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Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

Ellen Barkin

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Ellen Barkin
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: April 16
Actress
Film Actor
Film Producer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
The Bronx
New York City
Ellen Rona Barkin
Actors
Away
Art
Matter
Giving
Secrets
Theatre
Secret
Acting

More quotes by Ellen Barkin

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I'm just curious, who's more fit to raise a child? A loving committed same-sex couple or an unmarried 15-year-old with no income and really no skills to parent?
Ellen Barkin
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The way Hollywood portrays mothers - you're either all good and saint-like, or you're all bad. And I think the real honesty of motherhood is not given a voice in movies. I miss that as an audience member.
Ellen Barkin
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I'd never say I'll never have a facelift, but I'm way too scared of looking like a different person. I have no philosophical or political position on plastic surgery I just don't want to look crazy. And I don't like not being able to tell how old someone is: It's creepy.
Ellen Barkin
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I studied acting for 10 years before I went for an audition. I studied with Lee Strasberg and Actors Studio teachers, and went to the High School of Performing Arts.
Ellen Barkin
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Men who love their mothers treat women wonderfully. And they have enormous respect for women.
Ellen Barkin
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My first movie was 'Diner.' My second movie was 'Tender Mercies.' I did really good work.
Ellen Barkin
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Would you just strap some toe shoes on and dance 'Swan Lake?' No. Would you just put a violin in your hand and - ? No. I felt that way about acting, and I was taught to feel that way. I didn't come to it on my own.
Ellen Barkin
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I don’t want to be a mentor in my bedroom.
Ellen Barkin
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I remember my first friend who got sick. It was 1981, and the disease was called the gay cancer. I don't think the word 'AIDS' came out until '84. I just remember it being terrifying as more people got sick. We didn't know how you could catch it, you heard all kinds of crazy things.
Ellen Barkin
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Gabriel Byrne is an extraordinary human being. We have two extraordinary kids and we work at it. We were always friends. He stuck by me through very hard times, and I hope he'd say the same about me.
Ellen Barkin
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A successful marriage isn't necessarily one that lasts until you're dead.
Ellen Barkin
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I'm Method trained. How is this character like me? What does she think of her mother? What does her mother think of her? It's like construction, and then, yes, you hope you're talented and that the universe aligns and captures the kind of laborer's work you've done and whatever else sprinkles down on you, and it's all caught on film or onstage.
Ellen Barkin
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I have skinny genes. My mother weighs 90 pounds.
Ellen Barkin
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My husband thinks he's compromising if we have one cook instead of three.
Ellen Barkin
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When I played Leonardo DiCaprio's mother, they liked that Leo had very hooded eyes and a rounded nose with a ball. They said, They look like they could be mother and son.
Ellen Barkin
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I wish I had a little more ambition. But then what would I do? Turn down more roles with more vehemence? Me no likey worky.
Ellen Barkin
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I have no problem being 53. Why would I want to be 35 again? I want to discover who I am in my 50s. And if I tried too hard to look younger, it would seem that I was uncomfortable with who I am, wouldn't it?
Ellen Barkin
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You've got a movie where the pro-choice family gives their daughter no choice. The pro-life family murders. What seems to be the good mother, the kind of hippie painter, sweet and cute mother has no love for her daughter really.
Ellen Barkin
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There is a certain androgyny to my appeal.
Ellen Barkin
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It's no stretch to picture me standing next to Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. Those are ethnic New York men. I'm an ethnic New York girl. Everybody has their limitations. I mean, I should never be cast as Queen Elizabeth.
Ellen Barkin