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I can be very snobby about fiction, especially contemporary fiction. I can be kind of overly demanding, I think. But this is, I think, a good time. A lot of fiction comes out right now. So, I like reading the memoir. I love memoir, the biography, auto bio.

Annette Bening

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Annette Bening
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: May 29
Actor
Actress
Film Actor
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Topeka
Kansas
Annette Carol Bening
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More quotes by Annette Bening

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That's one of the most important things about acting is not just when you're speaking but when you're taking in from someone else. So I often go to the theater and I'm watching the person who's not talking. I love that.
Annette Bening
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If you're an actor, you have to find a way to make peace with all the media attention.
Annette Bening
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I love watching people listen. And on film often some of the best moments if you think about favorite moments on film, often the person isn't even talking.
Annette Bening
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Things either become unclear in a story or they're just ambiguous with no real point. So defined gray area with clarity that also works in the narrative, that's tricky.
Annette Bening
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And if there's anything movies can do in a way that I just love, and I love as an audience is, Show me something I don't know about. Show me something I haven't seen.
Annette Bening
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I think where I've instinctively found myself is that I am somewhat guarded in my public life. Being interviewed or being photographed or just in public attention, I have a certain reserve. But when I'm working I feel like I'm very open. At least I like to believe that I feel like nothing is held back when I'm in front of a camera. That's my job.
Annette Bening
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I don't see myself as competing with other actresses. I mean, I went through a time when I was in New York, and I was going to lots of auditions and trying to get parts, but even then, you're not really competing with the other actresses. There is a competition going on, but it's not like something you can win in that way.
Annette Bening
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We're not all evil or all good, and we all make mistakes to one degree or another.
Annette Bening
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We all perform our lives in a way. And the actor is a perfect metaphor to get at that theme of how do we find our authentic selves? And that we all - whether we're actors or not - perform ourselves. As a way of searching. As a way of fumbling around and trying to say, is this my voice? Is this who I am?
Annette Bening
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Movie is a near art form. It's showbiz and people want to make money. And generally people are financing things because they think it will make money whether it's a cable news show, a cable show, or a feature film, or whatever it is. So that's the part of it that drives it, I think, is really the dollar.
Annette Bening
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Why I love acting is that it's totally subjective and I like that. I like that.
Annette Bening
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Right now, I love the fact that I have so many opportunities, but I know this privileged position cannot last. That doesn't mean that I'll stop working. I picture myself as an old actress doing cameos in films with people saying: Isn't that that Bening woman?
Annette Bening
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It used to be the one or the other, right? You were the 'bad girl' or the 'good girl' or the 'bad mother' or the 'good mother,' 'the horrible businesswoman who eschewed her children' or 'the earth mother who was happy to be at home baking pies,' all of that stuff that we sort of knew was a lie.
Annette Bening
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I think what's interesting about the whole paparazzi thing is that unless you're Brad Pitt or Madonna, you can pretty much avoid it. You know when you're going to an opening that you will be photographed, so that's fine. And you know the restaurants that have paparazzi, so you don't go to them.
Annette Bening
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In a film, if you can capture what's going on underneath, you can begin to make a connection between the character and the people watching it.
Annette Bening
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Maybe that's one of the virtues of the 2016 election that we're going through is all of this racism and xenophobia and sexism and whatever else you want to say is being exposed, maybe that's a blessing. I'm trying to look at the positive side of what's been happening in our country, which is frightening.
Annette Bening
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I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.
Annette Bening
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Movies are details. Movies are billions of details that come into a certain moment. So with all the years and months and weeks and days and minutes of preparation, then finally you're shooting and it all comes down to these moments when you're shooting, which is sort of insane when you think about it. The details make a difference.
Annette Bening
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Oh, honey, I'm from Oklahoma! This is who I am - middle-class all the way!
Annette Bening
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All of modern acting comes from Stanislavski, who was the Russian partner to Chekhov. When Chekhov was writing his plays, Stanislavski was running his theater. And Stanislavski really was the first inventor of modern acting and then everything that came out of the method and Stella Adler and the great teachers really came out of him.
Annette Bening