A Quote by Ira Levin

That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.

Ira Levin

Quote Topics

Actresses Be Real Big Bosom Commercials Felt Floor Housewives Nice Playing Pleased Pretty Real She Small Stepford Wives Suddenly Talent Too Too Nice Wax Were Wives

Quote Author

Ira Levin
American - Novelist
Born: August 27, 1929

The advent of digitally enhancing images - and the fact that actresses weren't protesting against that - created an environment where big corporations felt like they had total ownership over the bodies of actresses.

Romola Garai

Certainly there are dozens of over-50 actresses who look great: Sophia Loren, Susan Sarandon, Ursula Andress, Stefanie Powers, Raquel Welch, Barbara Eden, Joanna Lumley, Linda Gray - the list is endless, and these are just the actresses! I have many friends in their 60s, 70s and 80s, not in the limelight, but who all look absolutely stunning.

Joan Collins

If I don't work very often, it's because what I read is written for formidable actresses, but actresses who make a habit of playing with their cup half full.

Isabelle Adjani

Increasingly, it's actresses doing the big fashion advertising campaigns, and now there's no distinction between actresses and models.

Romola Garai

I'm from a generation of fantastic actresses. It's a big pool of really wonderful actresses, and so many of them we never even get to see on the screen anymore.

Karen Allen

The public want actresses, because they think all actresses bad. They don't want music or poetry because they know that both are good. So actors and actresses thrive and poets and composers starve.

George Bernard Shaw

There's a difference between actresses of color and actresses not of color. If you look at how big my movies are.

Regina King

Usually, I'll be auditioning for the third lead, and there will be Latina actresses, Indian actresses, African American actresses because it will be like, 'Let's check off this box. We have our lead white girl, and we need an ethnic slot.'

Constance Wu

When the movies first started, audiences were dumbstruck to see actresses walking around in evening gowns. They'd never seen anything like that. They wanted to be like those actors and actresses, so the movies informed their behavior. A lot of people started drinking martinis and smoking cigarettes because they felt it was cool.

Bette Midler

I know of few actresses who have this incredible talent for communicating with a camera lens. She would try to seduce a camera as if it were a human being.

Philippe Halsman

I learn a lot with actors that I don't think are good. Every experience shapes you. I've had experiences with actresses - and I say actresses because there's just a woman thing - that have achieved what she's achieved, by means that I can't understand.

Kristen Stewart

I tell young actresses today who are looking to get into films, "First of all, you are marginalized by the color of your skin." I tell actresses, "If you're too tall, if you're too fat, you're not going to work. I don't care how talented you are." It's a business, and sex sells. Sex, action, special effects, and violence sell. Yes, you can have art films about the triumph of the human spirit and all of that, but you'll have it done with a big-budget icon with a $20 million salary.

Pam Grier

There are more stars than there are people. Billions, Alan had said, and millions of them might have planets just as good as ours. Ever since I can remember, I’ve felt too big. But now I felt small. Too small. Too small to count. Every star is massive, but there are so many of them. How could anyone care about one star when there were so many spare? And what if stars were small? What if all the stars were just pixels? And earth was less than a pixel? What does that make us? And what does that make me? Not even dust. I felt tiny. For the first time in my life I felt too small.

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Many actresses do that kind of shoot when they are in their early 20s but I didn't think I had anything to worry about so I decided to go for it. I was very pleased with the results and it was also nice to surprise a few people.