Annette Bening

A lot of directors in my experience are very receptive. They see what you do first, and then they want to find…

— Annette Bening

I wanted to be a classical actress. I plodded along. I went to junior college in San Francisco, I was in a…

— Annette Bening

All of modern acting comes from Stanislavski, who was the Russian partner to Chekhov. When Chekhov was writing his plays, Stanislavski was…

— Annette Bening

There's love for your parents, your family, your spouse, your partner, your friends, but the nature of the connection you have with…

— Annette Bening

I think where I've instinctively found myself is that I am somewhat guarded in my public life. Being interviewed or being photographed…

— Annette Bening

I didn't picture myself as a movie actress. I began to think about it around college. I remember thinking, 'Well somebody has…

— Annette Bening

When I started, I was a theater actress, and there were roles that I couldn't imagine not playing, like Rosalind in 'As…

— Annette Bening

We all have our insecurity and that's normal. And you have to learn to accept that about being an artistic person or…

— Annette Bening

I do have to take care of myself, not only because I'm in the movies, just for mental health reasons. I exercise…

— Annette Bening

I don't see myself as competing with other actresses. I mean, I went through a time when I was in New York,…

— Annette Bening

I knew I wanted children in my life. The acting was always in relation to it. Life at home is chaos. They're…

— Annette Bening

There's so much of our psychological makeup which is impermissible for us to explore because it's inappropriate or perverse or scary. I'm…

— Annette Bening

To me idealized characters are so boring to play, especially having grown up in the classical theater. That's a great experience, but…

— Annette Bening

I think what's interesting about the whole paparazzi thing is that unless you're Brad Pitt or Madonna, you can pretty much avoid…

— Annette Bening

It's kind of a mystery to me, as far as my own life experiences and what I've witnessed - why some people…

— Annette Bening

Maybe that's one of the virtues of the 2016 election that we're going through is all of this racism and xenophobia and…

— Annette Bening

With movies, so much of it is, 'Who is the human being that is going to be directing it?' Because it is…

— Annette Bening

I fall in love with all the people I'm working with, women, directors, everybody. As actors, that's actually one of the real…

— Annette Bening

As an actor, you want to be open to the unexpected. So in order to be open to that, you do have…

— Annette Bening

I like that I've been through things, that when something happens, it resonates with something that already happened. It's not that things…

— Annette Bening

It used to be the one or the other, right? You were the 'bad girl' or the 'good girl' or the 'bad…

— Annette Bening