Annette Bening Quotes

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Annette Bening

Profession : Actress

Birth : May 29, 1958

My sister and I fought a lot when we were kids. I was the little bratty sister, and she would kind of walk away, not wanting to be associated with me.

Annette Bening

My dad was in the life insurance business, so I learned about selling when I was about 14 because I started working as a secretary.

Annette Bening

There's no question that you can explore aspects of yourself through roles that you play, and you get a chance to investigate yourself; that's healthy, and it's therapeutic in a way. But if you're indulging yourself, exploration at the cost of the story or the project, that's not good.

Annette Bening

It's hard to make a living in this business. Unions aren't as strong as they used to be. For a journeyman actor - someone who doesn't have a famous name but has consistent work in theater or film or TV - it has become harder to get through, harder to raise a family.

Annette Bening

Getting all dressed up and putting on fancy clothes - all of that's a great thing, but oddly, it doesn't really have a lot to do with acting most of the time.

Annette Bening

I act, but I am a mother first and wife second.

Annette Bening

I never thought my private life would be newsworthy.

Annette Bening

I had never been attracted to younger guys. I had, from my late teens, always liked men who were older than me.

Annette Bening

I feel that certain things are best kept inside a family and not discussed with anyone else.

Annette Bening

I think people have a right to their point of view.

Annette Bening

I saw a Shakespeare play when I was - I guess I was in junior high. And I just fell in love with the theater because, for me, it was a combination of big ideas and feeling.

Annette Bening

I feel really lucky that I'm able to pursue the work that I love. I want my children to see that. I want them to have that for themselves, something that they love, that they do, that they pursue in their lives as a way of growing and learning.

Annette Bening

Everybody has a public life, and they have their own private life. Everybody has their secrets. Everybody has their own private, you know, agonies as well as joys. And that's what great drama, whether it's the movies or the theater, that's what it shows.

Annette Bening

Anybody who has children and children who are well feels a sense of responsibility towards parents and kids and families that are struggling and that aren't well.

Annette Bening

Anyone who is drawn in broad strokes either negatively or positively is generally not very interesting to play.

Annette Bening

Critics have a responsibility to put things in a cultural and sociological or political context. That is important.

Annette Bening

Sometimes you're reading something, and you don't know it will be important in your life. You're reading this script, and you start to get involved. It's not an intellectual experience.

Annette Bening

Every person's opinion, in a way, does matter.

Annette Bening

I feel very lucky I don't have to be a critic.

Annette Bening

If you can open people's hearts first, then maybe people's minds get opened after that.

Annette Bening