I had gone through a mother having dementia in the last couple of years of her life. She was in a nursing facility in my little hometown area of northern Illinois, so I got to see a lot of other patients there in various stages of the disease. I had a firsthand exposure to it in a pretty big way.

Joan Allen

Categorized in : Way Life Mother Hometown

Acting gave me the opportunity to do outrageous things. It allowed me to be sad, happy, angry and lustful, even if it was just vicariously.

lustful acting opportunity

I don't have a political bone in my body. by Joan Allen

I don't have a political bone in my body.

bones political body

Once I got to high school and auditioned for a play and got in, I thought this was really what I was looking for. Once that had got cleared up, from 13 on, that was it.

high-school play school

I'm hard to pin down. I tend to look different in films. by Joan Allen

I'm hard to pin down. I tend to look different in films.

film different looks

I was always much more shy. All I knew was that I loved to act. But I don't know about the other part of it. I'm not sure I had the chutzpah to go and prove yourself.

proving-yourself not-sure shy

I think the people who cast films tend to think of me in regard to strong women with integrity and a lot of it has been very good.

strong-women integrity thinking

I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingenue leading lady, who started out something like Michelle Pfeiffer, or Jessica Lange. I'm a bit quirkier than that.

actors character thinking

I think I knew acting was what I wanted to do. But I was from this small town and there was no place for an adult to recognise it.

adults acting thinking

I never liked the bar scene. I tried to like it. I would give it a try every three or four months. I'd think, tonight I'm going out. But I never met anybody in that circumstance.

trying giving thinking

I just try and do the best with every role I get to do. Hopefully the experience in itself is a good experience and people will want to work with me.

roles trying people

I get recognised sometimes. But I just live my life. I get on the bus, I get on the subway, it's not a problem.

subway problem sometimes

I was a very good girl for a long time, that's what really drew me to acting. The stage was the perfect place to be outrageous, to be sad, to be angry, to be all these different things.

girl perfect long

It's such a great feeling to make people laugh. I know I've made people cry or want to slit their wrists, but to make people laugh is a very intoxicating, wonderful thing.

feelings laughing people

I think that I do separate myself a fair amount. And I don't feel like I am representing women. That's up to however people interpret it once they sort of see it.

feels people thinking

I certainly do get at the end of my rope at times. We all do. by Joan Allen

I certainly do get at the end of my rope at times. We all do.

rope ends

Almost any film that you do is an opportunity to open you up and make you more aware of an area that you might not be thinking about. That's what is kind of cool, or one of the cool things about this profession.

opportunity might thinking

I think ties are great and Kathy Bates is an actress whose work I've admired tremendously over many years, and I feel a certain kinship with her, we both came from an extensive theater background.

ties years thinking

There are not many things that can happen much worse to a family than having a member taken and not knowing what happened to them.

happen things not-knowing family

I don't get tons of scripts to be looking at and deciding on in terms of feature films; the industry has changed. Fortunately, with television and streaming and original series online, there's this whole new thing that has opened up, which I think is fantastic.

looking new think television

'Room' was more a study of an individual event, and 'The Family'... by Joan Allen

'Room' was more a study of an individual event, and 'The Family' takes off from there.

room more family study