A biography for Octavia Spencerhasn’t been written yet.
“I'm dyslexic, and it takes me longer to memorize and to embody the character so I can really own it.”
“I was a production assistant. I saw what people who are full of themselves are like - another reason not to lose your humility! I have a mouth on me so I wasn't the best P.A.”
“Will Smith would not be Worldwide Will Smith if he had not insisted on going worldwide and touring with his films. You have to build that audience for people and allow for it to happen.”
“I will live in TV Land watching 'Columbo.' I also like my 'Forensic Files,' all of that true crime.”
“I'm not an optimist. I'm a realist. And my reality is that we live in a multifaceted, multicultural world. And maybe once we stop labeling ourselves, then maybe everyone else will.”
“I think my role, I want to have a presence both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. So I can't say on one particular thing, so I'll just name them all. I'll be the jack of all trades and hopefully decent at one of them.”
“My idea of success is not Oscars. Am I glad I have that little trinket? Yes, I am. But it depends on how you define success. The minute I got my first professional cheque from Joel Schumacher, I was successful. Somebody's paying me to act!”
“I'll say that I don't think you can throw a stone and not come in contact with someone who knows someone or has problems with substance abuse.”
“We all have hourglass figures; your sand just settles in different places.”
“I don't have one role that I want to play. I guess... I want to be a producer. I want to be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it.”
“To be silent is to be passive.”
“I'm reading today because of 'Encyclopedia Brown.'”
“We always think that we're going to be young forever, and now when I wake up, I need to stretch, and I need to have my glass of water and be cognizant of what I'm doing with my body.”
“We as women have a voice and we are decision makers in what film to see. We always support our boyfriends and husbands by going to see the male dominated films, but we don't compel them to see films with female casts.”
“My family supported me before any of this crazy notion of moving out to Hollywood and staking my claim. That support has never waned.”
“Tough love is the hardest to give.”
“Yes, you want to do studio movies, but I also want to grow as an actor, and an actress like me is not going to get roles where you grow and evolve in a studio film. It's just not gonna happen.”
“I've seen too many sunrises, as far as the walk of shame, staying out too late doing very bad things.”
“When you give kids the tools necessary to change their destiny, it's really empowering.”
“I think that young women and little girls need to see that they don't have to be the damsel in distress. They don't have to not show their strength. They don't have to be whatever the stereotype is or the tropes that we go to in our minds.”