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She was, she explained, involved in a very commercial film that everyone knew in advance was going to be huge for the female lead.

"They were already booking the cover of Vanity Fair. It was a star-maker role," she says.

"I don't believe in conspiracy theories and I don't believe Hollywood is as organized or as paranoid as people believe, but there are certain roles where it's all sort of mapped out and pre-determined. This was one of them. And at the last second I pulled back."

Polley continues, "I think those moments where you decide not to do something, in the face of nobody understanding that decision, are the moments that form you, that carve you out. It will always be a part of who I am, that I did that."

(The role, though she doesn't say so, was in the film Almost Famous. It's not a secret, but Polley doesn't want to take anything away from Kate Hudson, whom she felt was terrific in the role. She says, "I was miscast. I just knew it wasn't my part." And upon seeing Hudson in the role, "I felt redeemed, because she brought a depth and an intelligence to it that wasn't there for me.")

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"I'm so glad I did what I did. I'm so glad I stayed in Toronto. I have never regretted it, because I'm still doing the kinds of film I love.

"I really believe you don't get to do films you want to do by first doing films you don't want to do."

Laughing at herself, Polley then explains that having taken such an idealistic stand made it tough for her to accept Dawn Of The Dead.

"There was more pressure and more stigma attached to deciding to do a mainstream film than in turning your back on one, because everyone likes the idea of a maverick, everyone likes the idea of an outsider."

It's not, she hastens to add, that she's avoiding anything.

"It's not that I don't want to get famous, or that I'm one of those actors who is 'all about the work' -- it's that I don't want my life to get small. 

"I think Reese Witherspoon said that, and I thought that was a brilliant way to put it. You're so limited. And I want my world to get bigger, not smaller."Sarah Polley

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At "A Weekend Special of American Poets" 
at the Beyond Baroque bookstore and 
performance space in Venice, Amber Tamblyn read 
one of her poems written when she first started acting -- 
when, as she said, "I was having a problem 
being told how to stand, how to stick my [rear] out."

"I'm feeling as awkward as a prime number, standing out amongst the lights/

It's me against the white wall, that I see reflecting in their eyes -- my audience

Each one serves a purpose to boost my self esteem, to erase the marks on my arms

As I stare down an empty hole, staring me in the face."

I realize what it is like to be ... fake/
This hole taking snapshots of my vulnerabilities and innocence/

Is not only looking at my every motion, but perhaps the photographer behind the lens

Is scraping out what's left of my confidences and memories 
He shrieks out with glee how beautiful I am
How much they're going to love me

That's perfect, Amber! Reach down. Touch your stomach! 
Hug your waist/
Show those ghostly females out there your soul -- 
give them just a taste ...

Enough to wrap their hair around toilet seats, 
and fun-loving diets, this is how it was not supposed to be.
I stare down into the hole trying to make eye contact with someone

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I think you have to be smart about what's working for you and what's not. I think a lot of these people who go to school get duped. 

Teachers really tear them down so they're self-conscience and insecure so they have a lot of pain to draw from, which I think is kind of a back-asswards way of doing it.

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Acting's the same way. You have this thing or you don't, you can't learn that. But it is a craft. And it's a job. You can learn how to do your job more efficiently.

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Kate Winslet : It did start to happen when I was around sixteen or seventeen. 

It was just an inner confidence that I was very quiet about, because I was actually quite shy back then. 

I was always quite chubby and the other girls around me at auditions were always so outwardly confident -- and they were so super, super skinny with their white-blonde hair and pink cheeks. I was always sweating a little bit, and my hair wasn't ever quite right.

Lynda Obst : That's why we root for you.

Kate Winslet : Yeah. [both laugh] It took me a long time to realize that what was actually important was that I just be myself--and that's very hard to do, particularly when you're a young actress.

Kate Winslet : Sometimes I think about Heavenly Creatures [dvd] and I think, Damn, if only I still had that same fearlessness. In a way it was quite nice doing Heavenly Creatures and not knowing a bloody thing. 

Now, when certain camera angles are being used, I understand why, and I can see how the scene is going to cut together; whereas, with Heavenly Creatures, all I knew I had to do was completely become that person. 

Over the years, the stakes have become higher for me. Sometimes I wake up in the morning before going oft to a shoot, and I think, I can't do this; I'm a fraud. 

They're going to fire me -- all these things. I'm fat; I'm ugly; I look like a whore! [laughs]

Lynda Obst : Do you know how important it is for women that you look real and not like an emaciated, waifish, unhealthy creature, and that you represent a kind of womanly beauty others can actually aspire to?

Kate Winslet : But is that really recognized [by the public]?

Lynda Obst : I know it's recognized -- you are so important to my little nieces, for instance.

Kate Winslet : Really? Well, that's more important than anything else -- any award nomination, any box office totals. Because I think films these days can be quite misleading about life.

You're a character who's reacting to things that are going on around you. The difficulty for a performer oftentimes is to be a self-conscious character without being a self-conscious actor.

I'm wondering what kind of challenge that was for you and how you approached that.

Scarlett Johansson : I wasn't very self-conscious. I never know what my face is doing. I think when you're doing certain things, especially when you're doing a comedy, you think more about the physicality of what you're doing than in this kind of dramatic story.

MM: There's a scene in the movie where you see Vermeer and his wife holding each other. And you have a very emotional reaction. Can you remember what was going on in your head at that moment?

Scarlett Johansson : Yeah, it was terribly heartbreaking. And it kept getting worse and worse every take we were doing.

I felt very betrayed. I just felt that way, looking at Vermeer and Catherina. I don't know--unrequited love is just one of the most intense and very human feelings a person can have.

That and grieving. It's a pure, raw emotion. And I was such a mess after that scene.  //

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Scarlett Johansson : I did The Horse Whisperer when I was 12. The most wonderful about working with Bob [Redford] - and the reason I have such huge respect for him and will always say he was one of the most influential directors I've ever worked with - was because he spoke to me like a regular person, not like a child. 

He didn't lie to me. He allowed me to discover every emotional place I needed to be. 

People forget what it was like to be a child. Sort of like Robin Williams in Hook, forgetting what it was like to be Peter Pan. 

They regress into this obnoxious, patronizing thing that they do, and it doesn't work. I would have killed myself if he'd spoken to me that way. There's not reason to dumb things down for audiences or when you're working with kids.

from article Girl with the Golden Touch - Moviemaker, Winter 2004
By Doug Atchinson - posted on Dedicated to Scarlett Johansson site

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"He was the cutest grandpa ever. When I was making a movie, I would try to fly back to San Francisco from wherever I was in the world to see him."

"My confidence came from not caring. I didn't have the goal to be a movie star. I started acting classes at age 12 and just really loved acting.

"I never cared about being famous. If you love acting and you're going to classes and auditions, the only frustrating part is not getting the jobs. 

"The more I studied, the better I got. I always felt strong about the fact that I was happy doing what I was doing."

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"A lot of people ask me why I didn't go into theater and move to New York," Hollister said. "I can't dance or sing -- my strengths are all in acting -- so I always knew I wanted to try to get into film and television, even before college. 

"And I'm a character actress; there aren't a lot of theater parts for someone my age as a character actress."

While many of her peers skip the college education in favor of making it in LA immediately, Hollister is glad she opted to wait. 

Hollister's mother, Janice Plank, is glad her daughter chose higher education, too. "It's really hard to convince theater people that they need to get the degree," Plank said. 

"They feel like they're wasting their time, but Lindsay has an edge over many of those others because of her training. She moved out (to LA) as prepared as she could have been." 

Once she'd made the move to LA, the next step was getting noticed. 

"A lot of people move out here and think they're going to get discovered just walking down the street," Hollister said. "That's just not the way it works, at least not usually. It requires a lot of work on your part."

On the one hand, it prepared me for my life, but on the other hand it was really confusing because I wasn't really sure what I wanted. Was this something that I chose for myself, or something that my mom chose for me? There's a lot of natural self-doubt about who you are, but I'd never trade my life for anything. I'm totally happy today, knowing that I have it together." ....

[touring in Europe to write songs and record with her band in her teens:]... 

I performed at every bar in England and watched guys drinking beer rather than listening to me, with no applause afterwards. I had to go through these ropes and virtually humiliate myself to learn to appreciate what I had in my life. So when I got back into acting it was because I really wanted to do it, not because my mom or anybody else told me I should. That made all the difference.

The Hollywood scene is a lot of posturing. It is not in any direct relation to acting. It's important that I stay away from all the bull.. and all that attention. 

Young Hollywood is in constant rotation. I simply want to carry on doing what I am doing for as long as I can, and I don't want to take advantage of a specific moment and burn out really quickly. Believe me, the world does not revolve around movies. Mine certainly doesn't.

I'm not sitting here pointing the finger - I've been there and done that, felt "the world owes me." I believe we all have. But a lot of kids don't see the bigger picture, man. ...

[You were 10 when you started working on The Client?]

Exactly. And I honestly have to thank this profession.. for giving me a glimpse of the bigger picture and getting me amongst people who could give me advice. And I have my parents to thank as well because they've messed up.. and [are] doing beautifully in life. ... Growing up and making mistakes kids make.. people look at you and think, "Why are you trying to piss this away?" Or whatever. And it's not like that. I'm not thinking like that.

Brad Renfro .. [Mr.Showbiz 2001] - about his movie "Bully" [2001 - "Based on a true story. Naive teenagers plot to murder one of their own, who has been too much of a bully to them."]