Ruth Wilson Quotes

I've always been quite shy. Very confident but very shy.

You can argue about globalization and the many benefits it has had, but also you have to appeal to the mass with everything. The Chinese, the Americans, the Russians... Everything becomes this very bland product, and that's all we're producing at the moment. It's driven by money.

We'll always have art, darling.

I come from the south, so you're useless and you're a bit pathetic. That's the first thing that the northerners think of you.

I'm crap at lying. I go bright red.

I'd quite like to do a film but I'd also love to do more theatre. I want to keep challenging myself with good roles. It's harder for women because there aren't as many challenging roles.

I really love clothes, but I think I have a style of my own which is quite eclectic.

I feel like male patriarchy generally has been about repressing female sexuality because it's "scary."

Racism, specifically, is the state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death.

Every actor turns everything round to their character.

It's how you prioritize in life.

Cleaning isn't all that interesting to me. I'm disorganized.

You never have a consistent job as an actor, so you're always looking for the next thing. It's defined by the opportunities that come across your doorstep at the time. A career is totally in the hands of fate, in terms of how those opportunities arise.

I remembered a mantra that one of my teachers used to tell me at drama school, that every thought will pass across your face. Even if you're thinking about Shreddies the camera will read it.

I feel like everyone's starting to isolate, and that proves itself in a big context like Brexit, and Donald Trump potentially, and putting walls up and stopping people coming in.

To not want children or not be considerate of them is a very unwomanly thing to be, from a certain point of view.

I admire the brazen qualities in people.

I'm crap at pretending to be something I'm not when I'm in my real life.

I've got friends who are so good at getting away with things, like going up to the desk to get upgraded on a plane, for example. I haven't got any of that kind of confidence in those situations. I look so awkward. I act awkward. I'm really apologetic. I fail to get anything that way.

I'm not very good at lying.

I'd love to direct again.

What you aim for, as an actor, is to be able to play a range of different roles.

With film acting, and often when the camera comes very close, you just have to think about something and the camera will pick it up.

I've always quite liked the idea of being an archeologist, sort of scrubbing around in the dirt.

Brexit for me was really interesting because I was in the heart of Yorkshire, which is a "leave" area. It was quite odd actually, a real deep sense of unease. You felt very odd for your country. You have lots of people that are angry. It's a very physical and public stand that these people are making.

In Britain, we haven't got enough money to make these long-running shows. We always do little mini ones. You have more control as an actor over what you want to do with it. On these you drive yourself mad trying to know what's going to happen, because the writers don't.

I'm from the theater, darling. I want to know what happens at the end.

I think the environment is possibly our most worrying thing at the moment, so I think mountaintops are the place to live.

Leaving Europe in my mind wasn't the best thing; it's not the best way of having that political voice. But that's the only voice people in Britain could have. People turned out in their droves to vote, more than for prime minister. So it was huge and very divisive.

I feel safe that theater will always serve women in different ages.

The communal experience of sharing something, and being part of it, and watching something visually striking, that's what film is all about. Seeing everything on a big screen, and to be able to see something phenomenal in that way, and being moved by it. We have kind of lost the tradition of that, and we're not nurturing the next generation in that tradition, and maybe that's why they're not turning up.

Even now, for women to be contemplating the act of ending their life is considered horrific because they are the giver of life. They're seen in a patriarchal society as the one who offers life and has to nurture a child and have a child within them. That's your only role.

I simply want to take a break and catch my breath. But I also think that, sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to deliberately keep some time free and see what the world throws at you.

I love complex characters - strong females who are vulnerable but have a life and soul. That's what I'm drawn to and what I enjoy most.

I don't know about writing. It's quite lonely. You have to have a lot of patience with yourself.

It was really fun to play the woman in charge and in control. She's powerful and she uses the aspects of being a woman. She uses her sexuality as a weapon.

For me, there is a stigma attached to playing beautiful parts. They are often empty characters whom the action happens around. I'm more drawn to characters with a complex internal life, who have a burning frustration underneath that keeps them going.

What really excites me is the unknown, and getting to grips with something you have no idea about.

I was kind of overwhelmed by the idea that we are just balls of energy and that we have imposed terms on feelings.

I'm drawn to damaged, complicated characters.

My remit has always been: I want to do something different from the last thing I've done.

It's a good time for me, but it's only recently I've become comfortable in my job. At the start, it's hard having the nerve to call yourself an actor, let alone doing it. I gave myself two years after drama school, and if I didn't make it, then I'd give it up.

There's such a huge link with fashion, with front covers of magazines and selling products, but that's not what you go into the job for, and yet you're persuaded that's what you have to do to create the opportunities for yourself.

There's always been a religious strain in me. I can't get rid of it. I don't want to get rid of it. I'm not involved in a church, but I understand that impulse to believe in something that's never going to betray you.

Hollywood is no longer the top. I love going to the cinema. I've always adored the idea of being in great, epic films. But they just don't really exist anymore. It's a real shame. There's great auteurs that create small movies, but it's really hard for anyone to see them, and for them to make any sort of money, or for them even to be made in the first place.

There are lots of moments that are great for an actress.

My parents are desperate, they keep saying: 'Please stop doing these angsty roles; make it easier for us.' So, yeah, I'd love to do some comedy.

I haven't got one or two people that I aspired to be like.

I don't really plan. I just see what happens.

I always vaguely knew I wanted to perform, but I haven't got the greatest singing voice and my dancing isn't up to scratch. Acting was really the only alternative. My parents have been really supportive throughout.