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In The Theater, Actors Are The Essential Element Of The Work. In A Film, It's A Real Collaboration - Not That Theater Isn't, Because It Is - But It's A Collaboration To Such An Extent That You Can Give A Performance In Film That Sometimes You Look At And You Go, "well, That's Not The Performance I Was Trying To Give At All."

-Karen Allen

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In The Theater, Actors

Karen Allen

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In The Theater, Actors Are The Essential Element Of The Work. In A Film, It's A Real Collaboration - Not That Theater Isn't, Because It Is - But It's A Collaboration To Such An Extent That You Can Give A Performance In Film That Sometimes You Look At And You Go, "well, That's Not The Performance I Was Trying To Give At All."

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People Want To See A Movie That Casts A Mature Woman Across From A Mature Man.

I Think That There Is A Real Beauty To The Live Aspect Of The Theater, And The Working With A Director For A Month On A Script In The Isolation Of A Room And Really Deeply Delving Into Who Are These People, What Is The Story We're Telling, How Do We Want To Tell It?

The Secrecy Thing Has Gotten To Be More And More Prevalent In Films, And Maybe That's Good. It's Nice To Go See A Film And Not Know Anything About It. Sometimes I Feel Like We Know Too Much About Films.

There's Something So Wonderful About Being An Actor In New York.

I Don't Know If I've Ever Played A Character Who's Close To Me. There Have Been Some Elements Of Myself In Different Roles. Sometimes, I Show One Side Of Myself And Then Completely Conceal The Other.

You Want To Move Into Worlds You've Never Been In Before. It Would Be Like Going To The Same Restaurant All The Time Or Going To The Same Place For Vacation All The Time. Where Is The Adventure In That?

Scripts Are Kind Of A Bare Bones Type Of Reading Material.

I Just Felt Like I Had To Create A Life For Myself Where I Was More Independent.

Sometimes I Think Candor Is The Only Kindness.

Eventually You Love People - Friends Or Lovers - Because Of Their Flaws.

I Have To Say From An Actor's Perspective, To Work With A Director Who Has Been An Actor Through Most Of Their Career Is A Pleasure. They Generally Have A Very Deep Understanding Of The Process Of What You're Doing, Of How You Are Building And Exploring The Character.

Deep Understanding

As Far As Acting In Films, There Is Not Much Out There That Is Very Interesting To Do. The Ones That Are Interesting To Me Are Independent Films And They Have Trouble Raising Money. With People Putting Their Money Into Blockbusters, There Is Not Much Left For The Independents.

I Said To Myself, 'i've Waited A Long Time In My Life To Have A Child, And I'm Missing It, I Want To Continue To Have A Career, But Not This Way.

I'm About As Healthy As A Person Can Be. I Quit Smoking Seven Or Eight Years Ago.

As Actors, The Magic Is In The Almost Spiritual Experience To Really Enter Another World, To Really Enter A Belief Of Being In Another Person's Shoes And To Really Take On Their Experiences As Someone Else Has Written Them And Imagined Them. It's Kind Of A Sacred Thing. It's A Very Spiritual Experience. That In Itself For Me Is The Main Thing That Keeps Me Coming Back To It. I Like To Travel, But For Me, This Is The Greatest Travel.

Idleness Does Drive Me Crazy, But I'd Rather Read Or Write Than Do Anything Just To Work. A Kind Of Respect Has Been Instilled In Me For Acting: I Love It Too Much To Ever Have A Bad Relationship With It.

Bad Relationship

I've Had So Many People Just Come Up To Me And Say, 'when You Came Up On The Screen, Everybody In The Theater Applauded.' It's Just So Sweet, Really.

I Thought, I Need To Reinvent Myself. I Want Every Day Of Life To Be Wonderful, Fascinating, Interesting, Creative. And What Am I Gonna Do To Make That Happen?

In The Theater, Actors Are The Essential Element Of The Work. In A Film, It's A Real Collaboration - Not That Theater Isn't, Because It Is - But It's A Collaboration To Such An Extent That You Can Give A Performance In Film That Sometimes You Look At And You Go, "well, That's Not The Performance I Was Trying To Give At All."

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I Try To Offer As Much As I Can To The Director So He Has As Much To Work With As Possible To Create The Character That, Really, He Wants To Create In A Sense.

If You Just Work On Your Upper Body, You're Not Going To Be A Full-range Dancer Or Performer. You've Got To Work In All Directions As Much As You Possibly Can.

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I Was So Lucky. I Was Very Broke And I Was Taking Classes At Lee Strasberg's Institute And I Saw A 3 X 5 Index Card On The Bulletin Board Advertising For College-aged Girls For A Film. That Was Animal House.

My Son Was Born Somewhat Late In My Life And I Just Found Myself Really Feeling Like I Didn't Want To Miss Out On Being A Parent And Being With Him, And Not Wanting A Situation Where I Was Constantly Pulled Back And Forth Between Being Present, And Having All These Other Pressures And Considerations.

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Unfortunately, I Feel As Actors We Have To Fight For The Right To Really Go In As Many Directions As Possible.

When I Was In My 20s And 30s, There Was Such A Variety And Diversity Of Types Of Films That You Could See. So Many Of Them Were Really More About The Human Condition And About Relationships Between People, And They Were Smaller Films That Had A Much Greater Impact On Me As A Human Being.

I Think It's Very Important That Films Like Bad Hurt Don't Get Lost In The Mix Of The Sci-fi-kill-everything-on-the-screen-blood-dripping-down-the-walls Sort Of The World Of The Cinema That We Live In.

When I Read A Film Script, I Kind Of See It In My Head And I See The Moments That Shape What I Understand The Character To Be. There's Very Little Time For Rehearsal.

I Loved Living And Breathing Theatre So Much That I Decided I Had To Find A Way To Bring My Desire To Act And My Ability To Support Myself Together. I'd Run Through The Possibilities In Washington, So That Meant Moving To New York.

I Was Always Drawn Toward The Actor's Studio. I Studied At The Lee Strasberg Institute When I First Came To New York. One Of My Favorite Teachers Was One Of Al [pachino]'s Teachers, A Guy Named Charlie Laughton, Who Was Just A Wonderful, Wonderful Man.

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A Lot Of Times When I've Been Offered Film Series And Stuff, If They Shoot In Los Angeles, I Lose Interest.

There Is A Difference When You Work With Actors Who Have Worked On The Stage. When We're Out There In Front Of An Audience Eight Times A Week, You Can't Do It On Your Own.

I've Never Done Anything For Money. My First Love Is Things Of Limited Commercial Appeal. I Could Be Happy Doing Shakespeare For The Rest Of My Life.

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When Independent Films Break Through And Actually Make It Into Any Level Of Mainstream-ness Or Get Seen By People Or Find A Life Actually In Theaters, It's Extraordinary. And It Doesn't Happen That Often.

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