Karen Allen
Karen Allen
Karen Jane Allenis an American actress. She played Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Arkand Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Allen has also had roles in films such as National Lampoon's Animal House, The Wanderers, Cruising, Shoot the Moon, Starman, Scrooged, The Sandlot, The Perfect Stormand Poster Boy...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth5 October 1951
CityCarrolton, IL
CountryUnited States of America
character deep-understanding careers
I have to say from an actor's perspective, to work with a director who has been an actor through most of their career is a pleasure. They generally have a very deep understanding of the process of what you're doing, of how you are building and exploring the character.
jobs offering roles
I was quite eager to work, anytime somebody was offering me a job, if I liked the role. Because I was always very discriminating from the very beginning, in the sense that I had absolutely no problem saying no to jobs when they came along if somehow they didn't fit into my universe - whatever that was.
motivation opportunity als
For me, the motivation really was to work with Al Pacino. To me, that seemed like an incredible opportunity, just a learning opportunity because I thought so highly of him.
dancer body range
If you just work on your upper body, you're not going to be a full-range dancer or performer. You've got to work in all directions as much as you possibly can.
spiritual shoes magic
As actors, the magic is in the almost spiritual experience to really enter another world, to really enter a belief of being in another person's shoes and to really take on their experiences as someone else has written them and imagined them. It's kind of a sacred thing. It's a very spiritual experience. That in itself for me is the main thing that keeps me coming back to it. I like to travel, but for me, this is the greatest travel.
character trying directors
I try to offer as much as I can to the director so he has as much to work with as possible to create the character that, really, he wants to create in a sense.
character littles scripts
When I read a film script, I kind of see it in my head and I see the moments that shape what I understand the character to be. There's very little time for rehearsal.
real giving trying
In the theater, actors are the essential element of the work. In a film, it's a real collaboration - not that theater isn't, because it is - but it's a collaboration to such an extent that you can give a performance in film that sometimes you look at and you go, "Well, that's not the performance I was trying to give at all."
interesting creative want
I thought, I need to reinvent myself. I want every day of life to be wonderful, fascinating, interesting, creative. And what am I gonna do to make that happen?
profession defined
I don't necessarily like being defined by my profession.
real thinking people
I think that there is a real beauty to the live aspect of the theater, and the working with a director for a month on a script in the isolation of a room and really deeply delving into who are these people, what is the story we're telling, how do we want to tell it?
running new-york moving
I loved living and breathing theatre so much that I decided I had to find a way to bring my desire to act and my ability to support myself together. I'd run through the possibilities in Washington, so that meant moving to New York.
crazy writing bad-relationship
Idleness does drive me crazy, but I'd rather read or write than do anything just to work. A kind of respect has been instilled in me for acting: I love it too much to ever have a bad relationship with it.
independent interesting people
As far as acting in films, there is not much out there that is very interesting to do. The ones that are interesting to me are independent films and they have trouble raising money. With people putting their money into blockbusters, there is not much left for the independents.