Geena Davis Quotations

We're showing kids a world that is very scantily populated with women and female characters. They should see female characters taking up half the planet, which we do.

Archery is something that I took up later and didn't know I had a natural aptitude for.

If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.

It's really important for boys to see that girls take up half of the planet - which we do.

As an Independent, she has no party backing... Her being the first Independent president trumps the fact that she's a woman. It causes even more upheaval in Washington than her being female.

Somebody warned me early on to be very careful about brushing up against the chocolate....

I haven't ever gone to any Mensa meetings.

I've always looked up to him, even though he is shorter.

This dapper little mouse that wore such cute clothes and said such interesting things, yeah. I thought it was a great idea to have a mouse like that in your family, so now I get to see what it was like.

When my friends and I would act out movies as kids, we'd play the guys' roles, since they had the most interesting things to do. Decades later, I can hardly believe my sons and daughter are seeing many of the same limited choices in current films.

I have an elbow that bends the wrong way, and I'd do things like stand in an elevator and the doors would close, and I'd pretend that my arm had got caught in it, and then I'd scream, 'Ow, ow, put it back!'

I just read that 81 percent of Americans are ready to vote for a woman. So it sounds like America is ready.

Rosie knows how to play ball. She's an athlete, for sure.

Something's like crossed over in me and I can't go back. I couldn't live.

We're making this as entertainment. But God willing, if this show stays on and people see a woman in that office for a while, I think it will help people become more used to it. It's certainly about time that we had a few female presidents.

I have a Web site that parents and girls can use to learn about Title IX and take action if they find their school is not in compliance. Thirty years after Title IX passed, 80 percent of schools are not in compliance.

I played this character twice in live action, and now I've become an animated character. It was actually fun to see myself drawn - I've never been a drawn character before.

We're showing kids a world that's very scantly populated with women and female characters.

So many other countries have had female leaders, in fact the U.S. ranks 61st in female representation in government and I think it is startling and sign of a change that needs to be made.

People want you to satisfy every possible dream or expectation they would have for a woman president, ... We still live at a time when a female president is controversial - even though it seems so bizarre that we've made it to the 21st century excluding half of the potential talent pool.

will happen. It's just a question of when.

When I saw archery, which I had never really looked at before, I wondered if it needed some of the same skills as pistol shooting.

As an Independent, she has no party backing, ... Her being the first Independent president trumps the fact that she's a woman. It causes even more upheaval in Washington than her being female.

This is the chance to see, in all its aspects, what it is like to suddenly become president. You have a crisis in Nigeria and you have a 6-year-old. And you have twins in trouble in high school.

It's a fascinating story to see him get in ... The fox is in the hen house.

It made perfect sense to me that I would play this part, ... I have always been interested in roles that are gonna be challenging for me - but also, characters that other women can identify with.

It's important for what kids watch that, as far as possible, they see the real world reflected, to see men and women, boys and girls, sharing the space.

It's certainly the role with the most gravitas that I've had to play,

I love to see those barriers broken. What I'm really hoping is that we can get break the barriers and then get past it to the point that its really not shocking news.

I loved that I went straight from being an incredibly deadly assassin in 'Long Kiss Goodnight' to the mother of a mouse, ... I just thought that was fabulous ... we all have everything within us, the ability to be a killer or the girlfriend of an insect.

but I have to appreciate that actors have it a lot easier than other people who have to work these kinds of hours -- even the actual president.

I didn't really base my characterization on anybody, ... I don't really work that way when I played a role. I find the parts of myself that the character has. I believe we all have everything within us, the ability to be a killer or the girlfriend of an insect. It was finding those parts of myself that I felt could serve the character of Mackenzie.

I competed in the high jump in high school, but I wasn't very good. My technique was to stand around looking intimidating because I was so tall.

For Thelma to be president -- I just think it's delightful,

I immediately noticed there were far more male characters than female characters in the programs, even now, in the 21st century.

Once I fix what kids watch, I'll be moving on to everything else.

All I wanted, to be petite and attractive. I was afraid I'd never stop growing.

The fictitious worlds created for kids are nearly bereft of female presence. It's sending a very clear message from the beginning that women and girls do not have half of the adventures, that they're not as important. We're teaching kids that girls and women don't take up half the space in the world.

I used to be very unathletic. I was always so gangly and self-conscious about my height. I had convinced myself I was uncoordinated. And as a result, I didn't want to try stuff.

I was tall from minute one. Always the tallest kid by a large margin. And my fantasy was to take up less space in the world.

I remember very distinctly being so tall I didn't fit sleeves, so I ended up modeling lingerie and bathing suits, sleeveless stuff, basically. I didn't have a good body, but I believed I knew how to stand or pose to mask it.

I had a pretty poor self-image for a long time. I broke into acting as a model in New York. I was never anything like a "supermodel," but I made a living at it for a couple years. The thing was, I was convinced that I was tricking everyone into thinking I was attractive.

My theory of everything is that we are training kids to have gender bias against girls, therefore when you are an adult, you don't see it. We think it's normal.

The most important thing is to change what children see from the beginning. To not create a problem we have to fix later.

I'm so not a party person. I'm so not social and don't go to parties.

I was lucky enough to be in some movies where I had powerful characters or I got to be the president on TV for a little while. Very short administration.

Women are in many ways second-class citizens in the United States in 2016, because of the way that we're portrayed in popular culture.

It's partly because our culture so hyper-sexualizes females that if you don't measure up to whatever we're forced to think is the standard, then you feel inadequate.

When I was a model, actually, for a little while, my friend that I worked with a lot, she had horrible self-esteem too. We decided that the exact moment when we actually thought we were attractive, we wouldn't be any more. We would just, like, miss it.

I had very, very bad self-esteem - that I was a fake, everybody was going to find out, that I didn't deserve to have success, just about my looks and really, really bad self esteem.

My sons last summer, they won a trophy from their surfing camp and they came home and went right over to the shelf and put it up next to my Oscar. That's where we put our trophies.

I think if you're doing a play, you're rehearsing enough that you get to a point where it's freeing again. But in a movie, if you rehearse too much, now you've just shown everybody what you're going to do. And any element of surprise or impulsiveness is taken away.

I'm not somebody who takes stuff home with them, that if I shoot a scene and I'm personally impacted for days or something. I mean it certainly is affecting and everything, but it doesn't penetrate to some deeper layer. I'm in it when I'm in it.

The thing I noticed, have learned the most about directors, is: when they're very confident in themselves, they're open to creativity from other people. If they're scared or nervous, then they shut off and nobody's ideas [count].

I do like the process of producing. Later in my career, like when I had the TV show, I was a producer and I've been on a few things.

I just love all the details about movies, and it's fun to be involved in everything. I just love it. It's just a little added fun thing to be consulted about stuff.

Because I had some roles that resonated with women, I immediately noticed that there were far more male characters than female characters in what we're showing little kids in the 21st century, which was stunning to me. But I couldn't find anybody else who noticed.

The ratio of male to female characters in movies has been exactly the same since 1946. So if you've ever had people say, you know, "It's better now, it's all changed, it's all different," it's not, it hasn't. Not yet.

I once read a quote that I think was Michelle Pfeiffer in an article, who said that she thought people went into acting because maybe if you could convince millions of people to like you, you will finally like yourself, approve of yourself. I don't know if that may have been a part of it.

I think I always had joie de vivre. But I had pretty bad self-esteem growing up and much of my adult life.

Nobody ever said, "Well if you want to be in movies, you should go to L.A." Everybody else was going to New York. So I went to New York with them. And then I was like, "How am I supposed to get a movie?"

I always want a challenge. My whole career has been based on trying to avoid female characters that don't get to do anything. And it's really hard to avoid those.

On film, you can't do it over again. And you do have to stop shooting at a certain point.

I do have a very chill - I can watch all my movies. A lot of people don't like to watch their work. I watch everything. All the time.

When it came time for college, I told my parents I was going to major in acting. And they were so removed from anything to do with show business - my dad built our house and my mom grew our food.

After a couple of rehearsals and a couple of takes, Sydney Pollack says, "Come here. Why are you not nervous?" And I [say], "Do you think it would be better if I was nervous?" And he says, "No, it's just I can't understand it - how you would be first time on a set, you're acting, when he flubs his line you make up a new line. It's very interesting." It's not that I think I'm great; that's what I knew I wanted to do.

I almost never get nervous. I have ice water in my veins.

The only time I got the absolute most insanely nervous in my life was at the Olympic trials, because archery is a horrible spectator sport. Nobody goes and watches an archery tournament. Because the targets are three-quarters of a football field away. Who can tell who's winning? You can't even see your own target from where you are.

My scripts are always filled with notes. I like to just analyze everything from the point of view of the whole picture, of the movie, my whole picture.

Obviously, movies don't almost ever shoot in sequence.

The only movies I saw till I was 17 were made by Disney. My parents had this thing. Disney was like, you know, "Ford is a good car. Disney makes good movies that are good for kids and safe."

I watched a lot of series. I didn't watch a lot of movies on TV. But I watched Gilligan's Island and Star Trek and all that stuff.

I really only did theater in school in college. I did summer stock a couple of times in the summer, and plays that the school put on. But I knew I wanted to be in movies.I really only did theater in school in college. I did summer stock a couple of times in the summer, and plays that the school put on. But I knew I wanted to be in movies.

I love theater. Just, it never spoke to me.

I got cast playing the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. I don't know how to play any sport, including baseball, but I trained really hard. They had these great coaches, and they started saying, "Wow, you have some like really untapped athletic ability."

I don't think male characters are as one-dimensional as female characters.

Ridiculously - fortunately - my first job was with Dustin Hoffman. I had a little part in this movie called Tootsie. And he taught me how to watch dailies. That it was very important.

Any movie you see, if Tom Cruise is in an action movie or whatever it is, The Avengers, there's going to be a kick-ass female character. Usually one. And there's a term for this, but I don't know what it is. But someone's coined a term where there's one female character who's incredibly tough and strong and just as good as the guys at whatever it is they're doing, and usually wearing black, skin-tight clothes, and [she] has no personality whatsoever, and is not funny.

There were so many women who had worked throughout the war in every possible job. They were told, "Now leave, so the men can come in" and there was this whole feminizing of women: You have to be very, very retiring and submissive and whatever.

For a long time, way back in the '30s and '40s, there were fabulous female roles. Bette Davis and all those people had incredible, great roles. After World War II, something happened where it was not only "get out of the factories," but "get out of the movies." That's when women's roles started to really [change].

I watch very little television, actually. There's so many shows I want to watch and then I know I'll get hooked and I have to binge-watch the entire thing.

They called and said, "I know we're not supposed to even tell you, but you've been offered to play the President." And I said, "OK. Say yes." And they were like, "Do you want to read it maybe?" And I was like, "No, I just want to be the president."

Instead of trying to manufacture feelings, use the way you already feel. Or at least add that in.

It's a horrible and wonderful battle with yourself, to stay calm, stay in the moment. My coach said, "Stay here, not at the target. Don't be down there." It's why they call it the Zen art.

The main thing about archery is a battle with yourself. You can ruin it all. Once you have learned the technique, the point is to recreate the perfect technique over and over and over.

I just passed on some a script that I was sent, because I said, "I haven't yet played the person staying home, the one that says, 'Good luck, honey,' or whatever." And so that's what I look for. Therefore, by virtue of that exclusion, I'm always trying to find roles that are challenging.

I wanted to take up a sport the real way and see if I actually had athletic ability. And then I happened to see it was during the Atlanta Olympics. And there was a lot of coverage of archery because the U.S. men's team won all the medals. And I thought, "Wow, that's beautiful. And it's so dramatic, a beautiful sport. And I wonder if I would be good at it?"

I was all limbs and I was very convinced that I must be uncoordinated, so I didn't want to try any sports. And the girls' basketball team was constantly like, "Please, please just come play."

The second I finish shooting something, I know I could have done it better if we started right then.

My thing in high school was being the tallest kid in class. Always. I was always the tallest kid in class.

I had told my agents that I never wanted to do an hour-long TV show. I said, "I'm not that stupid." Because it's the worst lifestyle in Hollywood.

Having a very complicated life, or a lot of problems, or a lot of flaws, is always great to play.

Everything I do, I want to take it to the farthest possible degree. I can't just do something the plain way. I don't cook a bowl of pasta; it has to be puff pastry swans.

If we show fictional characters doing cool stuff, then girls will want to be it in real life.

I don't really bust anybody publicly. It's much more efficient if I can impact the creators. So that's what we do. It's had a great impact.

My point was the world is missing female characters. A lot of times there is one female character, maybe even a cool one, maybe even an important one. But where are all the rest?

I just started asking my friends if they had noticed. None of them - feminists, mothers, daughters - noticed until I pointed it out. Then I decided to bring it up within the industry. I knew a lot of people, so I'd say, "Have you ever noticed how few female characters there are in kids movies?" when I met a director, a producer, whatever. And they said, "Oh, but that's not true anymore."

I'm very competitive, I think.

My daughter was a toddler. I had no idea there was anything wrong with kids' media.I started watching little preschool shows with her or G-rated videos or whatever; I couldn't believe what I was seeing, that there seemed to be far more male characters than female characters in what we make for little kids. It was just a shock.

We all know the huge problem there is with entertainment in general leaving out women. Especially as actors, we know there are fewer great parts for women.