Andrea Riseborough Quotations

Puberty is an extremely traumatic process even if you don't realize it. It kind of lives with you for like 10 years.

I'm an artist; affirmation is like catnip to me.

People are fascinating. They're so unique and I think what's more fascinating is the reason behind the physical characteristic, the enigma, that's where the gold dust is.

I have no interest in doing anything other than good work.

Sometimes I can think of nothing more blissful than going to Berkeley and reading Byron for three years.

Maybe I've just been incredibly fortunate, but there's a level of dedication, devotion, intensity and seriousness around me every day.

Often, I'll read a script and the female character's an extension or serves some sort of purpose in terms of the male character's narrative and it just isn't fully formed. But they will be very beautiful. Whether a secretary or a doctor or a vet, they will be very beautiful.

I think any artist is a perfectionist by their nature.

Fear is the enemy. I distrust it. Any feeling or decision I make that might be motivated by fear I quickly reassess.

I think, really, what I'm interested in is whole women, real people.

There's something really simple and idyllic about living in a house very close to the water.

I think impersonation is a great art. It's something that I enjoy doing, in a frivolous and lighthearted way. But I don't flatter myself to think I'm an impersonator.

I'm interested in having a relationship with the world that's not my own.

My face is almost like a canvas - a blank canvas in the sense that the hair on my face is very, very fine and my skin is incredibly fair and my hair is quite dark, and that's very unusual.

I am a Graham Greene fan - I'm just a ferocious reader. I read an awful lot when I get the time.

I don't like getting dressed up. It's hard because as a woman, as an actor, the whole world wants you to enjoy dressing up.

I subscribe to no religion. But I believe that in the creation of art, there can be moments of God.

I think every work is hard in different ways.

I think it's the easiest thing in the world to be horribly critical about yourself.

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

I'm not even sure that any of us are ever ready for anything. We can be ripe, or over-ready, but what is that moment when we're actually ready?

When you're playing a romantic version of a real person, you're playing a version of the truth.

When I was little, I would always try and look into the television screen along the sides. I kept thinking if you looked in there, you could see what was happening off camera.

In my case, when you dive into a role, to do well and for you to do well in it, you have to put an enormous amount of faith in the director. But you also have to decide you're so interested in the material, this director, his work, and his process, that you don't care about the outcome.

A lot of films that have been adapted from books stop serving you because they become different. I mean, they are different entities in themselves, but artistically, what you're trying to achieve with a film is so very different to what you're trying to achieve with a book, and the way when you write a script is so very different on paper to how it seems on a screen.

Politically, I thought [Margaret Thatcher] stank. I think she had a real fight on her hands to get where she got, but I don't believe that her conviction was for the greater good.

I've never had my own accent in a film. It's something I schedule into my preparation. That's one of my favorite things, hearing all the voices.

I've always thrown like a girl.

You're miscarrying a baby first thing in the morning. Who wants to hear it? God bless them. It's a very strange life. I love the company of actors, but the crazier it gets, the more I've come to realise how valuable my time is with my friends who work on the land or are builders or, you know, make music. Work in offices. Run shops.

When I talk about work or my take on life, all the joyfulness and excitement never seem to make it in.

Sometimes you need to break away from something in order to know how much you need or want it.

Sometimes I can receive the world and regurgitate my version of events easily and sometimes it's hard.

Every time you get the chance to work with somebody you admire and would like to collaborate with... it feels like the best opportunity that's ever come your way, whether that's in fringe theatre or a really big-budget Hollywood movie.

I love the company of actors, but the crazier it gets, the more I've come to realise how valuable my time is with my friends who work on the land or are builders or, you know, make music. Work in offices. Run shops.

I don't read reviews, and it's not because I don't think I can learn something, I'm sure I could learn a lot. I just that I feel very passionately about the work and especially when you're doing theater, you really only need one director and when you read reviews, you feel like you have twelve, because you respond to them, naturally.

You can't tell what's going to fulfill you in different stages in your life.