You see someone on the street wearing an outfit and then it's on the cover of a magazine. I love. But, you know, I'm Australian, so I'm not too flashy or glitzy.
Anything can happen. Anything happens all the time.
I'm ambitious but I'm not particularly competitive. I'll try to get roles, as I think it's healthy to go for things, but... I think there's too much competition between women already. It's important to have female solidarity and support each other and other actresses.
I think it's only through learning, and doing something uncomfortable, that you can actually change. That's why I wanted to do a play. I was so scared of it and I knew my brain would really be stretched and it was going to be hard. And it was hard and uncomfortable. Instead of naturally wanting to avoid all those feelings I need to lean toward them more. But saying that, don't ask me to make a lasagna or a Coq au vin.
I'm generally a people-pleaser so I get high anxiety from any sort of confrontation.
Art, a book, a painting, a song, can definitely inspire change, whether it's a small change or a big change but you know there's novels I've read or a scene in a film that I've seen where I definitely inspired something and made a change or addressed an issue in my life or done something cliche like make a phone call.
I've been reading The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which is obviously very dated now but still relevant. It's so interesting to see how far we've come and how far we haven't come with all these myths that people put onto women.
I think it's important to keep an element of fear about yourself because it makes you appreciate the jobs.
As an artist I just think comedic actors are really underrated.
Healthy aggression is good, but I think social media can perpetuate that in the worst way. You have to be careful about comparing yourself to others. You can never be somebody else. You will only be yourself, and that's what's great.
I see myself more as a character actress than a celebrity.
The concept of growing up is so hard to quantify. What have you learned and how have you changed and how have you stayed exactly the same? As I get older, it's something I reflect on more and more. Especially as the generations go on. We wait longer to have families, we wait longer to have responsibilities. Everyone used to be married by 20 and pregnant immediately.
It's important to have female solidarity and support each other and other actresses.
What's weird about the cinema business is that you have to have a thick skin while remaining vulnerable as an artist. It comes with time. You get dumped, your heart gets broken.
I loved performing; I was always trying to impress my siblings by being a clown. I think that came from being the runt of the litter.
My parents weren't in the arts, but we grew up in Balmain, which at that time was an artistic, bohemian suburb of Sydney. It's a lot more gentrified now. It was very working class, pubs on every corner because it's right by the water so a lot of the guys on the ships and the boats used to go and drink there. It's very posh now.
Comedy has to have momentum in order for it to keep moving along.
They think I'm depressed because I look serious in photos. It's usually because I'm just nervous. But I've stopped dressing for other people. If I think I look good, that's the most important thing.
I'm in love with the city. You can impress an Australian with a city, but you can't impress them with a beach.
I was very, very shy when I was little. Acting lets you access all those different parts of yourself to make the character authentic.
People would make fun of me and throw things at me and whatever teenagers do.
The roles for women on television have historically always been stronger and that, I would say, is still true. The question is commerce. That's probably where there's a block for a lot of people, the commerce behind it. Where is the audience? And it's so clear to me that there is a huge audience for female-driven projects. People still seem to think it's a fluke when it happens. That's one of the hurdles that's still left to be jumped over.
I'm absolutely as vulnerable as the next person in terms of being swept up in aspirational Instagrams. You just have to know what is fantasy and what is real. It's always good to have a diverse feed in your life and in your social media.
I liked the Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest and Cypress Hill.
Here in L.A. the standard of beauty is kind of ridiculous. I want to be doing this when I'm in my fifties and sixties and this isn't what I'm going to look like.
