Tone is a very difficult thing. You can’t write tone, I don’t think. You can try – you certainly try. I write too, so I know I’m trying desperately to communicate to whoever’s going to direct my pieces, the way I see the humor. But it’s very difficult.
BETH GRANTI thought Sissy Hickey should be really skinny and leathery and have one of those really husky voices, but Del Shores kept saying, “I wrote this part for you.” He took me to his house and showed me pictures of all his Texas relatives, and they looked exactly like my family.
More Beth Grant Quotes
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I had this great teacher, Milton Katselas, who was this loud Greek who had directed Bette Davis and Liv Ullmann, and brought Edward Albee to this country. He said, “Why do you keep trying to be a Rolex watch when you’re the salt of the earth?” Except he said it much louder.
BETH GRANT -
There’s always that key to every character that lets you go to those places you need to go to. No matter how much you might hate the character, it makes you understand it.
BETH GRANT -
Sometimes I’ll say, “When Sandy Bullock and I were doing Speed – the movie, not the drug.” Just in case someone’s listening.
BETH GRANT -
Maybe the actors that used to turn down William Goldman’s scripts – where he wanted them to stretch and grow, and he was mad at ’em, and said, “Why won’t they be a real actor?” – maybe they just knew their audience. It’s too bad.
BETH GRANT -
I’d much rather insult people and make ’em angry. Donnie Darko’s very controversial. Not all of my friends like it. Honestly, it’s almost become a test for me. If somebody says they don’t like Donnie Darko, I think, “Oh, I don’t know you as well as I thought I did.”
BETH GRANT -
If you just think Donnie Darkos a weird movie, you don’t want to think. You don’t want to feel your feelings. So yeah, I do want to shake ’em up.
BETH GRANT -
I never have broken up in comedy, ever. There’s something about me that I just don’t break on camera – maybe because I’m just so cheap, and I know how expensive it is to shoot – but I broke on Sordid Lives, and I broke on The Office. Those are the only two times in my life.
BETH GRANT -
My agent says, “You have an audition for the next Dustin Hoffman movie, playing a pioneer woman.” And I go, “All right!” I passed Barry Levinson in the hall on the way into my audition, and I saw him do a double-take. I think I looked so determined that I got the job right then.
BETH GRANT -
I thought Sissy Hickey should be really skinny and leathery and have one of those really husky voices, but Del Shores kept saying, “I wrote this part for you.” He took me to his house and showed me pictures of all his Texas relatives, and they looked exactly like my family.
BETH GRANT -
My husband and I can’t get through dinner without being defensive. We’ve been married 24 years, and I love my husband to death, but sometimes I say, “What are we? Two injured creatures who can’t talk to each other without going, like, ‘Ahhh!’?”
BETH GRANT -
Reality television, anybody can be a star at any minute.
BETH GRANT -
As much as I love being an artist, I love being a mom even more.
BETH GRANT -
Jessica Tandy. Nice company! And Ruth Gordon. They worked all along. She didn’t really get any big star recognition until Driving Miss Daisy. So what if it takes me that long? Slow and steady wins the race, right? Better a tortoise than a hare.
BETH GRANT -
I built a career on my archetype, and I’m grateful, but I’m trying to stretch.
BETH GRANT -
He’s such a comic genius. I hate to use that word, because everyone throws it around, but Steve Carell is channeling something.
BETH GRANT