"Sometimes it's a character you want to play or a story you want to tell. Sometimes it's just to pay the bills"
About this Quote
The structure is doing quiet rhetorical heavy lifting. By repeating “Sometimes,” Hannah normalizes fluctuation: art and survival aren’t opposites, they’re alternating currents. First comes the idealized reason - character, story, the actor as interpreter. Then the blunt, almost comic deflation of the second clause. That tonal drop is the point. It punctures the expectation that every role has to be spiritually meaningful, and it implicitly critiques the way audiences and press demand constant narrative purity from performers.
Subtextually, it also gestures at the hidden math of a career: inconsistent opportunities, the cost of waiting for the “right” script, the pressure to stay visible, the realities of health insurance, mortgages, supporting family. For women in Hollywood, especially, the “bills” line carries extra bite: fewer good parts with age, more scrutiny, less room to be picky.
Context matters, too. Hannah’s career spans blockbuster sheen and indie credibility, so she’s not speaking from bitterness so much as hard-earned clarity. The intent is honesty as recalibration: you can love the craft and still need the paycheck, and pretending otherwise mostly serves the myth machine.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hannah, Daryl. (2026, January 17). Sometimes it's a character you want to play or a story you want to tell. Sometimes it's just to pay the bills. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-its-a-character-you-want-to-play-or-a-44987/
Chicago Style
Hannah, Daryl. "Sometimes it's a character you want to play or a story you want to tell. Sometimes it's just to pay the bills." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-its-a-character-you-want-to-play-or-a-44987/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Sometimes it's a character you want to play or a story you want to tell. Sometimes it's just to pay the bills." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-its-a-character-you-want-to-play-or-a-44987/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.






