Iconic Actresses Quotes

I was the kid that grew up watching Bette Davis films.

I long for the old days of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, stars who had real glamour and mystique. We only knew so much about their lives; the rest was a mystery.

People would get Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence all mushed together in their brains, and, bless their hearts, it would come out Carol Lawrence.

I would love to work with Anthony Hopkins; I would love to work with Meryl Streep; I would love to work with DeNiro; I would love to work with Johnny Depp; I'd love to work with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow... I think she's amazing.

I'd like to be played as a child by Natalie Wood. I'd have some romantic scenes as Audrey Hepburn and have gritty black-and-white scenes as Patricia Neal.

I loved Barbara Stanwyck and Katharine Hepburn.

When you think about the OG scream queens and all of the incredible women who have really defined this genre, such as Jamie Lee Curtis, they are all so talented and so multidimensional.

She's got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs, she's got Bette Davis eyes.

Cate Blanchett. Judi Dench. Helen Mirren. Everything about them. Even their fashion choices. They're so with it and cool and women I admire. They take chances. They're chameleons. Everything that they do. They're also amazing mothers.

For some reason, the movies in the '40s have the best personalities: Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, and all those people. For some reason, I seem to gravitate more toward the '40s, and I don't necessarily know why. I just love the people.

I grew up on a staple of films where I saw actors like Waheeda Rehman, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi playing very powerful parts in films.

The people I tend to look to and reference are Hollywood icons; Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Rita Hayworth.

I'm kind of fixated with old Hollywood, like Marilyn Monroe.

I really look up to Amy Adams, who I got to work with, Meryl Streep, and Angelina Jolie.

During the golden age of movie stars, there were plenty of actresses who were deemed unattractive at the start of their careers, but struggled and finally appeared more beautiful and more iconic. Sometimes that idea of being truly iconic has something to do with not necessarily being beautiful and thus trying harder.

I think it's mainly when I need inspiration I look at the old pictures. I don't find it as much in the new stuff. I love Carole Lombard. I think she's wonderful. Gloria Grahame was really great. Garbo. Dietrich. People knew how to create an illusion. Now everything is very realistic and straightforward. Everyone's grunge.

I've had Susan Sarandon play my mom, and now Lesley Ann Warren has played my mom, so if I could have Debra Winger play my mom, then I would have the trifecta of my favorite actresses playing my mother.

I look up to Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn and old styles. You will never see me in a crop top and hot pants - I'm more into dresses.

I adore Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh, but more because they were good actresses. That's what makes me interested in them, that they didn't present themselves as idols; they were just doing their jobs.

I never thought about how I didn't have a cell phone or I'm in 2011. I was just so happy to be able to be a character in the 30s and there are these actresses that I really liked in the 40s, 50s and 60s in American movies that I've seen since I was a little girl. But you don't really think like that when you prepare for a role.

I used to devour biographies of people like Natalie Wood and Marilyn.

My muses were all the incredible, iconic women of glamour in Hollywood that I have worked with over 15 years. Anjelica Huston, Michelle Pfeiffer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lena Dunham, Viola Davis, Rihanna, Demi Moore.

If only I could step back into the time of old movies, if only I could be given the opportunity to do what Katharine Hepburn did or what Rosalind Russell did. Those kinds of characters, that kind of patter, that kind of language, that kind of script. They don't exist any more.

I will have one of the cleanest obits of any actress. I never did cheesecake like Ann Sheridan or Betty Grable. I just used my hair.

When I first cut my hair short, I was trying for a mix of Mia Farrow and Jean Seberg. The photo I took to my hairdresser was Jean Seberg in Breathless. I said, 'Make me look like this.'