Quotes

There are so many avenues of performing. I'm not interested in the form of musical theater unless it's something like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), which is a blast.

I don't know many women who can relate to Sharon Stone and the kind of movies she does. I don't know a lot of guys who can relate to Tom Cruise's movies because they're on a kind of fantastic level. I like movies I can relate to.

[on Sex and the City (1998)] The show is celebrating what it's like to be a woman. We do things people think about but don't vocalize. It gives men and women permission to talk in a way that is healthy.

I've been playing sexually aware women most of my life. At this point, I expected to be playing moms and wives. It's exciting to play a femme fatale.

[on her role in Crossroads (2002), where she plays Britney Spears' mother, who abandons her daughter as a baby and later rejects her as a teen] It was one of the hardest jobs in my life. I had to be mean to Britney Spears. She is such a little Southern sweetie who is only 20. She was so nervous and so well-prepared, and I had to reject her on screen because I'm her horrible mother who has left her.

I'm finding now in my 40s that the less makeup I wear, the better. I think softer is better as you get older. With everything. Except men.

I prefer younger men. In some ways, they are much more open to a woman being stronger and independent then some of the men my age.

To me, 15 minutes worth of absolute genius in a film is so much better than two hours of mediocrity. I would rather pay to see something different like that.

People search me out, whether it's on a beach in Australia or walking down the street in New York, running after me and crying, "I had cancer diagnosed when your character was going through it, and you saved my emotional state at the time because I felt frozen." It's both amazing and devastating, because as an actress I imagined what it would be like - but these women's hair actually did fall out, they didn't have skullcaps and make-up.

The scene where Samantha takes her wig off when she is suffering from breast cancer, and throws it across the room wasn't in the script, it was something spontaneous I did [on Sex and the City (1998)]. Samantha's wigs became just another accessory. We didn't want the storyline to feel like "Oh my God, we're going to get her head shaved." Despite what was happening to her, we felt that her character could withstand it and so you went through it with her. She carried off the afro wigs, the pink wigs, it was really fun. Obviously, there was a serious side to that storyline, as well, and I got some very intimate responses.

The clothes in Sex and the City (1998) were a blast! My favourite part was working with Patricia Field, the costume designer. It was just insane. My wardrobe was more outrageous than raunchy. Yes, the colours were bright and the necklines were super-low, but my behaviour was more daring than my wardrobe. I think some of the other characters' choices were more, "Soho trash queens", but Samantha was a professional woman who worked and lived uptown, so she was always well put together. For the first season, I had a connection at Yves Saint-Laurent, and I wore YSL suits with a brooch or a hat, or a bag that was kind of fun or zing, but never too raunchy.

What I wear is a reflection of where I am going and how I am feeling. If I'm in a good mood, it's got to be cashmere and jeans - just something comfy, soft and warm. When I'm down, I might find something that I haven't worn for a while that was bought for me - or wear a brooch or a pair of shoes that are like old friends. If you look closely, you know a lot about someone by what they wear. Costumes are like fitting into a skin, whatever the period is, and I have never played anyone that had actually existed before, so my role in My Boy Jack (2007) was really exciting.

I'm 51 and I think I look my age, but I don't want to be 20 any more or even 30 or 40. Besides, I'm too terrified to get any proper work so I've had just little things done. I have a big crease between my eyebrows and I use Botox to get rid of that, but that's kind of it. I'm scared of surgery because I don't want to look in the mirror and not recognise who's looking back. I don't want to be in a room, and to have people turn when I leave and say, "What happened?".

I've seen some women who are not particularly attractive but they have an assurance, and there's something so attractive about someone who doesn't have to work so hard. Still, I really like it when my boyfriend makes suggestions about what I wear. I like him going into the closet and taking out the cowboy boots, and finding the white jeans, and sometimes I'll be wearing my hair up and he will say "You know what, put the ponytail a little higher.".

I tend to look somewhere other than the media for my definition of what is beautiful. Is that a heavily retouched 18-year-old or a 40-year-old on that front cover? I don't think so; nobody looks like that. I look at people such as Helen Mirren or Judi Dench, these amazing women who look great, but they look like their age, and I think why would anyone want to lower themselves to look like an alien? Sex appeal is all about confidence, and that comes from self-knowledge.

I'm inspired by actresses like Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe. You can't teach what they do.

There's no better feeling than when you know that you're going to be on stage each night, trying to make the part better and different for an audience. That's just the way I am. I don't think I'm going to change now.

It's no use saying (the cast of Sex and the City (1998)) are best friends - because we're not. And most of my work has been outside New York, so I haven't been around. They would have had to travel to see me and nobody did. But it felt like no time had passed when we met up again, even though everyone seemed nerve-racked.

When I finally expressed my sexual frustrations to girlfriends, to my amazement many of them were going through the same problems. You just can't tell, because it's not widely discussed. It takes a lot of courage to admit, even to yourself, that you're not getting satisfaction from your husband or boyfriend.

[on signing, at age 18, a long-term contract with Otto Preminger] It was an archaic system. You were, basically, under the control of one man and his whims. He wasn't easy and it wasn't an easy time. He wasn't a nurturing director and I thought, "Maybe I don't want to be a film actor, after all.".

[on the end of Sex and the City (1998)] My job came to an end, and it was awful to say goodbye to such a great character. As far as I was concerned, I was sacked. It was the end. I had dedicated myself to the show, doing countless 17-hour days, and I had detached myself from (then-husband) Mark Levinson.

I am no size zero or super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.

I've been in love for most of my life, but that love has been for my work.

In Canada's Pacific Northwest, where I grew up, the beaches were strewn with thousands of fugitive logs that had escaped the water transporters bringing them down toward the prospering lumber sawmills and pulp and paper factories all around Vancouver Island.

On our gray sand shores, those shaved logs became home to insects, birds and small rodents and made great hiding places or impromptu tents. A favorite childhood game was to see who could traverse the most beached logs without ever touching the sand.

As teenagers, we would drive out to the beaches with our sleeping bags in tow, stack up smaller moveable logs and build bonfires before bedding down to sleep protected by those fallen trees.

[on the role of Samantha Jones on Sex and the City (1998)] She was written by gay men and single women. But she was written with wit and panache. I always felt I was in some Restoration comedy. In the end, its not about the good lighting. That's not what you need. It's about the good writing.

Talented people are written off once they hit their 50s and 60s, and the saddest thing is, we just get better as we get older.

Theatre is so important to me because it has nothing to do with looks at all. When you're in movies, people say "Oh, you look so pretty" but no one ever says "Oh, I loved that moment." In theatre, it's really about the moment.

When I first moved to Hollywood I was told I was gifted, but needed to lose some weight. I needed to have that little gap in my teeth fixed. I needed to cut my hair and maybe wear something other than jeans. Then there's this big redo that happens. Suddenly I was seeing a dermatologist and I was in a diet. And I kept thinking "Wow, this has nothing to do with the work. This is just about what I look like.".

I was just a hippie chick from Vancouver Island. What did I know?

[on turning down playing Samantha Jones for Sex and the City (1998) three times before accepting the role] I think that was about me turning 40, and feeling, "I don't know if I can do this." In 1998, people's idea of a woman being sexy and powerful in her forties was, well, that she was past it.

[on reading "Fifty Shades of Grey"] It's fun - whatever turns you on. All these women of a certain age are finally having fun and what's wrong with that? We're all adults.

I was the last of the contract players that the studios had - myself and Jamie Lee Curtis.

I never stopped doing theatre because that was a place where I could really learn and stretch and grow. I was doing Chekhov and Molière and Shakespeare and Mamet and Miller - great characters with great words. And you are not always fortunate enough to have that with a film role, especially as a woman.

[When filming Rosebud (1975), director Otto Preminger] He just felt the best way to get a performance out of someone was to intimidate them. I was determined that I was never going to cry in front of him. So I would go home and let it out there.

I'm smart with my money, I invest conservatively. I don't mind paying top-dollar, but I don't want to get ripped off.

I'm a British-born, Canadian-raised New Yorker. That seems to suit me. That's who I am. I also think as an actor, it's important to be an outsider. I think if I became an American, I'd feel... different.

[to men] It might seem strange, but every now and then, check out your backside in the mirror. If you don't like what you see, chances are we [women] feel the same.

I'm a trysexual. I'll try anything once. I'm certainly not a prude.

[on the rumored feud between her and Sarah Jessica Parker] People don't want to believe that we get on. They have too much invested in the idea of two strong, successful women fighting with each other. It makes for juicy gossip and copy.

[on her childhood fear of vampires] I saw Bela Lugosi on some late-night show. I was terrified one would come through my window so I would sleep with a scarf around my neck. In case it would bite my neck.

I'm not sure what this phrase means. I have high cheekbones - that helps. I dye my hair, as most women do. I'm not a blonde; I'm dark-haired. I exercise and keep myself in good shape. Not just for my job, but for me. I want to have a really long life, so I take good care of myself and if I can't, I get people who can help me.

At the beginning I did Porky's (1981) to pay my rent. I don't come from a wealthy family - we were working class. So I thought, "Great, nobody is going to see this movie and I'll be able to pay my rent for eight months." But this movie became a huge hit and I was sexualized in a way that changed the course of my film career. But I don't have any regrets.

[on Mannequin (1987)] I've become more of a leading lady instead of, like, the girl. All the other movies that I've done I played the girl, and the plot was around the guy. I've never had anybody to do special lighting for me, or find out what clothes look good on me, or what camera angles are best for me. In this movie, I learned a lot from it. It's almost like learning old Hollywood techniques. I've always been sort of a tomboy. I feel great being a girl, wearing a dress.

Women are now expected to resemble children with no hair on their body or any kind of humanity in their faces. But when I see a woman who looks her age, she's radiating something and it's life.

Dad was always telling me, "You can do anything." So I grew up thinking that if he believed in me, I could do whatever I put my mind to.

My mother's childhood was shocking and dramatic. Her father abandoned my grandmother, leaving her in terrible poverty, struggling to bring up three children. As I've got older that's inspired me to want to tell stories about real women who are not Superwoman but need extraordinary powers to survive, like my grandmother.