I have learned to pare down what I do and still be effective and strong in a role.
Mira Sorvino
It's the relationships between people that are more important than the sort of far away fantasies of what the good life is, the world of supermodels and Bud ads.
When I was 5, my mother threw a party, and a friend and I wrote and performed a play called The Dutch Doll.
Now that I've got some films under my belt, I have the courage of my convictions regarding acting. It gives me a leg to stand on.
There was something about being in front of audiences when I was in elementary school plays that gave me a thrill. It was like the rush you get from a roller coaster drop.
Acting is what happens on the way.
My major in college was Chinese Studies. It was very intentional.
As the plot of 'Condor' unfolds, you'll understand that nothing is sacred in the pharmacy world or in the behind-the-scenes workings of the CIA and FBI.
We are all capable of so much more than the narrow confines of our regular behavior and our personality. So it's interesting to play different notes on your keyboard.
I had started off, before I ever got an acting job, working at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions as a reader. I was always interested in that side of the camera.
I did a Christmas movie where I played Mrs. Claus because my children's favorite movie of all time was a Christmas movie that my father did in which he played Santa, and I was like, 'How often do they make a movie about Mrs. Claus?' and, 'My kids will love this.'
I have a pretty big range of interests. I love art; I love going to the museums. I dabble in painting, and although I'm not very good at it, I enjoy it.
I had a Christian upbringing - it was all about sin and guilt. I was very happy just kissing people. I was like the make-out queen - not even second base.
The cognitive dissonance, the denial and cowardice that spare us painful truths and prevent us from acting in defense of innocent victims while allowing 'beloved' individuals to continue their heinous behavior must be jettisoned from the bottom of our souls.
The name game is frustrating. Agents will say, They love you, but they're going to offer it to Julia Roberts first.
I love music; I love dancing. I took, like, eight years of ballet when I was a kid, and I still love dancing. There's been a couple of films where I was able to do some dance numbers, like 'Romy and Michelle' and 'Summer of Sam,' and I'm so happy when I get to do that.
I have great respect for Harvey as an artist, and owe him and his brother a debt of gratitude for the early success in my career, including the Oscar.
I take the responsibility of choosing seriously because it becomes an indelible part of your body of work. Something has to sing to me.
I hate it when people use sex as a weapon against the people who are engaging in it. It's so hypocritical.
Acting is doing, because everything you say or do is some kind of an action, some kind of a verb. You're always connected to the other person through some kind of action.
I have a hard time getting motivated to do something that seems like a career move. I've gotten into vague trouble with my agents for turning down work that I thought was exploitative.
I've definitely taken more family-friendly roles. Honestly, sometimes the edgier acting roles are not age-appropriate for kids but I have taken more projects that I feel have a great message or my kids can watch because of their age and that were just plain fun.
I want my life to effect the balance to the positive.
Being is like pretending.
I always feel I can play a role - just give me the time to do the preparation and I'll be it.
I assume that if people get to know me, they'll like me. If they don't, it's not my problem.
I could have seen myself going into academia, but I don't love it; I just like it.
I had been looking for a New York apartment, but I said, Why not give LA a go?
I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters.
I try to become more humble and more myself with every year. There was a while when I got famous where I was so confused and my head was spinning.
I wanted to do something far from my intellectual and physical home, so I went to live in Beijing for eight months and took Mandarin Chinese.
I'll talk to myself out loud a lot.
I'm doing things that are more artistic again, more close to the material that I love. I don't disparage those things that I did. They're just not as much reflective of who I am.
My father taught me how to substitute realities.
Once you've found something you know how to do, it makes you feel you don't have to be intimidated by someone.
Sometimes I feel limited by people's perceptions of what I can and cannot do, or what I do or don't look like.
The Oscars have become such a big deal these days that it's just used as adjective.
There are all kinds of other things I could do, things I would probably like, but only acting would give me emotional fulfillment.
We all struggle with our failure to communicate and our failure to reach beyond fear to love people.
I try not to judge my characters. If I'm looking at it from the outside, I'd say, 'No, she's not really a great mother.' But she wishes she were, and she wants to be, and she still has instincts toward protecting her son and wanting him to be a happy person.
I always want my character to have dimension, no matter what phase of life or situation they find themselves in.
Being a good mother is really so hard and so important, and it's this thing that all people long for. Think of all the soldiers who cry out for their mothers on the battlefield as they die. It's a primal relationship.
The revelation is that when you lift the curtain, history is decided by a very small group of people, and their own interests guide their actions, not necessarily the laws or principles we think our country rides on.
I feel like the world that ' Condor' lives in is very close to the world we're all living in every day.
I always do that for all of my characters. I built a music playlist for her... with songs she really likes.
We're going forward until we have an equitable and safe world for women.
We want to take our activism and our power into action and change things for every woman, everywhere, working in any workplace.
