Top 37 Gena Rowlands Quotes
#1. I love independent filmmaking. I don't agree with a lot of it, but that's the point.
Gena Rowlands
#2. I just loved Bette Davis and the fact that I had a chance to work with her [on the 1979 TV movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter] was momentous.
Gena Rowlands
#3. It was more freedom than I think most people get when they're starting out - or even when they're not starting out. He [John Cassavetes] did his thing and I did whatever I thought.
Gena Rowlands
#4. A Woman Under the Influence was my favorite. I loved doing that. And it was challenging.
Gena Rowlands
#5. It was a period when live TV was just starting and getting popular and they took it seriously too. Not so much like TV now. They did [Ernst] Hemingway and [William] Faulkner - and they're all wonderful artists and it just was very creative at that time.
Gena Rowlands
#6. I like subtitles. Sometimes I wish all movies had subtitles.
Gena Rowlands
#7. I can never have a poker face. Anybody looking at me can tell exactly what I'm thinking.
Gena Rowlands
#9. It was a very hard play [Woman Under the Influence] to do every night. And John Cassavetes said, "Don't worry. Don't even think about it, you're right. I hadn't thought of that." He said, "Just forget it."
Gena Rowlands
#10. I always do make a back story for myself, but I'm not sure how necessary it is. I just like to.
Gena Rowlands
#11. Paddy Chayefksy was writing and it was a time where everybody was happy to be there [on TV].
Gena Rowlands
#12. You just can't complain about being alive. It's self-indulgent to be unhappy. When asked how she has coped since husband's death.
Gena Rowlands
#13. I loved Bette Davis when I was little and when I was big and when I got old.
Gena Rowlands
#14. John Cassavetes was a year ahead of me but we met there. What you do when you are at a school for drama, you do a play as opposed to a final. Anyone who wanted to come could just come. So he came, and I can't remember the name of the play, of course, it was a long time ago.
Gena Rowlands
#15. If I have something I like to forget, then I forget it.
Gena Rowlands
#16. After you play a part, you think of it as your own.
Gena Rowlands
#17. Every sacred cow in the business has to do with economics.
Gena Rowlands
#18. I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which was in Carnegie Hall, which itself was exciting - just to walk into it.
Gena Rowlands
#19. When I went to my parents I was at the University of Wisconsin, and I just couldn't wait anymore to go be an actress.
Gena Rowlands
#20. The thing about acting is you don't want to let on how enjoyable it is or then everybody would want to become an actress. But it really is. It's a pleasure to go and exchange your identity.
Gena Rowlands
#21. When I was in Middle of The Night, MGM came and offered me a contract and I said that when I got out of the play, I'd like to try it. I didn't know anything about making movies but I was certainly finding it interesting.
Gena Rowlands
#23. He[John Cassavetes] was just being an actor. A very successful actor, especially in live TV. He did many wonderful performances.
Gena Rowlands
#24. Never in my life have I ever even thought about anything else [ being anything other than an actress].
Gena Rowlands
#25. So many people mistakenly think that the rest of his [John Cassavetes] pictures and the ones we did were improvised, which isn't true. He wrote all the rest of them.
Gena Rowlands
#26. [John Cassavetes] came backstage afterwards and introduced himself and we talked a bit, and then went for a little coffee at the Russian Tea Room next door. It just ... started.
Gena Rowlands
#27. So I went home and I told my mom that I wanted to quit and be an actress and she said, "Huh, that sounds fascinating. It's wonderful!" [laughs] And I told my father and he literally said, "I don't care if you want to be an elephant trainer if it makes you happy."
Gena Rowlands
#28. I read the script of [Woman Under the Influence ] 50 times. And I thought about it. And then I did it.
Gena Rowlands
#29. John Cassavetes wrote A Woman Under the Influence as a play. He said, "Hey, I wrote you a play." And I said, "Great, let's read it." I read it and I said, "John, I couldn't do this every night and twice on Wednesday and Saturday".
Gena Rowlands
#30. So after the Shadows he acted and directed. And it worked out very nicely. And he wrote, obviously.
Gena Rowlands
#31. Of course, much easier to do a film when you're doing an extremely emotional part than it is doing it onstage over and over especially.
Gena Rowlands
#32. I think I have the only parents in the world who would not have said something against become an actress.
Gena Rowlands
#33. Bette Davis had very strong opinions and was not afraid to express them. She wasn't afraid of anything that I ever saw. And she was so funny. She's just funny and she was laughing all the time.
Gena Rowlands
#34. Of course I would change anything if John Cassavetes said so - it's his script. But he was very easy about that.
Gena Rowlands
#35. I think that I was lucky to have that period of time [ like coming to New York] because everything was so exciting and new.
Gena Rowlands
#36. John [Cassavetes] loved actors. He gave them a lot of freedom. So if something came up that a certain actor just felt at the moment and said - that kind of improvisation he would accept. He gave very little direction.
Gena Rowlands
#37. People in independent film have a passion; they're not in it for the money.
Gena Rowlands
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