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" I'm a little more extreme than a homebody. Unless there's some event I really have to go to, I don't like to leave my house. "
Ellen Barkin
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" My nickname was Skinabo - 'skin and bones.' "
Ellen Barkin
Nickname
Bones
Skin
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
My Own
Own
Personal
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Treat
Woman
Picture
" You've got a movie where the pro-choice family gives their daughter no choice. The pro-life family murders. What seems to be the good mother, the kind of hippie painter, sweet and cute mother has no love for her daughter really. "
Ellen Barkin
Daughter
Mother
Love
" Gabriel Byrne is an extraordinary human being. We have two extraordinary kids and we work at it. We were always friends. He stuck by me through very hard times, and I hope he'd say the same about me. "
Ellen Barkin
Me
Friends
Hope
" I guess I worry about weird existential things, like how do we spend our final act. This is a very emotional question. I can't answer it without crying. I think, You're 56 years old, what did you do? You raised two good kids. What am I going to do now that is as meaningful as that? I don't know the answer yet. "
Ellen Barkin
Good
You
Worry
" Acting is a matter of giving away secrets. "
Ellen Barkin
Acting
Secrets
Matter
" There is a certain androgyny to my appeal. "
Ellen Barkin
Certain
Androgyny
Appeal
" I'm not limited by my gender, and I don't think anyone else should be either. Because I am the age I am and I sort of rode the crest of the first profound post-suffragette feminists, I wasn't fighting to burn my bra. Those women fought that fight just seconds before I came into womanhood. "
Ellen Barkin
Fighting
I Am
Think
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
I Wish
Down
Wish
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Me
Good
Friend
" I have skinny genes. My mother weighs 90 pounds. "
Ellen Barkin
Genes
Pounds
Skinny
" I like being married. I like taking care of people, having someone to make dinner for. "
Ellen Barkin
Like
Someone
People
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Acting
Teachers
School
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Lake
Acting
Feel
" I'm Method trained. How is this character like me? What does she think of her mother? What does her mother think of her? It's like construction, and then, yes, you hope you're talented and that the universe aligns and captures the kind of laborer's work you've done and whatever else sprinkles down on you, and it's all caught on film or onstage. "
Ellen Barkin
Mother
Me
Hope
" 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.' "
Ellen Barkin
Quality
Me
New York
" People tend to remember my performances, not me. "
Ellen Barkin
People
Tend
Remember
" 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!' "
Ellen Barkin
Thank You
Better
Day
" My husband thinks he's compromising if we have one cook instead of three. "
Ellen Barkin
He
Cook
Three
" It's no stretch to picture me standing next to Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. Those are ethnic New York men. I'm an ethnic New York girl. Everybody has their limitations. I mean, I should never be cast as Queen Elizabeth. "
Ellen Barkin
Men
Girl
Me
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
She
Child
Looking
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Look
Political
Say
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Voice
Good
Honesty
" Old is the new sexy. "
Ellen Barkin
New
Sexy
Old
" I have no problem being 53. Why would I want to be 35 again? I want to discover who I am in my 50s. And if I tried too hard to look younger, it would seem that I was uncomfortable with who I am, wouldn't it? "
Ellen Barkin
Look
Want
Problem
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Work
Me
Husband
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
People
Think
Remember
" 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. "
Ellen Barkin
Night
Bag
Long
" When I played Leonardo DiCaprio's mother, they liked that Leo had very hooded eyes and a rounded nose with a ball. They said, They look like they could be mother and son. "
Ellen Barkin
Said
Son
Eyes