Geena Davis Quotes

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.

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

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

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

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 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 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.

Are you stupid or did you just take lessons?

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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'm such a wuss. But I know that The Exorcist [1973] is one of the best and most famous of [horor movies].

People think of me in the same breath as Robert Redford and Robert De Niro.

My knowledge of horror films is pathetic because I can't really watch them.

My parents are both from Vermont, very old-fashioned New England. We heated our house with wood my father chopped. My mom grew all of our food. We were very underexposed to everything.

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

I was 16 or something. [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.

It's okay if it takes two or three years for something really good to come along, but I don't want to wait ten years for something great to come along.

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

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.

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'm very competitive, I think.

The creators of kids' media had no idea they were leaving out that many female characters. They were in utter shock that the worlds they were creating were so bereft of female presences.

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.

If you risk nothing then you risk everything.