Gillian Jacobs quotes:

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  • I think maybe my mom thought that Katharine Hepburn would be a good role model of, like, a strong, smart, independent woman. Maybe she steered me in that direction. You know, because she was really so ahead of her time.

  • For me, I really love 'Tim and Eric' and 'Dr. Steve Brule' and a lot of the Adult Swim shows, so I like strange, weird, sometimes slightly upsetting humor.

  • As you become an adult and start to make your way in life, you realize how much your friends are your family - though you get to make fun of your friends, too.

  • I've had a very positive experience in L.A. in the comedy world and found everyone to be very nice and welcoming. It's been really fun.

  • Dan Harmon has this idea that characters on TV are allowed to talk about their favorite movies and TV shows and songs.

  • I really like the concept of, like, slowing down and savoring your food, enjoying it.

  • I had my life Monday through Friday in school, and then I had my 'real life,' which was my acting class on Saturday.

  • I've always wanted to work with Elizabeth Banks. She's so talented and funny, and she's become this force of nature - directing, producing. Being around her is kind of inspiring.

  • I think that there are a lot of really beautiful Christmas carols, and then sometimes there are horrible renditions of them that are played to death in malls that make me sad. I try to avoid stores where they're playing bad versions of Christmas songs on repeat.

  • What I think is a really special movie is 'Black and White' with Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer, which Mike Binder directed. I got to see a screening of it, and I think Kevin and Octavia and Anthony Mackie and Bill Burr all give such beautiful performances in that movie.

  • I've gotten super into restaurants in L.A., so I try to go to different restaurants all the time... that's a good way to explore L.A.: you can drive to a restaurant and discover a new neighborhood.

  • When you can impress your mom by saying you've been to someone's concert, you know you're pretty lame.

  • I say the word N-U-C-L-E-R the same way that George W. Bush says it.

  • It's really nice when life comes full circle and you get to work with people four years down the line.

  • My mom always said fighting with me as a kid was like going to court. I'm trying to realize that being right is not the most important thing.

  • I'm really excited that 'The Other Woman' did so well at the box office, and I hope that will keep encouraging people to make movies about women, starring women, about female friendships. More. Please.

  • I think when you have some success as a kid, your notion of being a good actor is pleasing the director, doing exactly what they tell you to do.

  • NBC gives comedies a chance to find their legs.

  • I went to college and got my degree in acting, but because it was all theater, I really consider my first couple years on 'Mad Men' as amazing training for working in television and for acting on-camera.

  • I had some years of definite frustration. Auditioning and not working as much as I would have liked to, or working and being paid a pittance, and sort of scrounging by in New York and sleeping on a chair that folded out into a bed.

  • I've been getting into drinking smoothies in the morning - I like those a lot.

  • On the set of 'Community,' we quote 'Community' to each other. We're a lost cause. We're like a bunch of little kids running around and yelling things.

  • There are these important things in some people's lives that can make you laugh even when you're going through a tough time or a stressful week.

  • The Comeback' is my favorite TV show of all-time because it's just brill. It's Lisa Kudrow's show about what it's like to be an actor on a TV show. She's so amazing on it.

  • Things are never simple when it comes to the human heart.

  • College is expensive; I always knew that, and I wanted to make money, partially to spend a little of it here and there, but primarily for a college savings fund.

  • The more attention you give to your negative feelings, the more they grow, so I think things just start to blow totally out of proportion.

  • I've thought a lot about how if something horrible happened, and if it were like 'The Road' situation, I've decided I don't want to survive past the death of society as we know it.

  • A lot of people watch 'Community,' but DVR viewings only count if you watch within a certain time.

  • As opposed to trying to make a kiss look romantic or sweet or passionate, it's kind of fun to just have the freedom to make it look weird, goofy and awkward.

  • I'd say I've gone to grad school for comedy being on 'Community.'

  • A lot of people I went to college with felt like they wanted to pursue theater exclusively, so I don't think that I really was in competition with people that I went to school with.

  • I'm not conservative, but I am kind of clean living in my own life.

  • I did live in New York. Yeah, I moved to L.A. for 'Community.' And I gave up my apartment in New York.

  • I think there's a sort of satisfaction in defying people's expectations.

  • Dancing on My Own' is actually a really sad song! It has totally made me cry.

  • I think I signed some contract, early on in my career, that I will only kiss Steve Carell when I do a movie.

  • Like, I'm hyper-conscious about going to bed on time, and doing my seven-step skin care routine at night.

  • Thinking back about throwing myself at certain gentlemen that had no interest in me, that'll bring a blush to my face if I think about it too often.

  • A lot of my friends are guys, so I'm used to bro antics.

  • Even something as stupid as Vine videos makes you feel like you're making things on your own.

  • You have to have an awareness of where you're going, what the event is, what you're promoting, and who the audience is. That always informs the way you dress.

  • I feel like the Internet has embraced the pizza dance. I feel appreciated for once in my life.

  • I am trying to break free from my stripes addiction, but the pull is strong! I need help buying non-stripes.

  • I have a hard time watching people getting punched on screen; I have to close my eyes a lot.

  • We're all slight hypocrites who fall short of our ideals.

  • I have a lot of good stories for talk shows about the conditions in which I worked.

  • I troll Instagram, Style.com, Elle.com.

  • A movie that I've seen probably the most is 'Fanny Alexander,' the Ingmar Bergman movie. I even dragged my friends to the super long version that had an intermission. I don't know how much they liked me that day.

  • My grandfather can barely even hear, and Chevy Chase makes a face, and he laughs.

  • I always had an easier time with adults. Somehow, I was always old! I still feel old.

  • The nice part about not being a huge film is that you get to goof around a bit more.

  • I've been in a lot of indie movies, where we didn't necessarily have permits or permission. I've even run from the cops in the New York City subways!

  • They didn't really encourage my goofy, comedic side at Juilliard.

  • I had kissed a girl in the second season of 'Community,' but that was my first time kissing a girl ever, and I was so nervous, I almost knocked Brit Marling's teeth out.

  • I'm a very law-abiding citizen, and I've never consciously broken any law. I get nervous just jaywalking in Los Angeles!

  • I love Opening Ceremony, Kenzo - anything Humberto Leon and Carol Lim touch. I drool over Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, Delpozo, and Wes Gordon.

  • While I love film and want to continue to pursue it 100 percent, my home is TV.

  • My mom wouldn't let me buy clothes she didn't like, so I dressed like a middle-aged woman in high school.

  • I like the 'Moth' podcast a lot. I listen to that.

  • Nobody knows what the future is except for wizards.

  • It's funny shooting movies because you get to see clubs during daylight hours, which no one should ever see - it's not pretty; there's a reason the lighting is dim in there.

  • I am wrestling with the overalls trend. I wore so many pairs in junior high, and no one thought they were cute. Perhaps I'll try them cuffed with a tasteful crop top?

  • I am very up front about about my inability to pronounce things correctly. I said real-uh-tor instead of realtor until about five years ago. I just admit I have no idea how to say Theyskens! Don't be intimidated. Just be honest!

  • I'm spending way too much time test running my Vine videos. I'll go into a room and close the door and be in there for an hour workshopping a Vine video that I never even post. So that's probably a huge time suck.

  • I can't tell you the number of people that are like, 'Has anyone ever told you you look like a blonde Liv Tyler?' And at this point, I'm like, 'Yes... yes, I've been told that.' I mean, she's beautiful. It's not like I'm not totally flattered by it, but then again, I think I look like myself.

  • I've definitely run from the cops in the New York City subways.

  • Boy, you know, it's amazing how your brain can turn into a sieve, and you can literally forget episodes that you have shot.

  • In sixth grade, we all had to write this opinion paper. Most wrote about things like why we should be able to chew gum in class - I wrote about why women should receive equal pay.

  • I never pursued anything but acting. But as a kid, I was really interested in the Supreme Court. I wanted to to be a Supreme Court justice, but didn't want to be a lawyer. I just wanted to go straight to being a justice.

  • You're always looking to have a unique experience as an actor, and definitely, being punched by a puppet ranks as a singular experience in my career.

  • I'd never really done comedy before 'Community,' so getting to work day in and day out with all these great people, directors, writers, and actors, I feel like I've learned a lot.

  • A movie that I've seen probably the most is 'Fanny & Alexander,' the Ingmar Bergman movie. I even dragged my friends to the super long version that had an intermission. I don't know how much they liked me that day.

  • I've always thought - and I don't even know if I'd be right for the part - that Jean Seberg would make a great biopic. She was in Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless,' she played Joan of Arc. She had this eventful and traumatic adulthood, she thought the FBI was after her, and she became a darling of the French New Wave.

  • I know other actors who are relieved when their shows get cancelled, and I've never felt that way about 'Community.'

  • I love discovering new young brands and watching these fashion lines take off, like Peter Pilotto, Christopher Kane, and Clover Canyon.

  • I am not a big 'Hunger Games' fan.

  • Sometimes movies that I'm in that I have a leading role don't necessarily get the biggest release, so it's a difficult thing between balancing indies that have uncertain futures and maybe larger films that have guaranteed releases that you have a smaller part in.

  • I don't like yelling insults at someone who's never done anything to me.

  • I've had weird, weird acting jobs. Low-budget filmmaking where you find yourself in really bizarre places.

  • You can convey a lot of emotion with just some eyebrows and mouth movement.

  • Craig Robinson is basically the mayor of wherever he goes.

  • Acting by yourself is pretty darn hard, especially having to do physical comedy.

  • I used to live in New York, and I have friends that work in the fashion world, and I feel like I had an ear to the ground there.

  • Some girls say they don't feel comfortable in flats, they only feel comfortable in heels; I am not one of those girls.

  • Fresh Air' I listen to, like, every day.

  • I used to babysit. And the kids I babysat were huge Hilary Duff fans, and so we used to have dance parties every day to her music. So I am very familiar with the albums of Miss Hilary Duff.

  • My inners are not organs. They're actually mechanics, so I have a hole in my back, wind me up like the movie 'Hugo,' and then just say, 'Act,' you know?

  • No actor wants to choose - they just want all of the options available to them all the time; we tend to be pretty greedy.

  • I'm a pretty goofy person. I'm an awkward dancer, for instance, and a terrible singer.

  • There were definitely bands and musicians I liked that drove my mother insane. I probably liked them all the more for it! Bjork drove my mom nuts. What I listened to was actually pretty mom-friendly for the most part. I wasn't very rebellious.

  • You can only do so many serious dramas in a row before you want to break. You want a change.

  • A friend of mine wrote a script, a feminist romantic comedy. She had a feminist scholar consult on it. My friend said, 'Oh, my friend Gillian read it and really loved it.' She goes, 'Gillian Jacobs, you mean: Britta Perry, feminist icon?'

  • Accept your failure, move on, and don't torture yourself.

  • After you do a showcase for agency managers and casting directors and you get this folder and some people had a folder that was thick and some people had a folder that was thin. And there's no fairness to it because it's not a fair business.

  • An analogy is like a thought with another thought's hat on

  • Apparently, I have good feet for ballet.

  • As you can tell by my IMDB page, I like to work.

  • Bitterness doesn't serve you any good. And it really tells you more about how you feel about yourself than anything you feel about your friends.

  • Fresh Air I listen to, like, every day.

  • I also have learned as an actor, this ties in the principles of improv, sometimes someone gives a piece of instruction and my first reaction is "I don't want to do that." I've always learned that every time I just say yes and go for it something happens. Whether it's what the intent of the direction was or not or something new happens. It's just remaining open to other people's ideas.

  • I also think the more experienced you get as an actor, you start to hear the conversations about why people get cast and not cast, sometimes it's so arbitrary. They decided the moment you walked in the door. And there's nothing you could have done to sway them, even if you'd the greatest performance of all time.

  • I always try to have a bigger picture view of my career. But that didn't mean that I didn't cry about not getting jobs.

  • I always want to do something I haven't done before and get to work with other actors, writers, or directors that I want to work with.

  • I am very up front about about my inability to pronounce things correctly.

  • I don't think I've ever been mistaken for anyone.

  • I feel like I go through cycles as an actress.

  • I feel like so often I'm just, like, running around and eating in the car, which is, like, not good, or eating as I'm walking down the street.

  • I first came to LA auditioning during pilot season. I didn't really know anyone. The only people I'd meet were the girls I was up against at auditions. It wasn't the friendliest bunch.

  • I haven't done improv since I was in middle school.

  • I haven't ever seen 'Lost' I'm sorry.

  • I keep reminding myself, through all the ups and downs of 'Community,' that I might never have another job that really means something to people the way 'Community' means something to people. That's more powerful than ratings.

  • I never thought I would be in a comedic role; my past is in drama.

  • I think 'Glee' was a freshman comedy, and I think whenever it's your debut season, you get compared a lot to the other shows, regardless if there's any sort of overlap in content or tone or anything, just because you came out in the same year.

  • I think if I was in over 250 films, the world would get pretty sick of me. I would probably never get put in anything ever again.

  • I think in theater it demands that you say the same words every night and make it feel fresh and new. Improv demands that you be operating at the highest level of your creativity intelligence. So these two skills are both very important but I've seen people who are very skilled at one area struggle with the other. Either improvisers feel constrained by having to say the same thing over and over again or people who are really good at doing scripted work feel intimidated and exposed doing improvisation.

  • I think that it is important to establish a world of place for the characters in improv and there is nothing to be gained from disagreeing about that. So you have to establish the principle that if some person establishes one thing we're all going to go along with it and that we are all building from it.

  • I think we are used to being critical and evaluating ideas.

  • I think we've probably all read a word that we've never heard pronounced out loud, and we try it out in a sentence and fall on our face.

  • I think when you're in a relationship, either you have something or your partner generally has something that you're having to deal with.

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