Vera Farmiga

Vera Ann Farmiga 

6 August 1973

An American actress and film director. As a child, Vera Farmiga converted with her family from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to Pentecostalism. At age 12, Farmiga and her family moved from Irvington to Whitehouse Station, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. She attended St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic School in Newark, New Jersey, and toured with a Ukrainian folk-dancing ensemble called the Syzokryli. In addition to being a professionally trained folk dancer, Farmiga is also a classically trained pianist. She was a member of Plast, a Ukrainian Girl Scoutsorganization. In 1991, she graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Farmiga went on to study Performing Arts at Syracuse University in New York, from which she graduated in 1995.

Farmiga made her feature film debut in the 1998 drama-thriller "Return to Paradise". Farmiga gained critical acclaim following her performance as businesswoman Alex Goran in the 2009 comedy-drama "Up in the Air", for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, all for Best Supporting Actress.

Since 2013, Farmiga has been starring as Norma Louise Bates in the A&E drama television series Bates Motel. For her performance in the role, she won the 2014 Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television, and was nominated for the 2013 and 2014 Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, the 2014 Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, the 2013 TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama, and the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Farmiga is a supporter of Save the Children; at an event for the charity in 2010, she said: "After recently giving birth to my healthy baby daughter Gytta, I've decided to help less fortunate mothers and babies around the world. It doesn't take too much to make an enormous difference. Gytta was privileged to receive the warmest, most tender newborn care. Every baby has that same right and deserves the help to get them through their first few precious months of life. I want to share the warmth." In addition, she supports UNICEF, another organization dedicated to helping children from developing countries.

As director, actress

• Rose Hill (1997) 
• Roar (1997)
• Law & Order (1998)
• The Butterfly Dance (1998)
• Return to Paradise (1998)
• Autumn in New York (2000)
• The Opportunists (2000)
• 15 Minutes (2001)
• Dust (2001)
• UC: Undercover (2001–02)
• Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001)
• Love in the Time of Money (2002)
• Dummy (2002)
• Down to the Bone (2004)
• Mind the Gap (2004)
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
• Touching Evil (2004)
• Neverwas  (2005)
• The Hard Easy (2006)
• Running Scared  (2006)
• Breaking and Entering (2006)
• The Departed (2006)
• Joshua (2007)
• Never Forever (2007)
• In Transit (2008)
• Quid Pro Quo (2008)
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
• Nothing But the Truth (2008)
• A Heavenly Vintage (2009)
• Orphan (2009)
• Up in the Air (2009)
• Henry's Crime (2010)
• Source Code (2011)
• Higher Ground (2011)
• Safe House (2012)
• Goats (2012)
• Bates Motel (2013-...)
• At Middleton (2013)
• The Conjuring (2013)
• Closer to the Moon (2014)
• The Judge (2014)
• Special Correspondents (2016)
• The Conjuring 2 (2016)
• Burn Your Maps (2016)
• The Escape (2016)
• Boundaries (2017)
• The Commuter (2017)

Quotations

* * *

I'm part wood nymph. I require mountains and warm, dense patches of moss to thrive.

* * *

I've always believed that if you are precise in your thoughts, it's not the lines you say that are important - it's what exists between the lines. What I'm compelled by most is that transparency of thought, what is left unspoken.

* * *

I am drawn to intimate, often uncomfortable portraits of a woman persevering and awakening.

* * *

In these times, in this harsh, rude, warring world that we live in, where most of the bloodshed is 'My god is greater than your god,' and we're fighting in the name of our god, we have to find a way to peaceably coexist, spiritually.

* * *

Sometimes I attract roles that are necessary either for personal growth or enlightenment.

* * *

I love Saturday nights with my best friend and a big bowl of pasta, wanting a good scare, something that will say, 'Listen, your life is not as bad as this. Your life can be so much worse.'

* * *

In the quiet moments, the discoveries are made.

* * *

Editing is not a part of the filmmaking process I've ever been privy to as an actress.

* * *

When I look at female characters, I want to recognize myself in them: my trials, my tribulations as a mother, as a lover, as a daughter.

* * *

I think maybe I was a shepherdess in a past life.

* * *

Normally, I rely heavily on my director to massage me out of my actor comfort zones.

* * *

We are all seekers in some way. There are those of us who think they have all the answers and there are those of us who may never get an answer.

* * *

There are women who make things better, there are women who change things, there are women who make things happen, who make a difference. I want to be one of those women.

* * *

Offers come all the time, but I'm pretty particular. I really have to be wowed by a character I encounter in a script, or a storyline. I really do need to feel inspiration, otherwise I'm just happy planting perennials and making goat cheese.

* * *

I feel my fuller-bodied characters are all in the independent films I do, and in the studio productions, I have to work harder to dimensionalize the characters. And that's certainly part of the job description of an actor - that's what you're supposed to do - but you have to work harder at it in the characters that I've encountered in studio films.

* * *

My only real advice to Oscar nominees is, 'If you haven't actually seen a competitor's film, don't fib and say you have and blow smoke up their wahooziewhatsits.' Always best to be frank and tell them the truth.

* * *

Music is what our feelings sound like.

* * *

Honestly, I think a good film is spiritual, regardless of whether its subject is faith.

* * *

Doubt is the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. It encompasses cynicism but also genuine questioning.

* * *

I look for struggle in the roles I choose - struggle and perseverance.

* * *

I think God gave us senses of humor, and we should use them.

* * *

Am I ambitious? I used to be afraid of that word but now I think ambition is a good thing.

* * *

The biggest research of all when I do a character is self-examination. You look at yourself and you ask, 'How am I similar to this person and how am I different?'

* * *

Do I pray? Yes. Prayer is very important to me.

* * *

I just hate one-dimensional portrayals of religion; it's too cheap and easy to do, and ignores the nuances that go into having a belief system.

* * *

I love to be surprised.

* * *

I'm from the school of, 'if you want more, you have to require more from yourself.'

* * *

There's no wrong way to experience a film.

* * *

Whether we call it religion or faith, we all battle for a balanced integrated soul.

* * *

You earn very little money on independent films and I'm the provider for my home, so I do have to think of taking one for the accountant time and again and that means studio pictures.

* * *

I'm saying that the depth of exploration of the male psyche and the female psyche is uneven. I see further, deeper renderings of what it means to be a man.

* * *

It's a very different thing, religion and faith. Religion is man-made, it's man-regulated. And faith, you can define God as you wish. But I think they're two different things.

* * *

As an actor, you're sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character.

* * *

I chase after inspiring stories.

* * *

I don't necessarily need Hollywood.

* * *

You ought to have a perspective when you're making a film.

* * *

I think the worst thing that can happen to a good actor is fame.

* * *

I'm hooked on Polanski's films, his psychological thrillers. I love 'Rosemary's Baby,' I love 'Repulsion.'

* * *

We take a lot for granted as second wave feminists, what our mothers and aunts did for us.

* * *

Whether you're making a million dollar film or a $100 million film there is never enough money, there's never enough time.

* * *

You don't necessarily have to be religious to pray.

* * *

Your soul either feels lifted by something that you read, or it feels squashed by it.

* * *

The limelight is a tricky place, because you can't believe what's going on around you. You stop observing. You stop perceiving. You stop extending yourself, and you become isolated.

* * *

Working with children is a whole other ball game. They're like little animals. You have to keep the camera turned on them all the time. Sometimes it takes a 41-minute take to get one sentence out in a believable way.

* * *

Editing yourself is like an irksome coin toss. You've got to strip yourself of super ego and operate from the id. Maybe I've got my Freud mixed up. It's just hard to trade a beauty shot for the performance with truth and a brightly lit zit.

* * *

I think I always try to be accommodating and open and available and proving for my director. I love to give as many takes as they want. I love to give them as many choices as they want.

* * *

The more people know about you, the more face-time you get in the media, the harder your job becomes to create a character in whom people suspend disbelief.

* * *

There are some times when I think acting can be a noble profession. And when those rare roles come along, like 'Down to the Bone,' you have the opportunity to be of service.

* * *