Words matter. These are the best LaTanya Richardson Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I’m always in awe at how fast television is and how quickly you’re called upon to be 100 percent invested in a character with the lines.
I don’t think you can ease yourself into theater. I just thrust myself into it.
I know it’s a stock answer, but besides acting, I’d love to produce and direct.
Shakespeare wrote about what was happening during the time; it still relates to us now.
If you can make it in theater, you can make it anywhere.
From the moment I saw ‘Camelot’ as a kid, the organic inclination of performing before a live audience is raw and visceral. Once you’re out there, there’s no yelling ‘Cut!’ or any such thing as a do-over because that moment has passed, and you’re in it as it’s happened and gone, sharing it with everyone.
I came to New York in 1974, when I graduated from college. And you had to use ‘Backstage’ because all of the auditions were listed there. Most people didn’t come with agents, so you got to see a lot of what was auditioning and when and where. ‘Backstage’ made sure you knew the major places.
Folks are always talking about 40 acres and a mule, but what we need is some psychoanalysis. Forget 40 acres in a mule: sign all of us up for some shrinks so we can get ourselves right by reflecting and truly learning ourselves.
There is no one American beauty or just one beautiful color in the pantheon, especially in regards to black people – there is no better color.
I hold onto the spirit of God for everything, and that works for me. That aspect of my life is very real and is the truth.
I did theater at Spelman until I graduated from there, and I got to work with such luminous actresses as Diana Sands in ‘Macbeth.’
I think that we’re reducing who we are as human beings to these cell phones and these devices; now we don’t even want to pick up a telephone to talk – we just text.
If I can stay centered, I’m basically going to be living in the world a happy person.
I have always been involved in some philanthropic work – growing up in the church, you always had to have a reasonable portion of service to the community and to people who have less, who need a helping hand. It’s just something in my heart that I know needs to be done.
Acting is in your soul.
I have not tried for a career that’s showy. I have always tried to layer things in and not push it. I love an underperformance, where you’re so entrenched in who that person is that you’re living in it.
Woodie King Jr., in 1970, had started a company called the New Federal Theatre, which was ensconced at the Henry Street Settlement. I did a number of plays there, and I auditioned each time. The plays were mostly new. New York was very fertile ground; there was a plethora of African-American plays being done.
I think most Americans, when we’re building a character, we look at the specificity of what that person is, in particular.
