Retta Quotes

I actually didn't always want to be an actor.

I was pre-med, so I was going to go into the family business, more or less. But I came to my senses, luckily, and backed out, and decided to go to drama school.

When I grew up I always wanted to act. Also, I wanted to be either a lawyer or a doctor. However, when I got to college and realized what those occupations entailed, I changed my mind real quick.

When I was young, I'd fight everyone who insisted I'd be an actress. I'd say, 'No way. I'm going to be a veterinarian. I'm going to work at Wetzel's Pretzels.'

After high school, I went to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point for a year, and I studied musical theatre. By that point, I was like, 'This is what I want to do.'

I literally came out of high school thinking that I was going to do something in the sports world because I grew up with a very sports-oriented family. My last year of school, I got involved with playing guitar and singing, and I joined a band and I just decided that year somehow that I was going to play music.

I was more interested in playing sports than acting. I didn't take acting too seriously until the end of my junior year.

It was really unusual to go from being in university for four years to all of a sudden acting every day. I'd never been able to do it exclusively like that. It was always sort of like my secret thing that I did privately.

I'd like to think there'll be too much of real life going on for me to want to do much acting.

When I was younger, I always was like, 'I want to be a serious actor.' I wasn't interested in doing a Disney show or a Nick show. But here I am, and it's great.

I went to UCLA as pre-med. When I was there my freshman year, I auditioned for a play and got it, and I was so passionate. I just loved acting so much that I decided to switch majors and pursue acting.

It was easy for me to leave acting for school, because I wasn't really in it as an adolescent for fulfilling reasons.

I worked with my dad for 15 years. I apprenticed under him and decided I wanted to become an architect. So I went to college for it and then the acting bug got me.

Between 18 and 26 I acted professionally, on the stage and a little bit on television. Acting is okay, but it's quite pressurized. Then I went to England - I wanted to reinvent myself.

I was an assistant director for a year, and I realized, 'God, this is a lot of hard work. This is going to take time. So what's the shortcut? What's the better option?' Then thankfully, someone said, 'Why don't you become an actor?'

The truth of the matter is I stayed in L.A. raising my children, and when they went to college, I packed my bags along with them and came to New York and looked for parts in the theatre, because that's always what I preferred doing.

I never wanted to be an actor. I got stuck in it and kind of liked what I was doing.

I saw leaving college as an opportunity to do something different with my life. I always thought that becoming an academic was going to be my path.

People wouldn't hire me for comedies. They would say, 'Oh, he doesn't do comedy,' and now it's really all I do.

There came a point sometime during high school when I started thinking about exploring acting as a career, but it was more of an intention than an actual decision. I was very interested in a lot of different subjects, but every time I envisioned myself actually pursuing one as a career, I always ended up thinking that I would rather be acting.

There is life after acting.

After I graduated high school and came out to do 'Buffy,' I was enrolled at my mom's university, and I was going to go get a real job. I never thought of acting and never really wanted to be an actor.

After graduating from college I worked at a variety of jobs, from banking to politics. I enjoyed whatever I was doing at the time but I didn't love my work.

Yeah, I had actually tried to stop acting before I made Dead Man Walking.

It took me a few years to realize I might want to get into acting as a profession.