Zoe Kazan

I took a writing class in college, liked it, and my first year out of school I couldn't get a job, so I wrote a play.

People really do make the assumption that I had some weirdo Hollywood upbringing, but my parents are incredibly down-to-earth people who worked really hard to raise us in a way that was health.

You set up the story, but the characters start talking, and they go places that you didn't expect. You have to follow.

If I didn't find art valuable, I would stop doing my work and only work for justice.

I will be a broken record for justice.

People are always asking me - because of my family - if I ever feel pressure or feel like I have something to live up to. And having that in the back of my head, I've just learned to be really brave even in the face of feeling ill-prepared.

I grew up speaking Spanish. The woman who helped raise me was only Spanish-speaking, so it was one of my primary languages as a kid. And I lived in Spain for a while.

I read a lot of plays as a kid, but I didn't see that many plays, so I feel better-versed in film history and film structure. I just think it's easier to think in pictures.

My schedule is completely different doing a play than it is doing a movie, and I actually think it's a much harder schedule because you've got to do it eight times a week and you've got to do it good eight times a week and with different kinds of audiences who are cold or drunk or tired, whatever it is.

Every role requires its own set of tools, and I think, because of that, it is very hard to ever feel totally prepared or totally able.

I do feel like I have the superpower of not caring about my body as an actor.

I remember being two, maybe, and hearing my mum's typewriter in the other room and sticking my hands under the door and screaming, 'Mum! Mum!' I was so angry she wouldn't come out. I got used to it quickly.