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Tracey Ullman

38 quotes

“My real name is Trace Ullman, but I added the 'y.' My mother said it was spelled the American way, but I don't think she can spell! I always wanted a middle name. My mum used to tell me it was Mary but I never believed her. I looked on my birth certificate and I didn't have one, just Trace Ullman.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the subject of her name in Look in TV Annual (Independent Television Books Ltd, 1984)
“I never worked with a dialogue coach before, but I'd hate it if an American did a British accent and didn't do it well. It would be insulting.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 1989 in The New York Times article "Tracy Ullman Makes A Face
“I love having a kid [...] They don’t let you think about yourself. [The one drawback of being a mum in America is that] Mabel wants Barbie, one of those bloody awful dolls. No vaginas, no nipples and they're bulimic. This is what femininity is? [...] Ever tried to assemble a Barbie barbecue stand? [...] Fortunately, Mabel already knows that Ken's just Mr. Barbie. She already cut his hair punk style. She knows that ... Ken's an idiot.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 1990 in the Philadelphia Inquirer
“I wouldn't do anything mean spirited. If it's in the wrong spirit, or if its not honest, then I wouldn't do it. It's got to honest. Otherwise, what's the point?”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Des Moines Register (11 May 1990)
“Some kids can play the piano or kick a football; I could just impersonate everyone.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted on a 2003 episode of The View.
“Every seven years or so I look around me and I want to look at the society and I want to try and be everyone I'm seeing in the world right now. [...] And I've done this all my life. I realized I used to do this in my mother's bedroom when I was 6. I used to be everyone in my village and everyone at school and everyone in the news, and I'm still doing that same show. I'm now 56. I think I can do it in my 80s. I'll just, you know, impersonate everyone around me then in the nursing home.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by NPR in 2016, on what what drives her to do impersonations
“There's real fear of aging in this country, which I don’t share. It seems to be an American nightmare, especially for women. There’s nothing worse than a woman trying to look like she did when she was 32 when she is 58. It’s like, “Have some dignity, guys—just go with it!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 2009 in The Many States of Tracey Ullman
“I based my career from the very beginning on people like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Margaret Rutherford. I keep thinking Maggie and Judi are going to eventually not want those parts and I’m going to move up and take them (laughter). So, hopefully, I’ll be working in my 70s and 80s. You know, character actresses. I never had looks to lose. I could keep going—Meryl Streep and me.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 2009 in The Many States of Tracey Ullman
“I have the sh*ttest birthday—the 30th of December! Can you imagine what that was like when I was a kid in England? It was the day before New Year’s Eve. It was horrific! My sister’s birthday is on the fourth of July. It was all about strawberries and dancing in the garden in summer dresses. Mine was like, “Don’t talk about it. It’s her birthday.” It was pitch-dark (laughter). Every one wrapped presents for me that they didn’t want from Christmas. It was a terrible time to have a birthday (laughter)!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 2009 The Many States of Tracey Ullman
“The BBC said the only thing they didn’t like about the show was those weird little animated characters and suggested maybe they could get rid of them because they would never catch on.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 2009 about The Simpsons shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show
“I really thought I was great when I did a quite serious soap opera for the BBC. I played a nice girl from St. John's Wood. 'Mummy, I think I'm pregnant. I don't know who's done it.' Then I would fall down a hill or something. 'EEEEE! Oh, no, lost another baby.' It seemed all I ever did was have miscarriages—or make yogurt.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dignity, girls! Ageing with dignity – that's the thing.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Express in 2015
“American [comedy] was always stronger because you had Lucille Ball, you had Carol Burnett, you had Lily Tomlin, Gilda Radner. I came from a country where we just had Benny Hill girls. You had to run around in a bikini basically in the '80s in Britain. Then I did a sketch show and Pamela Stevenson and then (Dawn) French and (Jennifer) Saunders just shook it all up. But I grew up thinking I could be a character actress. I didn't think I could go into comedy.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 2015 in The Hollywood Reporter
“My face is a good one for doing impersonations. I’ve got small eyes, a low brow and a big head ... When I worked at the BBC in the 80s the only wigs that would fit me were Mike Yardwood's.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 2016 in The Guardian
“I love John Waters. There's stuff in it that's beyond the boundaries of my taste, but his movies have always been like that.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I get older, I just prefer to knit.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From an early age. I used to dress up and impersonate our next-door neighbor, Miss Cox. She wore rubber boots, a wool hat, and her nose always dripped. My father died when I was 6 and we were really sad, so I put on a show for my mum. [In a mocking American accent] Looking back now, it was a kind of therapy.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I left school at 16 and went to Berlin and danced [...] West Berlin, 1976. It was amazing. I wish they hadn't taken the wall down. Now it's full of east Germans wearing Versace shirts.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People think I'm a demented little pixie, but I'm not 'on' all the time. I'm sensible. I pay my bills. I've never done drugs. I don't drink or smoke. I eat organic. I'm a goody-goody, really, but I can play bad girls.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm as famous as I want to be.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought I'd end up in a Swiss sanitarium. It was brutally hard work. I could barely see my family.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's very therapeutic, what I do. Other people get this anonymity and thrill from being in an Internet chat room, where they can be anybody they want to be. That's the feeling I get, but to an even greater extent. I physically take on these characteristics. Afterwards, I feel I'm a parrot. I need a black bag put over my head until I become myself again.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Working with the same people week after week brings out inspiration. You have to have an open discussion or you end up with actors saying fuck you to the writers and writers saying fuck you to the actors.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every character I do is based on someone I know. I try to justify every sketch we do. If it's not working, we find someone to talk to who it has happened to.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I fear most is that you will know where the laughs are going to come, or that you will know a character so well that you know when they're going to sing a song. In some shows, you just know that the audience is sitting there going "Oh no, she's going to sing.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They hold onto a small child who's hungry, then go back to their homes and feel good about themselves. That's how I perceive actors getting involved in politics and charities. They want even more attention for themselves, it's in their nature.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why does everyone think the future is space helmets, silver foil, and talking like computers, like a bad episode of Star Trek?”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was never a child. I was always a menopausal woman within a child's body.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In 1976 I was sweet 16. Well, I was never sweet, but I was 16.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You see, most people with multiple personalities get therapy. I get my own HBO comedy series!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hollywood to me, I never get the real glamour and romance. I look at an old picture of Veronica Lake, you know, looking glamorous, and I just look at her and think, "Maybe she had her period that day.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, yeah, she's that snippy little Brit girl who takes all the parts so no one else gets a crack at it.”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd stand in front of the mirror and talk to myself until I fell asleep, you know. I'd interview myself as women with problems, you know, like, women in documentaries who had three kids and chainsmoked and husbands in prison that hit them! I'd be in the mirror going, [lowers voice] yeah well, you know, it's not easy since Derrin went into prison. My eyes aren't black anymore, but the twins, Tilly and Wayne, you know, they don't stop crying. SHUT UP TILLY SHUT UP TILLY!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My mum went and married a really horrible horrible man, who drove a taxi at night and had a sticky-fingered son and he smoked cigars in the toilet. Smelled terrible! Again, there's no therapy, there's no counseling over the whole situation! Just married the maniac. And there was a new person in her bed now, and I couldn't do my nightly performance anymore. I was nine years old and my show had been canceled!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought, is this what it's all about? Do you have to be blonde and girly and have freckles and a snub-nose and sort of act the coquette in show business? WELL YES!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody's [in Berlin] gay!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As we twirled and snapped our fingers, I felt light and airy and fancy-free. Of course I did, I had no bloody panties on! And the cartwheel lift's coming up! And I'm a brunette!”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hated the pressure that many of the children were under. Many of the kids were forced to grow up too fast, their careers were being decided for them before they were 13. If I went to an audition then they'd always choose the sweetest, prettiest kid. I wasn't obviously beautiful so I used to miss out." Ullman has also alleged that the owners taught their own children and that a certain level of favouritism seemed to exist. She also felt that the education she was receiving was of very little value. "These stupid teachers would come in and go, 'Good morning, darlings, lets all be dustbins!' I'd go, 'Oh, shut up! I wanna be a banana!'”
Tracey Ullman (born 1959) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the subject of her childhood stage school, Playboy, September 1988, volume 35, issue 9, p.166