"I had to act in a school play when I was about ten years old. I really didn't want to do it. But everyone had to do it so I didn't have a choice. A talent agent came and watched it and later gave me some work. It's funny because I'd always known that I wanted a movie career. I just didn't think that I would be in the movies"
About this Quote
The line “It’s funny” isn’t a punchline so much as a defense mechanism. Stewart’s public persona has long been read through the lens of reluctance - the performer who bristles at performance offscreen. Here, she’s narrating success as an accident that happened to someone who wasn’t trying to be “on.” In a celebrity culture that rewards hunger and self-branding, she offers a counter-image: the kid who wanted a “movie career” in the abstract but couldn’t picture the literal reality of being in movies. That split is the key subtext. Desire isn’t the same as self-concept, especially at ten, especially for girls taught to keep ambition modest and expectations hedged.
The agent’s presence in a school play also quietly exposes the machinery behind “discovery”: opportunity isn’t evenly distributed; it shows up in certain rooms. Stewart makes that structural luck sound casual, which is exactly why it rings true. The story’s charm is its ambivalence - wanting the outcome without wanting the audition for it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Stewart, Kristen. (2026, January 16). I had to act in a school play when I was about ten years old. I really didn't want to do it. But everyone had to do it so I didn't have a choice. A talent agent came and watched it and later gave me some work. It's funny because I'd always known that I wanted a movie career. I just didn't think that I would be in the movies. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-had-to-act-in-a-school-play-when-i-was-about-126545/
Chicago Style
Stewart, Kristen. "I had to act in a school play when I was about ten years old. I really didn't want to do it. But everyone had to do it so I didn't have a choice. A talent agent came and watched it and later gave me some work. It's funny because I'd always known that I wanted a movie career. I just didn't think that I would be in the movies." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-had-to-act-in-a-school-play-when-i-was-about-126545/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I had to act in a school play when I was about ten years old. I really didn't want to do it. But everyone had to do it so I didn't have a choice. A talent agent came and watched it and later gave me some work. It's funny because I'd always known that I wanted a movie career. I just didn't think that I would be in the movies." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-had-to-act-in-a-school-play-when-i-was-about-126545/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.





