Ashley Jensen Quotes

When I was 10, my school did Romeo and Juliet. I was Juliet, and that was, like, the biggest deal ever. I was completely obsessed with the role.

I liked 'Brighton Beach Memoirs,' which I did with Neil Simon. I kind of was playing him, as Eugene Morris Jerome, and I played that a few times at the very beginning of my career.

I spent four months once doing a play on Broadway.

I was studying at the Royal Academy of Arts, and I was playing the role of Dr. Ivan Chebutikin in Chekov's 'Three Sisters.' I was about 50 years too young for the part.

I always play girls who are quite traumatised, or a plain girl, but I'm happy with that.

I did great things in the theater. I did some nice roles, 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' or 'La Vie en Rose.' And I love my role in 'Frantic.'

I never thought I'd be right to play a Juliet-like character.

I'm an actor. The fact that I'm involved in Jigsaw, I don't approach Jigsaw any differently than I approached The Nordic in 'The Firm' or FBI Agent Stokes in 'Mississippi Burning.' It's the same deal. It's just that the effect is sometimes different. So I say, people ask me, 'How does it feel to be a horror icon?' I'm thrilled. It's great.

I have never acted in one and I'm not at all interested to do so either.

I think the first role I ever played was Mr. Bumble in a production of 'Oliver.'

When you're doing a play that's fully produced, you have the benefit of rehearsing for four or five weeks, so you really get to live in the skin of the character for much longer than when you first start doing a character on TV.

The process of doing plays will make you an actor.

The only time I've played a real baddy was when I was Regan in 'King Lear.'

I never played an ingenue.

I'll have you know that as a young man, I spent an entire year as a woman in a world tour of 'As You Like It.' I played Celia.

I did theater at Spelman until I graduated from there, and I got to work with such luminous actresses as Diana Sands in 'Macbeth.'

I used to do a lot of repertory theater. You're playing different roles all the time, and I love that.

I've been an actor for a very long time, and I've had the opportunity to do theater a couple of times.

I only did five or six weeks in 'Guys and Dolls,' and when I was 26 or so, I was in 'Blood Brothers' for a year on the West End, playing Linda, with Kiki Dee.

I got my Equity card right out of NYU grad school in 2000, doing 'The Great White Hope' at Arena Stage. I played Jack Jefferson. It was an amazing part to walk into, to carry that responsibility for that amount of time. The challenges and the breadth of that role were pretty amazing.

My first role was on Broadway from 1963-64 in Chips With Everything.' It was very well reviewed but not very well attended.

The role I was waiting for came in the form of Varsha in 'Tholi Prema.'

I started off in theater; I did exclusively theater for four or five years. In the last few years, television has come along but I can still make film. I feel very privileged that I can move between them.

I don't care if you hate me or if you like me, as long as somebody gives me a character that is really a character to play. It's fun to be able to have a character and have a director that can direct you into a character. I'm just so happy that I got a good role. I don't care if it's bad or if it's good, and I don't care if it's drama or comedy. They are just so rare to come across.

I actually acted onstage before I'd ever seen a live performance, and I loved it.