I was always a character actress, even when I was an ingenue. But as you age, people know what to do with you, and you're not quite as dependent on maintaining leading-lady beauty.

Marylouise Burke

I was a hard fit at a young age. I didn't make sense as an ingenue or a leading love-interest lady.

Allison Janney

I was playing 40-year-old women when I was 20. I didn't get considered for ingenue roles.

Allison Janney

On the one hand, I always get the young ingenue, pretty parts. But I don't think of myself that way because I was an ugly duckling when I was growing up. I have to be reminded when I play a part sometimes that I'm playing the pretty girl.

Amy Carlson

I was never, ever the ingenue. The young, innocent lead was just not me.

Anna Chancellor

I was never an ingenue. I've traveled the globe, I've backpacked through South America, I've done conservation work in Africa. I was never the girl who knew nothing of the world.

Annabelle Wallis

In my fantasies, I always wanted to play the ingenue, but in reality, in my bones, I am so used to playing the grandmother that I don't feel safe or even sure that I can do it.

Camryn Manheim

To be honest with you, most of the time the ingenue roles are a little bit dull and boring, in my opinion.

Carmen Cusack

I played the ingenue, of course, when I was young - but even with those, I tried to make interesting choices and mess them up a little bit - make them layered and complicated and not all stereotypes.

Carrie Preston

Character roles definitely age better than your ingenues. You don't get to keep doing that.

Catherine O'Hara

I saw I wasn't an ingenue like Debbie Reynolds.

Charlotte Rae

I've never wanted to be the ingenue. Now that I'm getting into my forties, I think my time as a woman has arrived; I think I might have a new moment in my career. I have that drive left - just for a little while.

Debi Mazar

Certain type of actresses get younger instead of older. I always say, 'Only ingenues age.'

Elaine Stritch

I wasn't some sort of ingenue. I always saw myself as a lifer in this industry, and working as an actor on 'Wonder Years' was a first act.

Fred Savage

They did cast me as an ingenue once, and the novelty was nice. But I said, 'There is nothing here to play!' I really like getting into the meat of a role.

Geraldine Page

I'm not so fascinated by these ingenue roles. I tend to gravitate towards women in plays or shows or films that are more chaotic or have something dire going on.

Hari Nef

I was never the ingenue, so hopefully that'll make it easier to age and still work. I know a lot of actors who are really dissatisfied with where they're at even though some of them are huge stars and I feel like, 'Oh, my God, you're at the top.' Something interesting will come. It always does. I have faith.

Hope Davis

I suppose that there might have been leading men who were put off from casting me as the ingenue because I was taller than they were, but I've no idea that this ever happened. When I did 'Much Ado About Nothing' opposite Mark Rylance in the West End, we used the difference in our heights as part of their relationship.

Janet McTeer

I don't know what I am. I guess you can call me a character actor in the sense that I'll never be an ingenue. You know, that's over. My shot was missed. I take a normal person and make them more of a character. I don't know what that would be called.

Jennifer Coolidge

I could never play the ingenue, the girl next door or the very successful young doctor. That would be a bore.

Jennifer Jason Leigh

As a female actress - I've been doing this since I was a teenager - I often got approached with the ingenue roles: naive and wide-eyed and childlike.

Jessica Henwick