Every experience makes you grow.
Elisabeth Shue
I understand now that the vulnerability I've always felt is the greatest strength a person can have. You can't experience life without feeling life. What I've learned is that being vulnerable to somebody you love is not a weakness, it's a strength.
I don't think 'Cocktail' was a perfect critical success, but it touched a vein in our culture.
I may be the girl next door, but you wouldn't want to live next to me.
I may look like the girl next door, but you wouldn't want to live next door to me.
Everyone at 'CSI' has been so great to work with, and so great in terms of scheduling. There's a real feeling of family on that set... I've grown to have so much respect for the cast and crew - they're been together so many years and still care about the show and each other.
I really love 'Soapdish.' I wish 'Soapdish' had more of a moment because I felt that that is a really strong, funny movie. Kevin Kline is hilarious in that movie.
When you get into your 40s, it's all about lighting. It's hard. You have to face whether the way you look is your self-worth or not. Once you get beyond that, it's all about what's in your heart.
I was a complete unknown when I did 'Karate Kid.' I'd just done a pilot for a TV show called 'Call to Glory.' And I sat down with John Avildsen and brought still pictures from the show. I brought pictures! At that point, I would've been happy to be in a dog-food commercial.
It would be really wonderful if people connected to the loneliness of what it means to be a human being in the world today.
I feel like my first conversation with someone, I really get a good feeling about who that person is and mainly about how open they are.
I don't have high expectations anymore. Maybe they've just been beaten out of me.
My mom had started to go to work when I was nine or ten, so I was aware of women trying to find their own identities by working. But I was still influenced by men to such an extreme. I wanted to play their games and wanted to compete in their world and be like them.
After Leaving Las Vegas I did assume that things would get a lot easier than they've been. But it's just been a mirror of the way my career's been from the beginning, so for it to have changed would have been strange. My career has never been perfect.
I spent my whole life trying to play the games males play.
I have worked with another first-time director who was not that open, and it was probably one of the worst experiences I ever had, so my antennas are really out.
The darker, more complex and emotional the part is, the easier it is for me. But I don't take any of that stuff home with me at the end of the day.
Growing up with three boys in a heavily male-dominated world, I especially needed to express myself as a woman.
Sometimes when I read about my rebellion in print it sounds a little overrated.
I did 'The Karate Kid,' then I just went back to college. I didn't know how much money it made and I didn't have a publicist. I didn't have any sense of the business part of it.
People love to talk about how the '70s are the only time they made movies about characters, and adult movies, and complicated people. But in the '80s, they got away with some of those too.
For many years, I decided not to do television because I have three children, but now my youngest is finally old enough to be in kindergarten. So I'm not feeling that kind of tug of not being with her as much.
Like, that was weird in 'Hamlet 2,' because I played myself there, fully myself, but then I realized, 'Oh, I'm not playing myself. I'm some weird version of myself.' So as an actress, you're always playing something, I don't even know who I am, how could I become me? I don't know what that is.
As the only girl growing up among three brothers, I was always afraid of being excluded. If there was a game to be played, a sport to be learned, a competition to join, I was on my feet and ready. I didn't spend much time alone for fear that I'd miss out.
I was on my own at Wellesley, surrounded by a lot of young women who were motivated and intellectually curious. I started to read because I was required to do so for class, but I soon found myself enjoying the seclusion of the library. I came to see reading as an important way to learn about people, including myself.
Today I still feel like the most illiterate person ever to have roamed the campuses of Wellesley and Harvard, where I later transferred. I remain intimidated by all the books I haven't read, but over the years I've come to realize that being a student is a lifelong adventure.
Almost six years ago, before I was given the incredible opportunity to be in 'Leaving Las Vegas,' I was going through a long period of artistic confusion. I'd spent years doing work that hadn't pushed me enough, and I was beginning to wonder if I had any talent.
Robert Kennedy was such an inspiring figure. His interest in politics seemed to come not from a desire for power, but from a need to help our society live up to its ideals.
After three major movies, I was like, 'Oh, I guess you're supposed to get a publicist?' Girls that are in the business now that are successful are more savvy.
I try really hard to give my kids as much independence as I can, caring mostly about their character: Are they kind? Generous? Do they work hard?
The movie I'm really excited about that I had really fun doing is 'Feed the Dog.' It's with Nat Wolff and Selena Gomez. It's really fun. It's raunchy, like 'Superbad' meets 'Risky Business,' kind of. I got to be a really fun character, an out-there Mrs. Robinson-type character. I get to seduce Nat.
It took a lot to get attention in my family. No wonder I'm an actress.
I want to be involved with young people in some way. Teenagers. Because that's the most vulnerable time. I have a fantasy of becoming a teacher one day.
I see myself at a certain age as not being able to play the kind of parts that would keep me stimulated, and I can't imagine my life ending professionally the moment that I've got to go to the plastic surgeon and have my face rearranged.
Every film is a crapshoot. It's a mystery when a movie comes together. I've never been able to figure it out. I don't know how I make my choices. The only thing you can do is know there's something about a character that you really want to experience.
The hard thing about 'The Saint' was that my character was supposed to die, but then they reshot the ending based on tests and she lives. I created the character based on her dying - she would never have been as innocent otherwise. So I didn't have high expectations for that film.
What keeps this industry challenging as an actor is that you never know how something will turn out. The ups and downs are constant. You're never just smoothly sailing along. You're always going to be on loose footing. That's what ultimately now I expect and accept and that doesn't scare me as much.
