Alicia Witt

American actress, singer, and pianist (born 1975)

Alicia Roanne Witt (born 21 August 1975) is an American actress, musician, singer, writer and director.

All we can do is live every single day and do our best to be present with the ones that we love and with everybody that we come in contact with … The timing of everything seems too divine sometimes to ignore.
Whatever you've accomplished there's always more to experience.

Quotes

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I like to play any character that allows me the freedom to explore it and teach the audience something they didn't know, and show them a journey they identify with … or be inspired, or moved.
  • I've always wanted to do my own thing, and my parents allowed me to do what I needed.
    • On moving to Hollywood at 14, after having earned her high school equivalency diploma, as quoted in "Genius at Work" in People magazine, Vol. 43 No. 9 (6 March 1995)
  • Whatever you've accomplished there's always more to experience.
    • As quoted in "Genius at Work" in People magazine, Vol. 43 No. 9 (6 March 1995)
  • I just tend to admire people who go for what they believe in, like David Lynch for example, and just say what goes through their heads, and are not afraid of people not accepting them. I have no respect for people who deliberately try to be weird to attract attention, but if that's who you honestly are, you shouldn't try to "normalize yourself". It's a fine line.
    • AOL Live (1996)
  • I'm so much happier now that people seem to find better things to ask me about than all my "accomplishments" from when I was a little girl. I feel like that was so long ago, and so irrelevant to who I am now, that I am glad the focus isn't really on that as much any more.
    • AOL Live (1996)
  • When I was a kid, my dream was to be a farmer and marry Charlie Brown. I wanted to rescue him and make him happy. Besides, he was always lusting after "the little redhead girl".
    • Seventeen (1996)
  • Everything was okay, as long as I could dream. Its amazing, really, the difference between having a dream and not having any left that can come true. It's the difference between living and dying.
  • I like digging into these characters that are a lot more complex, and there's a lot that isn't apparent on the surface … In a weird way, you can access all that fear and pain. … Nothing makes me happier than when somebody figures out I was in something, and then they'd seen me in something else, and had no idea it was the same person… Then I feel like I've done my job. … I've always loved finding characters that are not always the most likable ones when you first meet them, and finding a way to make them people that viewers will identify with, even against their better judgment.
  • All we can do is live every single day and do our best to be present with the ones that we love and with everybody that we come in contact with … The timing of everything seems too divine sometimes to ignore.
    • As quoted in "Why Now Is a Divine Time for Alicia Witt", by Sarah Beauchamp at Huffington Post (30 May 2014)

Filmcritic.com interview (2000)

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I love psychology. I like listening to or talking about any personality traits that are unusual
Witt's Beginning: Alicia Witt Struts Her Stuff in the New Comedy "Playing Mona Lisa" by Christopher Null (17 October 2000)
  • I don't consider myself to be a quote-unquote "good girl". I'm not prim and proper and polite. I'm very honest, and I love talking about sex, or people's deviances. I love psychology. I like listening to or talking about any personality traits that are unusual. That's what I like about acting.
  • I don't know that I'm actually bipolar, but I definitely have huge mood swings, and I'm definitely passionate about the way I feel. I'm not really lukewarm one way or the other.
  • I like to play any character that allows me the freedom to explore it and teach the audience something they didn't know, and show them a journey they identify with … or be inspired, or moved. Anything that touches someone's heart is important for me.

Twitter tweets

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i am always doing things i can't do. that's how i get to do them.
Official Twitter account
  • i am always doing things i can't do. that's how i get to do them.
    • Bio note
  • so the moral of this week is: if u do something really, really stupid in front of someone ur just getting to know & they still think youre awesome, then you got yourself a friend.
    • Extended tweet at TwitLonger (14 August 2010)

Lyrics

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Alicia Witt (2009)

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The night was long and dark and just
Another dagger to my trust.
 
Go tell them all it's all my fault
You'll tell them I was crazy.
And anyway it's over now
Nothing left to say.
Debut EP on iTunes
  • I'm bruised again,
    I wear it well,
    The self-inflicted tale they tell.

    I singed my hair,
    I broke my nails.
    You'd love me then,
    If all else failed.
    The night was long and dark and just
    Another dagger to my trust.
    I thrust it in until I bleed
    I wiped my point for you to see.

    And anyway,
    It's over now.
    Nothing left to say.

    I don't know why,
    I don't care how,
    It's over anyway.
    It's broken in pieces.
    You've got the space you needed.
    Too late to try,
    Just say good-bye
    It's over anyway.

  • My so-called faith went up in flames
    Till I believed in all your lies,
    For the life of me I don't know why.
    They got you wrong,
    You're not that strong.
    I don't belong here!
    • "Anyway"
  • You'll say I'm self-destructive —
    I constructed all this tragedy.
    Go tell them all it's all my fault
    You'll tell them I was crazy.
    And anyway it's over now
    Nothing left to say.
    • "Anyway"

Live at Rockwood (2012)

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is there lighting in your veins
is there something that remains…
Live at Rockwood (recorded in Rockwood Music Hall, New York City, January 2012; released June 2012)
 
looks like it’s time to walk away
looks like my moment here is done
your heart is broken in too many pieces
and I’m not fighting for crumbs
  • hold your head up high to face the past
    stare it in the teeth
    question everything you never ask
    the earth shall drink the meek

    is there lighting in your veins
    is there something that remains
    nothings ever gonna change
    so take yourself out in the rain
    life is leadin while you wait
    waitin for your judgement day

  • damn my intuition here it goes
    wish i didn’t know the things I know
    you're backing off from me
    i saw it happening
    the moment she came back to you
  • looks like it’s time to walk away
    looks like my moment here is done
    your heart is broken in too many pieces
    and I’m not fighting for crumbs
    • Fighting For Crumbs

I'm Not Ready For Christmas (2013)

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Give me one reason
I should believe it’s ever gonna change and
why should I be merry
 
It just occurs to me
the Grinch was not so mean
he had a point or two
I think he’dve liked me
"I'm Not Ready For Christmas" (November 2013)
  • I’m not ready for Christmas
    don’t need a gift list
    don’t give a shit how many shopping days are
    left this holiday season
    give me one reason
    i should believe it’s ever gonna change and
    why should i be merry
    when every January
    i come back so very
    broken hearted
    I’m not ready for Christmas
    I think i’ll skip this one and
    Santa I will see you next year.
  • It just occurs to me
    the Grinch was not so mean
    he had a point or two
    I think he’d have liked me.
  • I’m done with wrapping boxes
    buying things that no one wanted
    trying on my own to save the day
    while dad plays cards and bro reads verses
    mom’s in tears between the curses
    I need a fucking holiday

    I’m not ready for Christmas.

Revisionary History (2015)

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  • and tho you lost your way it’s not too late
    god knows you damn well tried

    and all the stones you tossed they’re ripples now
    waves you left behind
    they’re leading you back you can go home again
    • Theme from Pasadena (You Can Go Home)
  • isn’t it nice to know that you’re not my consolation prize
    doesn’t it feel like freedom breathin in and out now
    isn’t it good to see all the love in someone else’s eyes
    doesn’t it all make sense that you’re better off without me
  • no grand intention
    no pain to mention
    just too many days that fade to blue
    and look how it came out perfect
    for better would have been for worse if
    I’d have been the one to settle down that walk with you
    • Consolation Prize

Quotes about Witt

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At 7, brought to the attention of director David Lynch, she made her film debut in the sci-fi epic Dune as space princess Alia. She learned her lines in one reading. ~ Tom Gliatto
 
I sometimes get a funny feeling, that Alicia Witt has to shut down half her cerebellum to have a conversation with me. ~ Chuck Lorre
Alphabetized by author
  • Look at the girl I did Urban Legends with, my last big hit, in '98. One of the girls in that, Alicia Witt — who was on the TV series, Cybill — she without a doubt did the best work on television last year when she guest-starred on the most difficult show to guest star on, which was The Sopranos. She played a non-Italian mafia type on The Sopranos — she was the best thing in the hour. To me, this girl is outstanding. This girl has movie star potential. Now, she was in Cecil B. Demented. I'm just amazed she's not a much bigger star already — not out of any disappointment in Alicia. But I just can't believe the town hasn't just sort of like scooped her up and made her as much of an "It Girl" as, for instance, Goldie Hawn's daughter or Gwyneth Paltrow, because I think this girl is really — and she's also genuinely funny in a wonderful, sexy, screwball comedy way.
  • It was her mother who launched Witt on her unusual trajectory from whiz kid to starlet. Back in 1977, Diane Witt — who, to give her her due as an amazing person, currently has the world's longest hair (documented as 12'8" in the 1994 Guinness Book of Records) — dropped a line to Good Housekeeping. She enjoyed the magazine, she wrote, and noted that her 2-year-old did, too. Housekeeping staff promptly visited and photographed "our youngest reader."
    Thanks to this bit of exposure, Witt was invited to appear on ABC's That's Incredible, where she played a scene as Shakespeare's Juliet. Working with the cameras set off lightbulbs in Alicia's head. "I loved it," she says. "It was like life, only 10 times more intense." At 7, brought to the attention of director David Lynch, she made her film debut in the sci-fi epic Dune as space princess Alia. She learned her lines in one reading. "It's easy," Witt says. "You memorize the thought process instead of the words." Of course.
    Dune opened and closed, and Witt stayed in Worcester, racing through her piano studies. She even created her own variations, in the style of Debussy, Chopin and other masters, on Over the Rainbow.
    • Tom Gliatto, in "Genius at Work" in People magazine, Vol. 43 No. 9 (6 March 1995)
  • I sometimes get a funny feeling, that Alicia Witt has to shut down half her cerebellum to have a conversation with me.
    • Chuck Lorre creator of the sitcom Cybill, as quoted in "Genius at Work" by Tom Gliatto in People magazine, Vol. 43 No. 9 (6 March 1995)
  • Alicia was angelic … yet she could play Beethoven ferociously or Bartok at a raging tempo.
    • David Patterson, music professor at the University of Massachusetts, who taught her as a child, as quoted in "Genius at Work" by Tom Gliatto in People magazine, Vol. 43 No. 9 (6 March 1995)
  • She did have an extraordinary childhood. At the age of 1 month, she says, she was talking. At 6 months, she was reading. At the age of 4, she performed a scene from Romeo and Juliet on the Today show and wrote short stories based on the Peanuts characters. "In my fantasy I was always the savior. I would come to 'Peanuts' land and save everybody. Charlie Brown would fall madly in love with me. Peppermint Patty was so jealous."
    • Mark Schwed, in "Cybill-ing Revelry" in TV Guide (27 July 1996)
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