Ellen Barkin Quotes

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.

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.

People tend to remember my performances, not me.

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.

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!’

I am to a fault an introspective person. But I am not a reflective person – except for a big mistake, and then I really think about it.

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.

When a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, so desperately wants a baby what she‘s looking for is the kind of unconditional love a child gives a mother and a mother gives a child.

I’m tenacious, I think – I know – and I do also have a quality where if you tell me I can’t do something, if I know I can’t do it I’m the first to raise my hand and say, ‘I can’t do that.’ But there is a big Bronx, New York Jew in me that just says, ‘Really? Really? You think I – yes, I can. I can do it. I can do it.’

There is a certain androgyny to my appeal.

Skinniness is not your friend when you’re over 40. I’d like to gain a good 10 pounds, but I did always have a fat, round face that plagued me when I was young. When I started to make movies, I couldn’t look at myself.

Old is the new sexy.

I eat cheese and salami and a lot of fried chicken. I eat a big bag of oatmeal-raisin cookies every night and I don’t gain weight. I still look OK as long as I’m dressed.

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.

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.

My nickname was Skinabo – ‘skin and bones.’

I would love to do a television show in New York City.

A successful marriage isn’t necessarily one that lasts until you’re dead.

Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

‘Normal Heart‘ was my most transcendent moment as an actor.

My husband thinks he’s compromising if we have one cook instead of three.

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.

But one of the hardest things for me to do was to access anger. I could do it on stage. But when I did it on film it was hard for me. That probably has to do with the intimacy of film. And my own personal issues with expressing anger. So I had to learn how to do that.

When they make a woman‘s picture, they treat it like a ‘woman’s picture.’ In the ’40s, they didn’t treat Joan Crawford movies like that, but as the big movies of their year. I’m upset that there’s no ‘Terminator’ with a woman in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role. Because that would make just as much money.

I have skinny genes. My mother weighs 90 pounds.

My first movie was ‘Diner.’ My second movie was ‘Tender Mercies.’ I did really good work.

I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It’s a craft. It’s like being a ballerina or a violinist.

The more powerful you become, some people especially don’t like it that you’re a woman. I stick up for myself.

Men who love their mothers treat women wonderfully. And they have enormous respect for women.

I have huge hands and feet. I’m 5’6″ and wear a size 10 shoe.