Carla Gugino

“I think I'm always trying to subvert conventions, and sometimes it's more successful than others.”

“'Sucker Punch' is a big girl power movie.”

“What I've realized is that we're our own harshest critics. We give ourselves limitations. But I want to push through that wall, on a creative and personal level.”

“Yeah, I guess I'm not a particularly religious person, but I do really believe strongly that we all need to believe in something, and that's very personal to each one of us.”

“I kind of knew it wasn't going to be until my 30s that I really hit my stride as an actor.”

“Unfortunately, 'chick flick' has become a term to describe most movies that I don't even like. They're these movies that, yes, have women in them but they really don't reflect who women are, and there's something kind of silly or shallow or gossipy about them.”

“For me, I never, never, from the moment I started acting, had a desire to be famous.”

“When a sports movie really works, it gets you on all levels, because the stakes are high. It's black and white. It's win or lose.”

“One of the things I really love about TV is this symbiotic relationship you can get between the writers and the actors, and the characters start to come to life because you start to collaborate.”

“One of the most important things for an actor is to observe humanity.”

“It is odd there are many movies with many men. But generally movies have one woman, or maybe the older woman and the younger girl.”

“I always feel like I want to work with people who raise my game, and I can do the same for them, and we can jump off the cliff together.”

“I'm a huge Wong Kar-Wai fan.”

“We are all multidimensional and kind of have dual personalities. Everyone puts on different roles depending on what circumstances they're in without even noticing that they do that.”

“I've joked that I would have either become schizophrenic or an actress, but as an actress you can do both.”

“I always had challenges when I was younger, because I looked so young but sounded older.”

“I think when I first started acting there were different people who I thought, 'I want that person's career or that person's career.' And as time has gone on, it's become really clear to me what is important to me; getting the best roles, the roles that I feel are challenging and scary and that I haven't done yet.”

“I like being the lead but I like being in an ensemble. There are different challenges and dilemmas with both. If you're carrying a film, there's a certain weight, but there are a lot of scenes to explore the character. When you're in an ensemble, you have to convey the entire character in a limited number of scenes.”

“I think that there's a tendency for actors who play strong women to have them take on all the worst characteristics of men, to become cold and detached and hardened.”