Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles as Maxine Lund in Being John Malkovichand Harper Lee in Capote. Keener also appeared in the films Into the Wildand Synecdoche, New York, which were well received by critics. Keener is also the noted muse of director Nicole Holofcener, having appeared in every work of hers to date...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth23 March 1959
CityMiami, FL
CountryUnited States of America
These days there are a lot of people who just want to be famous. I think that comes from a naive place, because those people generally don't know what it's like.
I'm pretty organized. I'm pretty controlling. I don't have big plans or designs. But I don't rely on a Palm Pilot or help or other technology-no! I'm barely good with emailing and a fax machine. I organize things in my head; I have a pretty good memory, so that helps me out a lot.
It's important for me to connect with the script and to know after meeting the director if it's a person I'm going to feel unguarded around.
It occurred to me that it would be interesting to be a man for a short amount of time, just to see if there actually is a difference in the way that we think and feel, like people are always talking about. I don't really know that there's a difference, because I've only been a woman.
Your head shouldn't swell about it. You can't take it personally.
For a long time Dermot worked more, and I would always go on location with him... Dermot did all the work-I think he commuted maybe 10 times between flying to Omaha from Toronto. It takes effort when you're both working, but we try not to work at the same time.
The people who make those movies tend to be studios, because they need a lot of money to do it, and those people don't hire me.
In these situations that I've been involved in, people are going toward a common goal, which is to do good work. The crew will go out of their way to make you feel comfortable and give you an encouraging pat on the back. Everybody just works toward that objective, and it's really helpful in a performance. It's dire for me.
I haven't had a lot of time to reflect on what's just happened, but I do know that it was really good and I'm very happy with all the jobs. It wasn't intentional that I kind of wanted to mix it up a little bit. But I did know - I was aware of this - a couple years back of starting to be perceived as this tough, urban, blah blah blah. One person writes that and then another person will and then it becomes true. I didn't feel that way. I felt like everybody was different.
I read the script about five times, out loud, and I still had no idea what it meant.
If you look at the parts... they are really great parts, and the writing is always great, and the people that I've been able to work with are amazing.
I just never fantasized about Mr. Rogers, but I like his whole vibe.
The movies I usually do are maybe three or four weeks because they don't have a lot of money.
I don't think I'm very ambitious at all. But I seem to play people who have that quality.