But I've worked where they've had animals before, and animal wranglers, the people who raise animals and train animals for films and television, they're all very, very professional.
It is not easy to get parts in mainstream films for most people of color. Hollywood and British writers are not writing parts for us, or the directors are not interested in casting us in parts that are color-blind.
I want to do primarily film and theater; I always want to do a play because it feeds my soul. It's like an exercise on stage.
When I start a movie, there will be certain films that I watch again just because the vibe seems right.
Film acting is one of the only industries where you're criticized for working hard. In any other industry, it's considered a quality and something to behold.
Film has lost something in the translation to high tech. It's become so super-real. It's with digital this and stereo that, and everything's like a CD.
I think it's important that we have a new batch of British film-makers that aren't doing the same old stuff. And that includes me.
My role as Ewan McGregor's girlfriend in the film 'Incendiary' ended up on the cutting-room floor, but at least I had two brilliant days of acting with Ewan.
I always find filming stressful. I get very caught up thinking about my character - 'Am I doing it right? Should it be done this way?'
If you're a female and you get asked by someone who shoots the most beautiful female scenes to be in their film, it's kind of exciting.
It's an entire industry focusing on young male viewers that want action and violence. They sell us something that isn't valid. They're selling films like a product.
My first film was with Cuba Gooding Jr, 'The Fighting Temptations,' and I had a little part here and there on little shows as guest stars. And I've taken acting classes.
Polanski's 'Chinatown' is a film that I have purposefully and consciously imitated, but 'Vertigo' is one that has got into my bloodstream. Every time I reappraise things that I've done, the influence is there, time and time again.
You make a film to distract people, to interest them, perhaps to make them think, perhaps to help them be a little less naive, a little better than they were.
They say 6 million people see you when you act in a film; it may only be 600 in a play. But the effect on the 600 may be truer and more lasting.
To paint comic books as childish and illiterate is lazy. A lot of comic books are very literate - unlike most films.
The truth for me is that I've been doing independent film since the get-go, so that's a big passion of mine, but the big ones are really fun, too. I like my world to be eclectic.
I don't want to be disrespectful to people who are incredible at their craft, but the truth is, if I didn't get paid for it, I wouldn't act. The best-paying jobs are usually the worst films. You're a very small cog in a big machine.
I think one of my biggest influences is Bette Davis. I've seen almost every one of her films, and she's been very inspiring to me.
People in the fashion industry have used the press a lot more than people in the film industry, because you have nothing to sell except for the image: The image is everything.
I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films.
