Quotes

Everyone said that if you want to be a real actor, go to New York. If you want to sell out, go to L.A. And I thought, "I want to sell out!"

A way you can get really good abs in film is you get your makeup artist to paint shadows -- faux washboard. But if you see me in a movie and I have great abs, it means I have a great body double.

Spending time with Jim on a stage is an incredibly weird experience! I found myself unable to act seriously! Hard to shoot with the master of comedy!

I still haven't made a film that defines who I am.

If I was like some of the characters I played, I'd probably be dead by now.

I was the most popular person in my family. I was like a celebrity. All my sisters would fight over who got to sleep with me. I was always thinking up all the games, telling all the stories, and had the best clothes. I was the entertainment. We didn't have television and we didn't have movies, and I was always the boss. I'd write these plays and I'd make everybody be in them. Once, I had this idea that we'd put all the beds on top of one another so there would be only one bed, but it would be a really big, tall bed. Then we'd take turns sleeping on that bed while everybody else slept on the floor. Like for a month. Everyone thought that was a great idea. I don't know why. I guess because we grew up way, way out in the country and we never had any neighbors.

[on her curves and her frequent cleavage baring characters] People are always accusing me of having implants.

[on Seed of Chucky (2004)] It's really gruesome, but it's a heartwarming story.

[on Madonna]: We went to a club once. The doorman opened the rope for me but closed it on Madonna - he didn't recognize her. She wouldn't have gotten in, but I put in a good word for her. (In Style magazine, September 2006)

[on her new poker career while on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992)] Everyone had a nickname. Mine couldn't be Jennifer "the boob" Tilly!

That Hollywood thing, where everybody hugs and kisses everybody else--I always stiffen. It's an assumed familiarity. It's phony.

[in 1996] Meg and I didn't have any connections in Hollywood. I think it's amazing that two girls who grew up really poor in rural Canada came to Hollywood and have successful careers and get nominated for Oscars out of nowhere--out of an idea I had. The thing is, we're tremendously aggressive; we say, "This is what I want, why can't that be me?". I just knew I had to be an actress. I had some vision--this was when I was seven or eight--of myself at 40, a housewife with curlers in her hair, watching TV and crying because I had never followed my dream of being an actress. I always remember having that vision.

[sex scenes] I know actors are meant to say, '"Oh, sex scenes are awful! It's always a terrible day to have to get through." But I love sex scenes! Who wouldn't love sex scenes? It's an opportunity to get naked and fool around with somebody that's not your partner. And all the people standing around, that makes it even more fun!

[in 1996] The first time I met Quentin Tarantino was so funny. He said, "Jennifer, there's something I've always wanted to ask you." And I'm thinking, "Which of my distinguished movies is he going to ask about?". He goes, "Moving Violations (1985)! How did you do that scene in the anti-gravity chamber?". I thought he was making fun of me, but then I realized he was serious. My friend who was with me said, "How come I've never heard you mention 'Moving Violations'?". So I brushed it off and said, "Well, it was like my first movie." Quentin went, "No, no, no, the first movie you ever did was No Small Affair (1984), with Jon Cryer and Demi Moore." And I'm thinking, "If you weren't Quentin Tarantino, I'd think you were a stalker".

[her career] I didn't become the greatest actress of all time and win multiple Oscars, but I'm super happy where I'm at. Not a lot of people have had this kind of longevity, and there's not many parts out there for women my age that are as rich and varied. I get to have sex scenes and kill people and pretend to be a master criminal. I mean, can you imagine me playing a grandma?

[playing poker on TV] I always just want to look cute, so I wear a lot of push-up bras and low-cut tops. The thing is, if people are really playing poker, they don't care. Nothing looks better to them than a pair of aces. They're not looking at your pair. They're looking at their pair.

Alcohol! My favorite time of the evening!

[professional poker] Poker is the most unhealthy lifestyle. You're in the smoky environment in the casino, and you eat the most horrible crap. You don't even get up to go to dinner. They bring you food in a tray, and you're sitting at the table playing with one hand and eating with the other. God forbid you miss a hand! I think I aged ten years since I started playing poker.

[poker being very competitive] I'll see the young kid who's taking his college tuition to enter the tournament, and then I knock him out. I feel horrible. You have to get really hardhearted. Sometimes I'll go easy on some really old guy, and then he just really sticks it to me a half-hour later. He's really ungracious about it, and I think, Oooh, I should have never let him live. I should have snuffed him out when I had the chance.