In 8th grade I started doing theatre and I remember it was as though I had taken a trip to a foreign land that I had never seen before yet felt completely at home. I remember feeling a genuine wave of happiness and of feeling complete.

I like to think of myself as a free spirit. I've never married. I'm not conventional in that way. But I do like romance. I've been fortunate enough that I've had great love, and I've dated remarkable men in my life. I'm very thankful for all of that.

New Orleans. Born and raised. I lived there until I was 19.

I'll read a script maybe twice, but I'll think about the role more than I'll rehearse lines.

But no, had I been successful in my 20s I would have been just fine. But it is nice to defy the odds.

I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.

I have walked away from enormous amounts of money and I have made that life I have wanted somewhat in this business. I love doing independent film, I love doing theater, I love doing studio films, and I do all three now.

And I have a really great agent and I know it's almost an oxymoron to say you have a smart agent. But she is and she has a beautiful aesthetic and she has guided me.

Even though I'm a free spirit, I like to keep my friends and my lovers separate. I have extraordinary friends, but I don't want to see them naked.

See, the SAG awards caught me totally by surprise.

The odds are not in your favor the older you get, especially if you're a woman in this business.

I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies.

The majority of work I do is in independent films, where you're lucky if you have five takes.

I think the beauty of chat rooms is that you can have your anonymity of course, and you can choose to be raunchy and sexy and bold. Or you can actually go into certain chat rooms and maybe have an incredibly soulful, meaningful conversation that will change your life or change the other person's life.

I have to watch the news or my day is not complete.