Leading Lady Quotes & Sayings

I think I'm a character actress in a leading lady's body, but the industry doesn't really see me that way. — Sanaa Lathan

I had a very hard time accepting myself as a character actress because I wanted to be glamorous and a leading lady like everybody else. I looked in the mirror and thought I looked pretty good, but casting didn't ever see me that way. — Beth Grant

The leading lady had a large and saving sense of humor. But there is nothing that blunts the sense of humor more quickly than a few months of one-night stands. Even O. Henry could have seen nothing funny about that room. — Edna Ferber

I'm a character actress. It doesn't mean I can't do leading roles; I don't think of myself as a leading lady. — Rena Sofer

Actors worry about bad breath, weight, receding hairlines and why their leading lady looks like their daughter. — Matthew Ashford

When you live in a leading lady's body, which I do, you have to constantly prove that you are funny. — Elizabeth Banks

I come from the theater, and I've done a lot of character work in the theater, but Hollywood stuff in film and TV, they've been more leading lady/ingenue type roles. — Sanaa Lathan

I know what I look like. I'm not a babe who's automatically going to be the leading-lady type. I think I would always be cast as the friend. I probably tend to look crap more often than I look good. I like messing around and pulling funny faces and doing funny walks. — Ashley Jensen

If you're not filled back up quickly, you might collapse like a birthday balloon". I guess that's why acting is so addictive. For the director, that addiction will come from the love and trust he gets from the "orchestra", him being the conductor. That's why many directors fall in love with their leading lady/man: having someone say "how do you want me to be" is incredible. — Matthew Jacobs

Human feelings are queer things
I am much happier
black-leading the stove's
making the beds and sweeping the floors at home, than I should be living like a fine lady anywhere else. — Charlotte Bronte

In almost every musical ever written, there's a place that's usually about the third song of the evening - sometimes it's the second, sometimes it's the fourth, but it's quite early - and the leading lady usually sits down on something; sometimes it's a tree stump in Brigadoon, sometimes it's under the pillars of Covent Garden in My Fair Lady, or it's a trash can in Little Shop of Horrors ... but the leading lady sits down on something and sings about what she wants in life. And the audience falls in love with her and then roots for her to get it for the rest of the night. — Howard Ashman

I'm always looking for that sense of fun and adventure and even unlikeability. I don't want to be the obvious leading lady. I have the most fun playing these girls who are a little damaged and maybe a little insecure and trying to overcompensate for it. — Becki Newton

Youre supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for Gods sake! — Kate Winslet

I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingenue leading lady, who started out something like Michelle Pfeiffer, or Jessica Lange. I'm a bit quirkier than that. — Joan Allen

In science-fiction films the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady. — Roger Corman

Whatever love meant there was some version of it that I felt for Winter. And it didn't matter if he felt that for me or not or if it was real love or just my sadness about my dad that had turned into longing. Love, that elusive leading lady, plays too many parts to be typecast. — Francesca Lia Block

It was Carrot who'd suggested to the Patrician that hardened criminals should be given the chance to 'serve the community' by redecorating the homes of the elderly, lending a new terror to old age and, given Ankh-Morpork's crime rate, leading to at least one old lady having her front room wallpapered so many times in six months that now she could only get in sideways. — Terry Pratchett

My mother was a leading lady in a local theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, where I grew up. — Mary Badham

I remember one director in Argentina said to me, 'You are not going to have any opportunity to be a leading lady because of your height.' And I didn't care. I don't have a complex. — Elena Roger

I was always a character actress and never a sex symbol. Even when I was the leading lady, I was a character actor. — Shirley Maclaine

I was very obsessed with Ruth Gordon. I really didn't foresee me having any type of career as a leading lady at all because it was just blonds. I just wasn't the type - I was told that by casting directors. I auditioned for Running on Empty [1988] and The Mosquito Coast [1986], and Martha Plimpton was just killing me. — Winona Ryder

A crazy old lady, leading a band of teenagers against an angry supernatural Entity - who'da thought? — Diane M. Haynes

It's good to be able to be a leading lady, to be a romantic lead, to play opposite people who are talented, and charismatic and stuff. — Heather Graham

Ronald Reagan makes me proud to be an American. His intelligence, capability, and Christian brotherhood are so inspiring and his way of leadership is just superb. I consider myself lucky to have been his leading lady in The Bad Man and a short subject reel and as a nation all together we are beyond fortunate to have the leadership of such fine people as the Reagan's. — Laraine Day

When I was about 15 ... I made my first attempt as a leading lady, and was, of course, a complete failure. — Maude Adams

Part of me would love to have been a leading lady because there's a lot of glamour that goes with that and a lot of applause, but I've been very blessed. — Selma Blair

You can't always be a leading lady. — Lauren Bacall

Every leading lady I work with, I'll see if I can get a song out of them and put it on an album. — Idris Elba

I was always the hero with no vices, reciting practically the same lines to the leading lady. The current crop of movie actors are less handicapped than the old ones. They are more human. The leading men of silent films were Adonises and Apollos. Today the hero can even take a poke at the leading lady. In my time a hero who hit the girl just once would have been out. — Ramon Novarro

Someone recently asked what I am most proud of. The thing I'm most proud of is that I'm in my 50s and I'm still a leading lady. — Kim Cattrall

There were TVs everywhere. When we weren't on stage, we were watching what America was watching and rooting for each other and our leading lady. That experience was incredible, and I was just enjoying myself. — Laura Benanti

I kept the same suit for six years and the same dialogue. They just changed the title of the picture and the leading lady. — Robert Mitchum

The Countess was considerably younger than her husband. All of her clothes came from Paris (this was after Paris) and she had superb taste. (This was after taste too, but only just. And since it was such a new thing, and since the Countess was the only lady in all Florin to posses it, is it any wonder she was the leading hostess in the land?) — William Goldman

When I was young, I was rather attractive, and I thought that I would be a leading lady. I always thought of myself as a dramatic actress, but of course the opportunities for blacks weren't there at the time. — Maidie Norman

I have memories of being in Yale five years ago. It was December and so damn cold that while professing love to my leading lady and singing a Bollywood ditty, which went something like this - Kabhie Alvida Na Kehna - my mouth froze itself to death. I say death because as I inched closer to kiss her, mouthing the words Kabhi Alvida Na ... my mouth and jaw just got locked. — Shahrukh Khan

Even though I'm over 35, I feel like so much more of a leading lady than I did when I was 30. — Cynthia Nixon

On 'Swingtown,' I think that's when I was able to blend the character-slash-leading lady roles, and that's what I'm doing on 'Once Upon a Time' as well. She's a leading lady, but she's also this character. — Lana Parrilla

some nights . . ." "They say the moon is made of green cheese," Butch said. "And I'm going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight if we don't get out of here." He took my hand and led the way across the room. Louise Jane called out to me one last time. "It shouldn't be a problem leading the haunted lighthouse tour into the Lady's room, Lucy. You'll be gone by Halloween, isn't that right?" Chapter 15 "I hope you had a nice evening, despite how it ended," Butch said as we walked to his car. — Eva Gates

I'm not surprised 'The Avengers' has such enduring popularity, because it was a groundbreaking series that changed television. It was the first show that put its leading man and leading lady on an equal footing and showed a woman fighting and kicking and throwing men around. That was a radical departure in its time. — Patrick Macnee

As the 1960s began, a new breed of Hollywood leading lady was emerging. She was elegant, international, and wonderfully comedic. — Maureen O'Hara

I shouldn't say this, but I always love the sidekicks. I want to do a leading-lady role in a film - absolutely. But I find that a lot of times I get attracted to the sidekick role. They stand out a little more because they're quirkier, they're funnier, they're crazier. — Malin Akerman

I was supposed to be a romancer, either wooing the leading lady or competing with the leading man for her. — Cesar Romero

Richard Burton rang me up once and said, Do you know you're my only leading lady I've never slept with? I said, Well, please don't tell everybody, it's the worst image. — Julie Andrews

If you're a leading actor you don't work with another actor. You work with a lady. — Michael Caine

I did not see myself as a leading lady. I thought I was really funny-looking and I would never be the lead, and I certainly would never do film or television. I wanted to do theater. I wanted to be the grand dame of the American stage. — Kathy Baker

The first thing you do is sit down with your wife and say something like this, Honey, I've made a terrible mistake. I've given you my role. I gave up leading this family ... I'm not suggesting that you ask for your role back, I'm urging you to take it back ... Be sensitive. Listen. Treat the lady gently and lovingly. But lead! — Tony Evans

Studios might cast an actor because he is too tall next to the leading lady, who is too short, or they might not cast your guy because he's blond, and they wanted a brunette. There's all kinds of reasons why they want one person over another. I don't worry about it, but it can hurt sometimes if you really wanted something, if you really went after something. — Bruce Campbell

With God's help, your trial today is leading to your wholeness tomorrow. — Elizabeth George

I guess I've never really had a great desire to be a leading lady, or be seen as an ingenue. — Melanie Lynskey

I was always a character actress, even when I was an ingenue. But as you age, people know what to do with you, and you're not quite as dependent on maintaining leading-lady beauty. — Marylouise Burke