives You A Leg Up In The Sense That People Won't Treat You Like A Run-of-the-mill Actress. They'll Assign "smart" To Your Word Bank, Your Adjective Bank.

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