"Day after day, I spent long afternoons in the talent pool, being told how to walk, how to talk, how to sit"
About this Quote
The specificity of “how to walk, how to talk, how to sit” is the point. These aren’t acting choices; they’re basic human functions. The studio system didn’t just cast women, it calibrated them, treating personality like a posture problem. Tierney’s sentence structure mimics the grind: “Day after day,” “long afternoons” - time dilation as control. No single dramatic incident, just a steady drip of instruction that becomes a worldview: you are always being evaluated, even when you’re doing nothing.
Tierney’s context matters because she rose during the peak studio era, when contracts could function like ownership and “star-making” meant enforced uniformity. The subtext is double-edged: she’s acknowledging craft and discipline while exposing the coercion that came packaged as opportunity. There’s also a gendered pressure baked in: women in that system were trained not merely to perform, but to occupy space “correctly” - legible, agreeable, consumable. The quote resonates now because it reads like an early draft of influencer culture: relentless self-surveillance, sold as improvement.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Tierney, Gene. (2026, January 17). Day after day, I spent long afternoons in the talent pool, being told how to walk, how to talk, how to sit. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/day-after-day-i-spent-long-afternoons-in-the-53183/
Chicago Style
Tierney, Gene. "Day after day, I spent long afternoons in the talent pool, being told how to walk, how to talk, how to sit." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/day-after-day-i-spent-long-afternoons-in-the-53183/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Day after day, I spent long afternoons in the talent pool, being told how to walk, how to talk, how to sit." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/day-after-day-i-spent-long-afternoons-in-the-53183/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.







