The thing I tried to remember when I was younger was 'Do something that's at least as good, if not better, than the last thing you did.' So I started with Brian De Palma and Sean Penn. I had a pretty high bar to start with.
The writing workshops and programs that are everywhere have encouraged writing. And if that produces more writing, it's also producing more readers of an elevated level. So all in all, a good thing.
As a philanthropist, I give away a lot of money every year. Yet I thought there was a higher leverage to come in and create movies and TV shows that were actually able to do some good in the world.
I write for women because it's the only way I can use what I've experienced. It's good that people like what I write, but I don't want to go down the feminist path.
I've just always loved really good projects. The things that draw me into a new project have very little to do with genre and have more to do with the characters I'll be playing, the people I'll get to work with and things like that.
I never really was that passionate about playing sports. But when I was at this Mt. Herman school, I did have the ability to throw the frisbee. So when this sport evolved, it was fun because I was good at it.
I've always wanted to make 'Swamp Thing.' I like 'Swamp Thing.' I think it's a good idea, and I thought it would be a good venue for a 3-D movie, but there were rights issues with 'Swamp Thing.'
The '7500' is with Leslie Bibb. It's a big ensemble with a lot of really good people. I play the pilot of the 747 that something happens on as it crosses the Pacific. It's going to do what 'Jaws' did to the ocean. Not make people want to get on!
I had been wanting to work out with a trainer for a very long time. I always had a good cardio regimen, but I didn't know how to tone up or use weights properly - and I wasn't sure where to start.
It's very hard not to let fame affect you because you are continually being told how good you are. After a while you begin to think there must be some truth in it because all those people can't be wrong.
The secrecy thing has gotten to be more and more prevalent in films, and maybe that's good. It's nice to go see a film and not know anything about it. Sometimes I feel like we know too much about films.
I daily disconnect and read a good book or listen to a good sermon or call a friend or my mom and talk on the phone with my feet up. I also take baths with bath salts that I make myself.
I just let the work speak for itself. An actor is not afraid to take risks; to put on different hats; to be a good guy, a bad guy, a victim, an abuser. There are all kinds of people in the world, and playing them is what acting is all about.
Looking good has never been the most important thing to me. Maybe it's because I'm more conventionally, um, acceptable, so it's not an issue for me. I don't know.
Sometimes I have given my husband a manuscript to read that has turned out to have fantastic rave reviews and he'll tell me it is no good. Well, if I didn't know him as well as I know him I would be terribly depressed.
I used to date Kellan Lutz. We were together for two and a half years, but the distance and travel really kept us apart. In the end, we decided it wouldn't work, but we're still good friends.
It's actually great to shoot far away from Hollywood because we don't have the distractions of the parties and premieres and all that. And, of course, you can save money - there are no good shoe stores.
I don't have any great detail or logic or exact point that I look for in a film. It's just if I get a good sense from it and I feel that there is something interesting that we may be able to do with it, then I just kind of go for it.
I am the reassurance that they have not changed. In an upside down world, with all the rules being rewritten as the game goes on and spectators invading the pitch, it is good to feel that some things and some people seem to stay just as they were.
We end the show with something that's never been on TV because it was too big for a sketch but we couldn't stretch it out to make a whole episode because it would have been too long, but we always thought it was really good.
For me, acting was a reward. I had to get good grades in order to act, in order to be on TV. I had to do well in school so I could work. To me, it was like an after-school activity, something to look forward to.