Daily Inspiration Quote by Famke Janssen

There’s a quiet defiance in how ordinary this sounds. Famke Janssen isn’t delivering a manifesto; she’s tossing off a preference. That’s the point. In an industry that treats Los Angeles as both capital and commandment, “I live in New York” plays like a statement of identity, not just geography. The follow-up - “I don’t really particularly want to move to LA” - is deliberately padded with softeners, as if she’s preemptively disarming the assumption that refusal must be dramatic, bitter, or strategic. It’s not a feud; it’s a boundary.

The subtext is about power: who gets to define what a “serious” career looks like, and which city is framed as the default proving ground. New York carries its own mythology for actors - theater lineage, anonymity, the permission to have a life that isn’t built around studio lots and audition traffic. LA, in contrast, can read as a place where the job swallows the person, where networking becomes a second language and privacy is always negotiable.

Janssen’s phrasing also signals a specific kind of confidence: the ability to opt out without apologizing too hard. For many performers, relocation is treated as the price of admission. Here, the intent feels closer to: I’ve already paid my dues, and I’m choosing the terms of my own normal. In a culture that romanticizes hustle and proximity, her refusal lands as a small, bracing insistence that ambition doesn’t have to mean surrendering your home.