I didn't get into acting to have a moment, I got into it because of people who've inspired me, like Judi Dench, Holly Hunter, and Jodie Foster.
Being pregnant finally helped me understand what my true relationship was with my body - meaning that it wasn't put on this earth to look good in a swimsuit. I was like, 'Look, I can carry a baby! I'm gaining weight right, everything's going well.' And I've had that relationship ever since.
I was a pretty scrappy, tough kid; I got in all sorts of fights at school. I defended myself - boys didn't mess with me. But as one of seven children, you have to fight for everything anyway.
It's always challenging when you're shooting a film. Shooting things out of order and keeping continuity on all levels is always for me the most challenging thing.
Perfect isn't normal, nor is it interesting. I have no features without makeup. I am pale. I have blond lashes. You could just paint my face - it's like a blank canvas. It can be great for what I do.
I always want to defeat supervillains - it's just the chicken-and-broccoli diet that I'm not into.
I had an existential crisis at the Oscars, sitting next to Sean Penn and Meryl Streep, and being like, 'What am I doing here? I don't belong here'. I felt like it could all be taken away.
Being an actress hasn't made me insecure. I was insecure long before I declared I was an actress.
That's how I prepare for anything - I read whatever I can get my hands on, talk to people. I'm a bit of a nerd like that.
I love accents - I wish I could find an accent for every one of my characters. It makes it so much easier when I don't have to hear my own voice.
Thirty was a big deal for me. It was the age where I reevaluated everything - how I approached life and how I thought about myself. When I look at my 20s, or when I look at any period in my life, I think about how much time I've wasted trying to find the right man.
I was blonde most of my life and I had to dye my hair for a role. I couldn’t believe the difference when I went red. I just felt ‘wow, I’m home’. It’s great. You do something stupid when you’re blonde and you’re dumb. Do something stupid when you’re red and you’re a character.
I'm like the luckiest girl in the world. I've gotten to be a princess, I've gotten to work with the Muppets. A lot of my childhood dreams about who I wanted to be when I was a grown-up, I at least get to play them in movies.
I'm lucky enough to get really interesting and diverse roles offered to me, and I just hope that that continues. I just want to keep expanding as an artist and really try new things.
I always saw myself as more of a watcher, although I suppose my siblings might have a different viewpoint on it.
I don't intentionally try to find the scripts with unattractive characters, but I think that if a character is described in a script as heart-stoppingly beautiful, and there's nothing else said about her, it just doesn't hold a lot of interest for me.
I come from musical theater, and a lot of musical theater is about accepting fantasy. I think it is more about just being open and accepting.
I grew up as a Mormon, and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I'm afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie. I'm very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over too. You can't really misbehave without feeling badly about it. At least, I can't.
I thought 'Out of Africa' would be a beautiful ballet.
Moving out to L.A. for me was a leap of faith. I was very secure in my dinner theater world; I loved it, and I was just like, 'I think there's something else out there for me and I just have to go for it.'
My job as an actress is to make things work and come up with reasons of my own and not just fill in the blanks for anybody else, you know what I mean?
What I respect in people more than anything is work ethic. And Justin Timberlake's got that. He works his tail off, and he knows his stuff.
Some of these actresses or public personas who are very public about their disciplined diets, more power to them. I just don't see the point. Do you know, the people I love as actresses, I've never, ever sought out pictures of them to see what they look like in a swimsuit.
I always have directors who are somewhat frustrated because they'll reference a beautifully obscure film from the '50s or '60s or '70s, and I've not seen it.
I was the dork in high school who sang musical numbers up and down the hallways.
