As you know, Hollywood loves to pigeonhole all the actors and actresses, and suddenly I got 're-pigeonholed' as an action actor.
I think if I weren't an actress, I might have made a halfway decent attorney! I like the way they think.
As an actress, I have to be objective about myself. If I don't criticize myself, there are plenty who will do a find job of it for me!
Angelina Jolie was always a Method actress. She'd been nominated for Golden Globes before she ever did 'Tomb Raider.'
Really skinny actresses make me hungry - I see them and think, Honey, you need to eat!
I'm a character actress. It doesn't mean I can't do leading roles; I don't think of myself as a leading lady.
I'm a working actress able to make choices based on characters rather than what I 'should' do for my career.
Some actresses seem to thrive on chaos, and I've often wondered if they felt they had to be that way in order to perform well?
I'm trying to show I'm a trained actress - I can transform myself into different characters. I'm not just an ingenue.
The only other thing that interested me as a kid was being a bricklayer. So if I hadn't become an actress, I would probably be a bricklayer.
I didn't think I was going to be an actress. Everybody in my family was in films, and they succeeded so much, I thought, 'It's better for me to do something else,' and they agreed.
I consider myself to be more real-sized than most of the actresses in California and in show business. They're very small. They're like miniature people.
Jane Austen's characters for women are always very strong, opinionated and elegantly written, so they're always great for an actress to have a chance to do.
Ten years ago, it was really difficult for a young actress to walk onto a set and disagree with the director and having that be OK and have a conversation about it and everyone be cool with it.
Everyone at home thought I was nuts when I said I wanted to be an actress, and I'm sure they were just trying to protect me from disappointment.
I'm one of those actresses that really enjoys staying home with my children. To be told you've got to get to work, it is just unbelievable what it does to you.
I don't know what would have been worse: If Mira had come home one day to say she was gay or an actress.
If you use your imagination, you can look at any actress and see her nude... I hope to make you use your imagination.
I hope to be known as a chameleon actress, as someone who can play any part out there, and someone who can transform herself into any kind of character there is.
Being an actress is similar to trying to fit in with the popular kids in high school. You're expected to drive the right car, wear the right clothes and say the right things.
I'm sort of like a T. rex in the world of female actresses. Every time a job is finished, I look at my car and think, 'Could I live in it?'
