Top 58 Quotes & Sayings by Esme Creed-Miles

I don't really leave my house. I'm a very introverted person. I don't like going out. I don't like parties.

Even as a kid I remember seeing 'Minority Report' and just crying my eyes out. It was horrible what was happening to her. That was my mum!

Sometimes punching a bag for half an hour was pretty cathartic and pretty necessary.

I think the best privilege that I have in terms of having them as my parents was not just the doors that opened, but, I think, the stability to be graceful in the face of rejection, which is something that actors get every single day, and knowing it's not personal and not having that be part of your psyche.

My parents are really, really talented and really good at what they do, so I've always learned from watching them. But their style is something that you can't really learn. They never went to drama school and neither did I.

I'm very conditioned by my surroundings, by the influences of social media, by the television I watch. And I always found, growing up, that even inspiring female characters or complex female characters in television and film, I often found that their complexity was actually just another facet of their sexuality.

You have your assigned sex but gender is more of a construct and I think one that is incredibly disillusioning and I think when we buy into those constructs then we start to maybe, unbeknownst to ourselves, cause real damage to our psyches.

In terms of actors and roles that I want to do in the future, most of those have been played by men. I mean Robert De Niro is my favorite actor of all time. That's the thing, it's not a woman, it's a guy.

As an actor, I had the most power than I've ever had before, because I was able to create and arc and pursue that idea fully, because as every new director that came on, no one knew 'Hanna' like I knew 'Hanna.' That is something that I knew inside me.

I personally feel like the conversation around feminism has advanced a lot. People are starting to realize privileged white feminism isn't cutting it. We have to look at the holistic experience of all women, or assigned women, on the planet.

The whole thing of sexually objectifying yourself is really demoralizing and degrading as a human being, and it's something that men have never had to do, and it's something that 'Hanna' has never had to do.

I discovered my physicality, I discovered running, and endorphins, and the sort of amazing way that people are meant to move. And that's what's great about 'Hanna,' because she moves. She's human and she embodies all of that.

I don't really embrace femininity.

What my parents have given me is what I would call a healthy entitlement.

Everyone else went to drama school, and that teaches you how to dissociate from your character. I don't know any technique! I'm just acting by chance - and by connection.

I had to learn martial arts.

What is special about 'Hannah' is she's complex. She takes risks and she's smart, and she has a lot of love for people.

'Hanna' doesn't maintain social norms. She doesn't have those boundaries. She speaks her mind and is very physical and funny.

I was thrown into this world of training, and weightlifting, and boxing, and cardio. It's amazing to feel your body being capable of that.

Fight prep, boxing, cardio, stretching. It's almost like dancing, you have to learn to dance and keep practicing it.

I always found growing up that, even inspiring female characters or complex female characters in TV and film... I often found that their complexity was actually just another facet of their sexuality.

I actually did a lot of yoga because I found it helped with my core strength and flexibility, which are two things you absolutely need when you're doing martial arts.

I definitely struggle with a disillusionment towards my body and my gender.

In my screen test for 'Hanna,' I sort of pretended I was this sporty person when I really wasn't.

The idea of women having a complete hold on their lives is still alien in a lot of places. So, it is important that we keep telling such stories where women are shown both physically and mentally powerful.

What was really special about 'Hanna' as a character is her pursuit of agency.

I just love listening to music and talking about it, so my social media is mostly dedicated to talking about songs and stuff that interests me.

Women should not only be doing action on-screen but should be a part of every other aspect of filmmaking.

Stunt people are amazing at what they do, but they're not actors.

Even the basics of learning how to throw a good punch is very hard.

The way I feel seen by the opposite sex is sometimes really detrimental to me. I'm very aware of how I'm constantly being sexualized and objectified in their eyes which makes me feel worthless.

I want to be involved in lots of different things. I want to write and direct, and I make music.

As a young woman, my own experience of looking at myself in the mirror is something that's plagued me in lots of ways.

Obviously, for safety reasons, there's some stuff I can't do, but fighting is more than just about nailing the moves accurately, to sort of pull off the stunt sequence. It's also about bringing emotion to it and character.

It's lovely to escape myself and play someone who actually inspires me and gives me strength.

I've never been someone who'd done any sports.

The hardest part is the nature of working in film and television; the hours are very tough.

I had a few months of physical prep where I was training six hours a day - I was doing an hour and a bit of yoga, I would do a couple hours of cardio and weight-lifting, and then I would do an hour or maybe two of martial arts training.

I wish we did, in a way, grow up in the forest and we didn't all just post bikini pictures and work out just to look good.

Now I'm strong: I can run fast, I can lift weights, and that in itself is quite empowering, to have that physical strength. It changes my whole mental attitude.

The way that I work is I didn't go to drama school or anything like that so I have no choice but to be instinctual because I don't have a tool kit in the same way.

I was never a sporty kid. Then I discovered my physicality and running and endorphins.

It was so cool to be listening to, I don't know, some Cocteau Twins song while I was running through the Slovakian wilderness.

It's frustrating to see that people still get shocked when they see a woman doing action.

It's really tough, it's a very kind of cutthroat industry and you have to be prepared that you're not going to get the parts that you want.

It honestly affects my mental health, social media, on a really profound level. Because I'm constantly being bombarded with an image of femininity that I feel I have to adhere to. And I think there's a lot of pressure in this industry, as well, being constantly discriminated on your aesthetic appearance.

Even if an actor might not nail the moves in a way than a stunt person might, I wanted to bring the character of 'Hanna' into everything that she did.

I think growing up, the assimilation of most cultural conventions typically encouraged by a heightened awareness of gender and sex encourages a sort of separation of the self. What's so special about 'Hanna' is that her upbringing has negated this indoctrination; she's almost absolved of the pressures of gender or gender itself.

Obviously, in different circumstances, I definitely related to this idea of feeling claustrophobic and wanting to discover things for yourself. I think that's something that all young people can relate to.

I believe in assigned sex but not necessarily gender. Gender is a learned construct that is detrimental to both sexes.

I feel myself in ways to be the product of internalized male gaze.

'Hanna' has grown up in mother nature's beautiful wilderness and that's what she knows. So for someone like me who has always had a life in the city, it was a chance to look beyond social conventions.

'Hanna' has grown up in wilderness. It highlights humanness and animal-ness in humans. She has an interesting take on gender and love.

I never wanted to be an actress. Acting wasn't in my mind. It wasn't in my calculations.

If I'm being honest that's something that I think to myself every time I go on Instagram - 'Look how skinny she is, I wanna be that skinny', and it's horrible.

I thought 'Hanna' was an opportunity to explore a character whose femininity was so raw and unconditioned by the modern world.

Young action heroines feel in service of male gaze, rather than being the full complexity of a human being.

It's so liberating to just have absolutely no filter and say exactly what's on your mind because you don't know otherwise.