I wanted to play a TV detective because it's a rite of passage; I wanted to experience every area of acting. I haven't done comedy or as much Shakespeare as I had intended. — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
I am a pathetic and gushing Nick Hornby fan, and I wanted to be in High Fidelity, and I wanted to be in About A Boy, and those two directors - one who's a dear friend, and one who has never cast me in anything, despite my pleading... So there was another Nick Hornby script going around being cast by… — Olivia Williams Copy Share
My very first friend was my stand-in, who's a very dear friend to this day, and she kind of saved my ass. She told… — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
It was as big as a Beatles concert, I guess. Friends was unbelievably popular in Britain, and it was incredibly exciting. I had never… — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
I guess maybe I was hired to play in the Doll House because of my dinner scene in The Sixth Sense, which has been scrutinized a thousand times as to whether you know Bruce Willis is dead, or whether I'm talking to myself. I think that maybe if that could be my forte, to do a scene and be able… — Olivia Williams Copy Share
There are movies where I've walked onto the set and felt, "This is home," and I'm confident in myself and my work, but that… — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
I love the ups and downs and the eccentricities of my career. The worst movies have produced some of the best friendships. — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
For me, selfishly, The Postman didn't kill my career. It meant I didn't shoot straight and painfully into the limelight, but Rushmore came out of it. No one would have known where I was to cast me in Rushmore had I not been in The Postman. Because they shared a producer. Nor would I have been in The Sixth Sense.… — Olivia Williams Copy Share
As an actor, you're just taking temperature. I am anyway, all the time, and responding appropriately. I was again cast very last-minute for Rushmore and met Wes Anderson, this quite physically and socially awkward man who didn't really talk to me much, a precocious and intelligent young boy. And Bill Murray. And we were sort of left in this bizarre… — Olivia Williams Copy Share
Ewan McGregor and I said this to each other after we saw The Ghost Writer. Every time Roman Polanski did a "No, no, no!," he was right. It was really as if a sculptor was asked to sculpt the embodiment of despair - that was the attitude he would strike. But as with every sort of inspiring teacher you ever… — Olivia Williams Copy Share
My parents' long and happy marriage was a great ideal to live up to, but a tough one. — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
Ewan McGregor is a very genial and entertaining man, and Pierce Brosnan is possibly the nicest man in the world. Actually, it was quite a genial set The Ghost Writer, but the weather and the colors and the actual surroundings were oppressive. But it was a created atmosphere. What was so striking is that Roman Polanski had his crew from… — Olivia Williams Copy Share
The excruciating moments of drama are when people are allowed to show or say what they feel. — Olivia Williams Copy Share Image
