We shot 'High School Musical' in eight weeks. I spent longer rehearsing for 'Hairspray' than filming 'High School Musical'.
Amanda Bynes and I have become close since filming 'Hairspray.' It's so weird because I grew up watching her.
With 'Girls,' it doesn't really feel like I'm doing TV specifically. It just feels like we're making a really long film.
You have kids studying master class visual arts who are pushed to make films that will be successful economically; that's what they focus on. So they work for corporate interest instead of artistic expression.
I kind of always think my work is unfilmable, and when I meet people who are interested in filming it, I'm always stunned.
I think you've got to talk to the director, see the director's films and recognise that it's important that the work fits right in and see if as part of the movie.
How mad would it actually be to do an 'Avatar' type animation film, but about something mundane like a Winn-Dixie cashier's day at work? That'd be something else, I think.
I wanted to work on this central problem of killing. How you go about killing. Now, in the film I had to kill my children - well, I didn't want to get that far.
I've dealt with Hollywood about having my work made into a film or cartoon but nothing came of it. That's not to say I wouldn't like to see something happen.
None of the films I've done was designed for a mass audience, except for 'Indiana Jones.' Nobody in their right mind thought 'American Graffiti' or 'Star Wars' would work.
I could never have conceived that I would ever get to work in a Truffaut film. It was astonishing to me, and still is. I felt like an old pro, but it was still so unexpected.
I'd been a Bond girl and in Dracula films and 'Coronation Street,' but I was always hunting for work. After 'The New Avengers,' I never had to wait for work again.
I gradually work myself into a frenzy as the shoot approaches, while we're choosing the costumes or working with the make-up artist. I'm not so much interested in my character as the film itself.
When you're filming, you work 19-hour days, and you know more about what's going on with your crew and co-workers than you do with your husband.
I'm not expecting much work in Hollywood, to be honest. People stick to film because they tend to get offered the same roles over and over again, and it's safe. But I'm not interested in doing that.
If you decide you want to work in the film industry, you just have to bite the bullet and take other jobs until the proper jobs come in.
One of the worst things you can do is have a limited budget and try to do some big looking film. That's when you end up with very bad work.
I became a real Shell Motor Oil expert, and I did this 25-minute film. It turned out really well and, as a result, they offered me more work and lots of commercials to direct.
I always take hundreds and hundreds of pictures. I used to work for 'National Geographic,' and they gave us a lot of film.
In all the horror films that I have done, all of those women were strong women. I don't feel I ever played the victim, although I was always in jeopardy.
I did things like Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait. I don't know what those films were about. The women I played in them were not very empowered.
