Carrie Coon

We haven't evolved a hero story that's female. We're always trying to fit women's stories into this male structure, which is this rising action, this powerful conflict, and this falling action. And I think a female hero story is not that. It's something else.

My family was always wondering why I ended up playing people who were mentally ill, insane, downtrodden, and a little crazy. I think what they don't understand is that most female parts are written basically as hysterical women.

I've never felt terribly attached to acting because I always feel like the world is really big and really interesting, and there are a lot of places that I can put my energy and be fulfilled.

The women I know are smart, interesting people who aren't just there to service the men's stories, so I don't know why our art continues to do that.

I have my three brothers, and then I have my adopted sister from El Salvador, who is actually the oldest. My brother and I were already born, and then my parents adopted my sister from El Salvador during the war and had two more kids.

I ended up doing four or five plays in college and being an English major with my thesis in language acquisition, which I was planning to study in graduate school.

Part of being an actor is the rhythm of the life of being an actor, and that involves coming together with a group of people, making something together that is intense and requires a lot of intimacy, and then walking away from it with the possibility that you will never see any of those people again.

I think there is no better training than being onstage because here's the thing: the theater requires you to act with your whole body. I think acting with your whole body gives you a root, and you can build from there.

Inevitably, when a scene isn't working for me, it's because I'm being self-conscious, and I'm not putting enough of my focus on my fellow actor.

I rely on poetry or literature to keep me centered before I go onstage because it reminds me to be present.

I didn't grow up knowing actors' names, and my parents weren't theater people.

I've been seeing a lot of theatre in New York, and I am sort of terribly jealous of everyone on stage but also really appreciating it in a way that you can't when you're in the middle of it.