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It Is Brilliant Going To The Theatre And Being Forced To Sit And Listen And Think About Life. It Can Be Almost A Near-religious Experience.

-Emily Mortimer

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It Is Brilliant Going

Emily Mortimer

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It Is Brilliant Going To The Theatre And Being Forced To Sit And Listen And Think About Life. It Can Be Almost A Near-religious Experience.

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I Was Terribly Shy When I Was Growing Up, I Really Wasn't Confident With Other People And I Think I Was Always Afraid Of Up Or Not Being This Very Cool, Amazing Person That I Wanted To Be.

It's Very Difficult To Find The Time Or The Money For People To Organize Rehearsals For Some Movies. It Staggers Me How Little Preparation Often Goes Into These Scenes Which Are Difficult And Complicated. You Think, "god, It's Crazy. I've Never Met This Person Before And Here I Am Having To Work At How To Do A Whole Performance On The Set." It Was Great To Have A Few Days Of Just Talking To Michael [caine] And Daniel [barber] And Thinking About The Characters And The Relationship Between Them Before We Started Shooting.

I've Only Half-admitted I'm A Professional. I Know I Am, I've Paid My Dues, But One Of The Things I Could Do Better When I'm Acting Is To Really Be Rigorous And To Think I Know How To Do It. To Use My Brain.

If There's Any Plan Or Scheme On My Part, It's Subconscious. Whatever I Do Tends To Be Very Different From The Thing I Did Last. You're Terrified Of Boring Either Yourself Or Anyone Else. It's Always Attractive If It Feels Like Something That You Haven't Done Before. I Generally Tend To Be Better, I Think, When I'm Terrified Out Of My Wits.

I Never Felt I Was Quite The Ticket Academically. I Always Felt I Had To Put In An Enormous Amount Of Effort Not To Be Disappointing. So I Worked Really Hard, But At The Time It Suited Me, Because I Didn't Do Very Much Else.

Good People Can Do Terrible Things, And That's What Life Is All About, The Complexities And Grey Areas. And Often Characters Aren't Written That Way In Movies, Especially Characters For Women. So You End Up Being Either One Thing Or The Other.

I'm Just Happy To Be A Film Where For Once I Don't Have To Worry About My Hair, Because My Managers Are Always Complaining About My Hair Looking Depressing In My Movies. Which Is True. I Mean, It's True.

There's Something Helpful About The Fast Pace Of A Tv Set Where Everything Has To Be Finished By The End Of The Week. You Have To Finish The Episode; It Doesn't Matter How Long You Have To Go On Friday Night, But You Have To Get It Done.

I Decided To Give Acting A Serious, Committed Try, And Soon After, I Read The Script For 'lovely And Amazing.' The Story Was Beautiful And Honest, And The Characters Struggled With The Same Insecurities Many Women - Including Me - Face. I Didn't Think I Had A Chance In Hell Of Being In The Film, But I Knew I Had To Go For It.

You Are Exposing Yourself All The Time As An Actor. There's The Risk Of Being Thought Of As Bad Or Boring Or Unattractive.

I Must Have Been A Really Pretentious Little Girl.

I Wake Up Early. At 6:30 A.m., I'm At My Most Optimistic.

You Never In A Million Years Thought That You Would Ever End Up In A Woody Allen Film Even Though That Might Be Your Dream, And There You Are. Suddenly You've Got One. But You're Not Playing The Quintessential Woody Allen Heroine, Which Is Somebody That's Full Of Self-doubt And Heartbreakingly Naïve. Chloe In Match Point Was A Nightmare In Some Ways And Totally Entitled, And Felt Like Everything Was Going To Be All Right. Most Of The Women In Woody Allen Films Feel Like Everything's Awful. I Didn't Understand What To Do. But Some Of The Confusion Is Helpful.

So Far I Haven't Really Been Prominent Enough To Get Critical Attention Focused On Me. So, Of Course, I Fully Expect Bad Reviews, But I Will Be Wracked With Misery As A Result.

51st State Was One That I Loved Doing Because The Character Was So Out There, And In A Way I Was Sad To Leave The Character Behind. I'm Afraid I Could Never Be That Cool In Real Life!

I'm An Optimist By Nature, Myself, I Think.

There's A Whole World Of Bad Tv That's Along Similar Themes - The Cop Drama.

It's Quite Frightening; The Business Of Trying To Be Funny Is Very Hairy. In Comedy, The Potential For Humiliation Is Huge. Trying To Be Funny And Failing Is About The Most Embarrassing Thing You Can Do.

I Want Any Excuse To Come Home. My Dad Is Not A Spring Chicken Any More. If Anyone Says, 'go Buy A Postage Stamp In London,' I'll Go And Do It.

You Do The One Film That You Think Is Terrible, But It's A Big Studio Film And You Hope You'll Get Another Job Because Of It, Because Blah Blah Blah, Whatever It Is. You Know That You Hate It, You Just Couldn't Care Less If It Got Made Because It's Not Something In A Million Years You'd Go And See Yourself. And It Ends Up Being Shite And You Just Knew It Was Shite To Begin With, And It Doesn't Do You Any Favors At All If Someone Thought You Were In Another Shite Film. So I Decided It Doesn't Get Me Anywhere Being Cynical. It's Not That I Want To Be.

I Think Georges Feydeau Said Comedy Is Just Tragedy Speeded Up.

I Want To Discover More Things About Acting.

Accents Are Very Tangible, Blessedly, And If You Have To Do One, It's A Way Of Getting Into Character. I Can Read It Through A Few Times And Pretend I Know What I'm Doing!

I Guess Secrets Are Part Of The Fabric Of Everybody's Lives. I Mean Everybody's Lives, And Guilt Is Part Of The Fabric Of Everybody's Lives.

My Dad Had This Philosophy That If You Tell Children They're Beautiful And Wonderful Then They Believe It, And They Will Be. So I Never Thought I Was Unattractive. But I Was Never One Of The Girls At School Who Had Lots Of Boyfriends.

There Were Moments Where I Was Being Kicked In The Stomach, And Even Though I Had This Brace On To Protect Me, I Still Had To Prepare Myself For It . You Can't Be Relaxed When That's Happening. You Have To Brace Your Muscles. I Can Remember Thinking As It Was About To Happen "wasn't That How Houdini Died?" I Think It Was.

It's Dangerous Talking About Yourself Too Much Because You Find Yourself Talking In Sound Bites.

Finding Yourself

'leonie' Did Get Made And It Was An Extremely Wonderful Experience. I Got To Travel The World. I Filmed For 6 Months - 3 Months In New Orleans And 3 Months In Japan.

Lots Of People There Seemed To Be In Denial, In Absolute Denial, Of Death - Everybody's Pretending That Death Doesn't Happen In L.a.; If You Do Enough Exercise And Take Enough Wheatgrass And Have Your Pill Every Day, You Might Not Die.

Despite Being Extremely Professional, Michael Caine Has A Giggle Which Was Lethal For Me Because Once You Catch His Eyes, Once You Realize The Other Person Is A Giggler Too, It's Curtains.

I Thought A Parent's Job Was To Tell Their Children Not To Go Into Acting As A Profession!

I'm Physically Completely Mal-coordinated. My Best Friend Used To Make Me Run For The Bus Just To Give Herself A Quick, Cheap Laugh Because I Definitely Don't Have That Sophisticated Cool Thing Down.

I Borrowed My Friends Car The Other Day In An Attempt To Persuade My Husband That We Needed A Car And Literally This Is True, In The First Day Of Borrowing The Car, I Got Three Tickets And I Rear-ended It.

I Was Determined Not To Become An American Citizen But I Did It For Completely Cynical Reasons: To Avoid Paying Inheritance Tax In The U.s.

It Is Brilliant Going To The Theatre And Being Forced To Sit And Listen And Think About Life. It Can Be Almost A Near-religious Experience.

I Had Watched 'alfie,' But I Didn't Consider It A Prerequisite. Michael Caine Was Just Extremely Fabulous. He's One Of The Most Professional Actors I've Ever Worked With. I Guess After A Lifetime Of Doing It, You Know What You're Doing. He's Incredibly Uncomplaining, Undemanding.

Los Angeles Is Like A Beauty Parlor At The End Of The Universe.

I Did My Homework And Didn't Go Out Much, And Had A Very Highly Developed Kitsch Fantasy Life Where I Dreamed Of Being A Dancing Girl.

I Have To Say That, Though It Sounds So Superficial, The Accent Really Does Help. I Like Having Accents Preparing For A Part.

You Don't Have To Be Brilliant At Everything. You Just Have To Have The Courage To Put Yourself In The Line Of Fire.

When I'm Panicked About My Love Handles, I Go To The Ymca And Get Obsessed With Kid Rock Videos As I'm On The Running Machine.

Breakfast Is My Favorite Meal. I Cook A Big One For Everyone - Bacon And Eggs. I Own A Lot Of Eggcups.

I'm A Dual Citizen, As Are My Husband And Children. We Have Got Eight Passports Between Us; We're Weighed Down By Them Whenever We Go Anywhere.

Doing Press Is Like Eating At Mcdonald's: While It's Going On It's Vaguely Enjoyable - You're Seduced By Your Own Vanity And Taking Yourself Rather Seriously - But Immediately Afterwards You Feel Sick.

I Had Friends At School, But I Was Never Part Of A Gang And I Dreamed Of That Sense Of Belonging To A Group. You Know, Where People Would Call Me 'em' And Shout Across The Bar, 'em, What Are You Drinking?' After The Show.

The Thing I Miss About L.a. Is Time. I Feel Like I Had Much More Time There, Partly Because No One Is Ever Really Doing Anything.

I Spent A Lot Of Time With A Real Detective, A Lady Detective Inspector Who Was The Only Female Detective Inspector In The Whole Of East London. She And I Hung Out A Lot. She Showed Me What She Did And I Spent Time With Her. So, [she Was] A Lot Of The Inspiration For The Way I Dressed And Sometimes The Dialogue In Those Interview Scenes Where We're Cross Examining And Questioning The Youths And Trying To Get A Confession Out Of Them.

The Harder The Circumstances Under Which You're Making A Movie, Generally The Better The Friends You Make. You're Far Away From Home And So You're Kind Of Lonely, And You End Up All Gravitating Towards Each Other And The Bar Every Night. It Tends To Be Inversely Proportionate To The Comfort Level On The Movie, How Close You Become To Everybody.

I Already Feel A Bit Annoyed At Myself For Writing Screenplays. It's A Bit, I Don't Know, Model-singer-dancer-actress That Went To A Posh School. There's Something Too Weirdly Predictable About It.

In My First Few Years As An Actor, I Took One Terrible Tv Job After Another. But Even As I Laughed Off My Awful Roles And Made Fun Of Myself To Friends, My Work Made Me Cringe - I Dreaded Anyone's Seeing It. I Was Crushed That I Wasn't Doing Anything I Was Proud Of.

The Ratings Thing Is The Real Issue. It Really Hurts Movies. For Example, In Redbelt, I Smoked. The Whole Plot Of My Character Was Based On The Fact That I Was A Smoker. And Then They Discovered That Just By Having Someone Smoking In The Movie, It Immediately Makes The Rating An R. So They Had To Cut Out Every Shot Where I Had A Cigarette In My Hand And It Totally Affected The Performance. That Was Very Frustrating To David Mamet As Well. I Can Remember Him Saying, "it's A Nightmare."

I'm Always Sort Of Anticipating Life Being Difficult, But On A Basic Level, That's Sort Of On The Surface, On A Basic Level, I'm Optimistic In The Sense That I Think It's All Going To Be Alright In The End.

It's Censorship, Really. I Don't See Why It's Not Okay For Somebody Under The Age Of 17 Watch Someone Smoking When They Can Watch Someone Have Their Brains Blown Out? My Son And I Were Watching An Ad On The Television The Other Day. And It Said, "rated R." He Said, "what Does 'rated R' Mean?" I Said, "god, I Don't Know. You Can't Watch It Unless You're Over A Certain Age."

Every Time You Start A New Job, You're Starting From The Beginning Again And It's Terrifying. And You Feel Like You're Going To Be Fired And Told To Go Home And Never To Darken The Doors Of These People Ever Again.

My Take On People And On The Characters I Play In Transsiberian, The Role You're Looking For, Is That Everybody Is More Than One Thing. We're Many Things, All Of Us, And There Are Times When We Are Capable Of Great Levity And Jolliness And Then There Are Times When The Opposite Is True.

I Am A Good Mother And I Feel Proud About It.

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