Top 60 Mary Elizabeth Winstead Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “If you let too many cooks in the kitchen it could cloud your vision of what you want to do.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

2. “You don’t have to play masculine to be a strong woman.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

3. “For any addict, when you get sober, life becomes more challenging, in some ways, because all of your problems become very clear and you have to deal with your pain. You can’t just drink and forget about it and pretend it doesn’t exist. You have to actually face it, head on.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

4. “I do get starstruck working with Bruce because even though he is such a nice guy he’s a real movie star. I grew up watching his movies it is just really hard to get used to just being around Bruce Willis. I mean, he’s Bruce Willis!”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

5. “I was that overachieving, annoying kid who was always trying to win some contest or win the role. I look back on it now and I’m like, “Chill, man.” Calm down.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

6. “Usually a lot of moviemaking is boring.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

7. “So, they have the same vibe of like that fun kind of spirit, but this one’s a lot more serious. It’s like, get it done, get it done right, you know? It’s got to be perfect. We definitely do lots of takes on this.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

8. “I have a sister who is a dancer and dance teacher. We grew up dancing together. I wanted to become a ballerina when I was a kid, so she and I were always at ballet conservatories and going to school with our hair in buns.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

9. “Kensington Market is a must visit place in Toronto.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

10. “I come from a pretty scientific family. My sister is a neurologist and my brother is an engineer.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

11. “I think thinking about becoming an adult, and having to face up to your problems and face up to your insecurities, is difficult for everybody.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

12. “I have a lot of different traits to my personality, depending on who I’m around, and what the dynamic in the situation is.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

13. “You’re literally sized up with measuring tape as a 13- or 14-year-old girl. I wanted to opt out of that experience.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

14. “I grew up in a big movie house, we watched movies all the time, so I had an awareness at a very young age that that was a job that you could have.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

15. “The more I work the happier I am.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

16. “Any addict in recovery would say that life never becomes perfect. Your life is better, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier. Life, at least for a certain period of time, becomes harder and you have to work through that to get to the light at the end of the tunnel.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

17. “I can remember when Pulp Fiction came out. I was, like, 10 years old. But I remember the impact that it had.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

18. “Anytime I’m given scripts where I’m sort of the fantasy girl, it’s hard for me because that’s not real and I don’t think it’s a great thing to put out there consistently.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

19. “Obviously, we’re all going to die at some point. Whether or not we are fated to die in some way I think is debatable. I just don’t know which side to debate.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

20. “I’m a really cautious person, so I don’t let myself get into near-death experiences. I’m not into the idea of skydiving or anything.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

21. “It’s always been a lot of fun for me, just to be in films that people see and they connect to, big or small. The big ones tend to reach a wider audience, so it’s exciting to feel like you’ve got fans in countries, all over the world, who are watching what you’re doing. That’s really great!”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

22. “I think since I’m not particularly well-known as myself, it’s funny all the different perceptions people have of me. Like, if someone’s only seen me in ‘Death Proof,’ they think I’m sort of a ditzy girl who says stupid things and wears revealing outfits all the time.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

23. “I’m a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fan.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

24. “You have to believe that it is what you want to do with your life and you have to be dedicated to it.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

25. “I found my way into the indie world a bit late in my career, but it was something that I was really passionate about doing.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

26. “Sometimes, with directors, you have to take what they say and translate it in your head, into something that makes sense to you, because you’re speaking two different languages.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

27. “I always felt that my talent would trump everything.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

28. “I guess I’ve just gotten to the point where I don’t want to be bored by the characters that I play, and I don’t want to feel like I’m having to make something more interesting or I’m having to force something that’s not really there on the page.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

29. “I was kind of embarrassed by some of the films I had done. I was like, “Oh, they’re going to think I don’t have street cred.””

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

30. “I realized that the people weren’t just characters but they were people and they were getting to do something that was so fun and I wanted to be a part of it.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

31. “It’s surprising to a lot of people because ballerinas look so long, but it’s more of a proportion thing. Their legs are long in proportion to their body but in reality they’re very tiny.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

32. “I don’t have any premonitions. I don’t have any supernatural powers. I just have a typical woman’s intuition, and I go with that.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

33. “In ballet, I felt that no matter how good I was, if I didn’t have the right body type or if I didn’t fit a certain mold there was nothing I could do.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

34. “I actually came to New York when I was 12 and did ballet school for a little while. I was being groomed to be professional, and a lot of the professors and teachers there were drawn to me and thought that I could become a professional ballerina.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

35. “I don’t have phobias. I’m pretty laid back. Nothing really bothers me. I can handle things pretty well.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

36. “There are obviously people who want to be very niche, but I think for the most part everybody is trying to reach a larger audience.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

37. “I mean every character you totally, you know, the full fiber of the personality is kept in the film, and all of those little moments, all those funny little tidbits are all in there.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

38. “I want to be inspired by the characters that I play and excited by the projects that I do.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

39. “The older I get, the more I’m drawn to the smaller films, but I still hope to keep bigger films in my repertoire. It’s just maybe going to be a shift in focus, but I’ll definitely still hopefully be kicking around in those.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

40. “I’ve never worn incredible clothes – I’m not used to playing someone so put together and fashionable.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

41. “I can’t say I was much of a gamer growing up or that I am now, but I’m certainly part of that culture or it’s part of, you know, the sort of time that I grew up in.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

42. “I’m a fan of films in general; I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever considered myself specifically a horror fan even though I do enjoy horror films, find them really entertaining.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

43. “I was always a performing arts kid in general – but I felt like my ultimate goal was to be an actress and be in films.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

44. “My first paying job was guest starring in ‘Touched By An Angel’ when I was 12. It was very exciting. I couldn’t believe you got free food all day and people were so nice to you.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

45. “When I was 10, my school did Romeo and Juliet. I was Juliet, and that was, like, the biggest deal ever. I was completely obsessed with the role.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

46. “Particularly for women, I think more of us in the industry need to just do it. I think guys are more willing to put themselves out, that way, at least with the girls that I know. We say we want to direct, but then we don’t actually do it.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

47. “I always wanted to perform in some capacity since I was a kid – I was a ballerina, then a singer before acting.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

48. “I do want to direct, eventually. I don’t know if it will be a short film or a music video or a feature, but I know that I want to at least try it and see.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

49. “My first movie was a movie that had a bunch of people dying in it – the typical popcorn movie. That’s where I got my start.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead

50. “Which is so important, I mean, that’s what’s so great about the books, is, you know, those two worlds are sort of, the slacker world of just comedy and laziness and then this crazy, over the top action, supernatural world, and you know, combined.”

— Mary Elizabeth Winstead