Vinessa Shaw
Vinessa Shaw
Vinessa Elizabeth Shawis an American film actress and model. Shaw has starred in numerous motion pictures since the early 1990s and was a supporting cast member in the Showtime Drama Ray Donovan. Her breakout role was in Disney's 1993 Halloween comedy-fantasy hit film Hocus Pocus. She also was in Ladybugs, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's horror picture The Hills Have Eyes, and 40 Days and 40 Nights, as Josh Hartnett's character's sadistic ex-girlfriend...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth19 July 1976
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
When I realized that nothing is perfect and no one is perfect, I was able to overcome my initial fears. I was holding myself to some weird standard that I was putting outside of myself, i.e., the director or casting director - they're not expecting perfection. I had all these strange trappings I would put myself in.
When you practice Buddhism, you have to always self-reflect, and you can't avoid your problems. That makes me understand human beings better. I feel that the more I do that in my own life, the more I can see how to play a character.
My grandmother is still a woman who worries about what she looks like when she goes outside. She's from that era, and I can remember saying to her, 'Grandmother, we're just going to the grocery store.' And she'd be like, 'I've got to fix my face!' You were very aware of how you were presenting yourself to society in 1960s Las Vegas.
It's such an awkward, strange thing that was concocted, to have auditions. Back in the old days, you'd just have a screen test, and they'd say, 'Oh, you seem natural in front of the camera,' and you'd just go do 10 pictures for Paramount or whatever.
I'm a Buddhist and active in my Buddhist's Association, and I'm actually a National Young Women's representative for the organization, so I travel a lot helping young women who are practicing Buddhism.
I think all of the directors I've worked with are mostly curious about the time I had on 'Eyes Wide Shut.' They really just want to know about it. They're all fans of Kubrick.
I think all movie love scenes are hard because you can't truly be as intimate as you would be with anyone you're truly with, and everyone's watching you.
Anywhere in the world, any day of the week, in 192 countries and territories worldwide, one can find an SGI Buddhist meeting where dialogue is at the fore.
My dad's a surfer-psychologist, and my mother's an actress-fitness instructor, and we all practice Buddhism.
In 'Garden Party' or '40 Days and 40 Nights,' I played characters who people don't necessarily like; I just find some humanity in them.
I'm not very good at dating. I'm very decisive. If I like someone, then they're my boyfriend. It's pretty straightforward.
I was going to school thinking I was going to do something entirely different, thought acting was just a hobby at that point, met Stanley Kubrick and was like, 'Whoa, this can be an art form, and you can really move people the way you do simply by acting.'
I'm a perfectionist, so doing a high quality, high caliber television show with great actors makes me feel like there's this whole world of television that I've never experienced.
The compassionate actions of a Buddha are essential to reforming and revitalizing society.