Words matter. These are the best Phyllida Lloyd Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I was given a mask of myself by Frances Barber when we opened ‘Julius Caesar.’ I looked much younger and prettier. Wearing it was certainly cheaper than Botox.
It was extraordinary to experience ‘Mamma Mia!’ What an injection of good spirit and heart it was.
Margaret Thatcher was pro-choice. She voted to decriminalize homosexuality. Was not profoundly religious. She was very liberal on social issues.
I wanted to be an actress from about the age of five.
In the not-for-profit world, I never felt that being female was an impediment. I was, however, given my break into commercial theatre by a female producer, Judy Craymer, and women – in particular, Donna Langley, president of production at Universal – were crucial in giving ‘Mamma Mia’ a home in Hollywood.
If you have bad hair and you bite your nails, nobody expects that you can’t direct plays.
The power of a close-up can be extraordinary, but you have to have actors who are able to reveal themselves.
You can’t wait for someone to discover you; you have to just get on and do it. Have confidence that directing is a very suitable job for a woman – with our gift for collaboration, listening, and reading the nuance of things.
Frankly, I find it very odd that, in a population that’s more than 50 per cent of women, that Hollywood isn’t producing more movies to cater to that audience. The demographic is being grossly underserved, in my opinion.
I started working in London, and I’ve been free-lance ever since.
In a way, ‘Mamma Mia!’ was such a left-field thing for me.
When I was asked to read a screenplay about Margaret Thatcher, I think I felt immediate apprehension.
If you’re an actor, you have to look spiffing. But as the director, you don’t need to look so glamorous.
Movie-making is an extreme sport on many levels. It requires stamina such as I had never imagined.
One is always attracted to pieces of theatre with great roles for women.
I was hellbent on going to drama school, but my mother, rightly, panicked and persuaded me to go to university on the grounds that a degree would be ‘something to fall back on.’ Whilst at college, I realised I wasn’t good enough or robust enough to be an actress.
In Europe, it is not so unusual for directors to move between opera, theatre, and film, and I have at least three girlfriends I can think of who have directed in all three genres.
If you believe that how you do your work is as influential as the work you do, then a theatre rehearsal, which is a microcosm of the world, is the perfect place to model social change because if it doesn’t work this time, you can try again on the next production.
It’s the job of the artist to take something that everybody thinks they know about, they’ve made a decision about, they will be immovable on, and to shine a light on it.
When I began to direct, I discovered that I was much more comfortable than I was acting.
I think Margaret Thatcher was a superstar in this country, and I think we all felt we needed a superstar to play her, somebody of huge intelligence, passion, and power and warmth.
In a way, the debate about Margaret Thatcher in Britain has just gotten fossilized in this notion that she is either this she-devil who wrecked the industrial base of the country and ruined the lives of millions, or she is the blessed Margaret who saved the nation and rescued us from our post-war decline.
Do as much theatre as you can while you’re at school.
I think courage is commensurate with your fear – if you lack imagination and you’re fearless, that’s not courage to me.
In London, it’s quite a rarefied activity to be on an analyst’s couch.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a horrifying and horrifyingly possible vision of the future.
As a woman, I think Margaret Thatcher felt she had to be ten times more prepared than the men.
Onstage, there’s a separation between character and audience; onscreen, you can go to a deeper place.
To be invited to the Park – the greatest free Shakespeare festival in the world – is a great honor, and I don’t take it lightly.
In the theatre in the U.K., women are at the very top of the tree as freelance directors.
