Geena Davis quotes: on overcoming low self-esteem, how she picks her roles, having nerves of steel, and more.
“I wish I knew who said it, but my favorite quote is, ‘If a person can do it, I can do it.'”
“You can dream. People want to satisfy every possible dream or expectation they could have.”
“There’s life after whatever you’re doing. You can reinvent yourself and find positions of more control and power in your life.”
“No more missed opportunities. Don’t miss anymore chances.”
“If you risk nothing, then you risk everything. Who does not risk, risks everything. I think that life is all about taking risks, even if it’s something as silly as a dress.”
“Don’t create a problem that you need to fix later on.”
“It’s important to try to be awake and recognize situations where you are giving up some of your power or authority.”
“Say what you observe and feel.”
“Instead of trying to manufacture feelings, use the way you already feel. Or at least add that in.”
“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. I had pretty bad self-esteem growing up and much of my adult life.”
“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.”
“I knew I wanted to have self-esteem, and I was going to get it somehow. I just had a will to become myself. I’ve always had a picture in my head of who I think I really am.”
“I told my parents when I was three that I wanted to be in movies. I don’t know what I saw at three years old that would make me decide that’s a job and I want to have that job. But I was very confident, very sure that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t do anything about it. I didn’t prove it to myself or anything. I just knew.”
“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.”
“I was really lucky that I had an aunt who was very inspiring to me. She was different than anybody in my family on either side. My aunt broadened my understanding of what women could be like and do and that there’s a big world out there. So she had a huge impact on me.”
“I’m definitely highly driven, about everything. If I decide on something I really like to make it happen. My mother’s favorite expression when I was growing up was, ‘Well, there’s no point telling you not to do it because you’ll do it anyway.’ I was very willful and stubborn and determined about things and I’m sure that’s bled over in my career.”
“I always want a challenge. My whole career has been based on trying to avoid female characters that don’t get to do anything.”
“I just dive in. I can’t know what’s going to succeed. There’s no point in being cautious, because then you don’t get a chance to do stuff you really want to do. I want to do parts that I feel strongly about and that I think I can do a good job with. All I can do is take responsibility for doing my best and making sensible choices. But I learned early on never to get invested in what will happen.”
“I’m very competitive. I almost never get nervous. I have ice water in my veins.”
“Everything I do, I want to take it to the farthest possible degree. I can’t just do something the plain way. I take everything too far. And I have to be careful what I get involved in.”
“What I didn’t realize until much later, in hindsight, was I had subconsciously been choosing projects where the woman was in charge of her own destiny.”
“I want to express myself and feel free, and not hamper myself by fear. I’ve done that enough. I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to worry about what people are going to label me as.”
“Go ahead and think whatever you want. This is just me. You can figure it out. It’s not my job to sell America on who I am. My job is to be in movies, and I am hopeful that people like my work. I’m not running for office.”
“You have to be tough to get anywhere in this industry. You have to have tenacity, to believe that everybody is gonna be wrong, that you’re gonna be the one that gets singled out. They all want to tell you in the beginning that the chances are few of becoming successful in this business; it’s tough; it happens for so few people. We all must be insane to pursue this career anyway, to think, ‘Yeah, sure, but I’m gonna be the one that gets to work after all.’ I’m just lucky that it worked out that way.”
“Winning the Oscar makes you feel incredible and appreciated. But I don’t know that it changes your career. I really don’t know if anybody hired me because of the Oscar after that.”
“I’m quite happy. This really is very much what I’ve pictured and to me it’s been incredibly satisfying and I’ve got to play some really unique and challenging parts and to do some things that women don’t ordinarily get to do in movies and have those kinds of options and choices. I get to move around from different genres and I haven’t been pigeonholed so I’m very happy about how it’s all gone. I feel that my options are still open.”
“I’ve been very fortunate and I’ve had some incredible parts. And for a while there, I felt like I was sucking up all the good female parts, getting to do some really special and unusual things. But it’s true what they say: parts get fewer and less good the older you get, particularly for women. I’m lucky not to have to settle. I haven’t run out of money, so I haven’t had to take parts I didn’t like or feel were challenging in some way. I still hold out for those.”
“The whole point of why I’m doing this is to show all kids, boys and girls, that women take up half the space and do half of the interesting things in the world and have half of the dreams and ambitions. Our slogan is, ‘If they see it, they can be it.'”
“Kids need to see entertainment where females are valued as much as males.”
“I love to see those barriers broken. What I’m really hoping is that we can break the barriers and then get past it to the point that it’s really not shocking news.”
“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 making a point of letting my kids know it’s okay to express themselves. I try not to decide for them what they’re feeling. I want them to know they don’t have to hide their emotions.”
“We are all broken. Those of us who are less broken need to help those who are more broken.”
