Quote

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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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
Hands
Lakes
Come
Shoes
Feel
Dance
Strap
Feels
Taught
Swan
Way
Hand
Swans
Would
Acting
Violin
Felt
Lake
Didn
Toes

More quotes by Ellen Barkin

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I like being married. I like taking care of people, having someone to make dinner for.
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.
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I guess if you're lucky enough not to have to pay your rent, then you or I take much more seriously the kind of work that I do, what it takes for me to leave two teenagers of my own and six stepchildren and a husband and four grandchildren.
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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.
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The more powerful you become, some people especially don't like it that you're a woman. I stick up for myself.
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?
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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.
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There have been advances in the technology of beauty that I think are great. & you know what? Use it.
Ellen Barkin
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I have skinny genes. My mother weighs 90 pounds.
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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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
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I just would never go audition, and yet I was in very visible places where people would come looking for actors. I say I'm lazy, though I'm sure if I were in therapy for a lot of years, it would turn out to be a lot more than laziness. After awhile, it was, like, too embarrassing for me not to go on auditions. I had to be humiliated into it.
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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There's no slow build anymore where you get a little part, then you get a little better part, then a better part, until one day your agent calls you us and says, 'guess what, you're a movie star,' and you say, 'Thank you!'
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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My nickname was Skinabo - skin and bones.
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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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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Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.
Ellen Barkin