It's always nerve-wracking; it's like going to a new school every time you start a new movie. There are so many people and you're trying to be comfortable and vulnerable on set in order to be fearless on camera. But it's fun, it's part of the job. You've just got to be very personable, I guess.

Alia Shawkat

Categorized in : School People Fun

When you focus on life, on enjoying and connecting with other people, that's when work comes. When you focus on work, you can never work. I'm always going through waves of that.

Alia Shawkat

wave focus people

The main thing I got from growing up in a suburb is the boredom you have as a child.

Alia Shawkat

boredom growing-up children

I still do a form of sense memory. It honestly depends on the job. It depends on the other people you're working with, how the other actor works. It's take a little from here, take a little from there.

Alia Shawkat

jobs memories people

I'm lucky right now because I'm not that famous, people will look at the work just as the work, and people respond to it pretty well. It's just hard to know exactly what group I need to meet and where I need to be. I think fame helps, but I want it to be separate as much as it can. Fame is just so weird, people just love famous people.

Alia Shawkat

lucky people thinking

Obviously the way people watch TV has changed so much, too, that it's not necessarily about the ratings anymore. There's a different kind of time lapse; you put it out there and people absorb it at their speed, not just on Monday night at eight.

Alia Shawkat

eight monday night

I think how I've gotten better, hopefully, at taking what I've got and being able to mish-mash something together, and as long as it feels real to me in the moment, then it feels like a success.

Alia Shawkat

real long thinking

I love being on movie sets. It's a very particular setting. And not all of the time, most of the time, there's always people you don't like, and you have to see them every day.

Alia Shawkat

particular love-is people

It is important to be involved in everything.

Alia Shawkat

involved important

I feel like when you're dealing with your main character, it has to be relatable and feel grounded, and that's the kind of acting I like to do anyway.

Alia Shawkat

acting kind character

You don't want to not be single because you're scared of being single.

Alia Shawkat

being-single scared want

I've been single for so long that I'm scared of being in a relationship.

Alia Shawkat

scared long

Let's not get too comfortable with each other.

Alia Shawkat

comfortable

I have been acting for almost 20 years now. At first it changed in my focus and how much I wanted to act. When I was younger, it was so much fun, and I really wanted it, but it was not competitive. Then I became a teenager and it became kind of competitive and not as much fun. I pulled back and I got lazy about it, where I was like, "Yeah, I guess, I'll do small parts in cool movies," but I wasn't really trying to say anything.

Alia Shawkat

teenager fun years

I want to do film and TV. I want to make good stories. I want to write; I want to be more involved.

Alia Shawkat

stories want writing

I'm more verbal and not as private as I was as a kid.

Alia Shawkat

kids

Acting is a very strange industry in that it flows in these weird ways, I'll be so busy for 6 months and then nothing for a couple months, so it's hard for me to focus and stuff.

Alia Shawkat

focus couple acting

You get a kind of familiarity on a set when you're on a TV show.

Alia Shawkat

tv-shows tvs kind

I'm not a huge TV person, but when I do watch, it's always after the fact because I like to binge watch.

Alia Shawkat

tvs watches facts

I'm not at the place in my career necessarily where I'm like offered every role.

Alia Shawkat

roles careers

It's nice when you get to leave and travel and be busy and then come home.

Alia Shawkat

nice busy home