Laurie Metcalf Quotes

“I like to play a wide range of characters. The more they're unlike me, the better I like it.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I was an office secretary for a long time. A good secretary.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“One of the hardest things about directing is just to be patient and remind yourself that you've been in Week 1 of a rehearsal process yourself, and you know what it feels like.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I'm hideously shy as myself, but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I've loved every minute of every hour I've spent doing theatre.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“My profession is about as far away from growing up in southern Illinois as you can get.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“Really, I'll go anywhere at any time to continue working in theater - it's a passion that I'm thankful I still have. It keeps me creative and on my toes and meeting great people. I can't imagine a better way of working than on a play.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“Every part I get, I just think I'm so lucky. They're so hard to get, you know.”

— Laurie Metcalf

I almost never give interviews. It's not because I want to play hard to get. It's just that I never seem to have anything interesting to say.

— Laurie Metcalf

“I don't like working in front of a camera.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I was too practical to major in theater. Acting - what was I going to do with acting? There was no future in it.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I'm happy whenever I'm in a rehearsal room. I've always gotten all my energy and creativity in there.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I've been directed by other actors, and being an actor doesn't make you a good director.”

— Laurie Metcalf

Theater opened up a whole new world for me. It was a freedom I'd never known before.

— Laurie Metcalf

“When one thing ends, you put it away and start from scratch on the next thing.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I was horribly shy all through grade school and high school. But somehow I got up the nerve to audition for one play in high school - 'Auntie Mame.' I got a small part as the fiancee who comes on in the end. I got laughs. I wasn't shy at all doing the part. I can do anything on stage and write it off as a character.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“I work just as hard and have just as much fun whether in a 50-seat house or in a 1000-seat house. It's a luxury to be in a tiny space every once in a while and a rush to be on a giant stage every once in a while.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“Onstage I'm the one in control - I'm not at the mercy of how an editor chooses to put the scene together later. I can do things onstage that I would never do in real life. It's very freeing.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“When I go to see something I'm in, or my friends are in, it's like a home movie. When I just go to the movies and don't know anyone in it, then it's a real movie.”

— Laurie Metcalf

“You know, if a TV show dropped into my lap out of the blue, I would have a hard time turning it down because there just isn't the money in theater that there is on TV.”

— Laurie Metcalf