My natural response to a stressful situation is to shut down. I do weird things, like, I don’t cry, I get really cold.

I have to say I’ve been lucky in that way in that I’ve been able to go from different films and different genres with different challenges.

Something I’m going to try to really instill in my own family is a lot of tradition. And, I used to have a lot of superstitions, and then I realized that it was kind of...

If I had a project that I had auditioned for and I was getting close to getting it, I didn’t want to tell anybody because I thought then I wouldn’t get it, but in reality...

I have worked with some of the meanest people in the world. You can’t do anything to intimidate me.

The Muppets have such a great tradition of bringing together all of genres of actors and all ages of actors.

[He also enjoys sharing the stage with] American Idol … You know, she was thrown into a role that most musical theater actresses wait a lifetime to play because it’s such a huge role. She...

I was one of seven, and we took a lot of road trips – long road trips. And this was before iPhones and iPads and DVD players in cars. I remember how novel it was...

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.

I didn’t necessarily fit in in high school. I felt very awkward. I still feel completely awkward and weird in my body sometimes. I’m hoping that’s going to go away, but I’ve just embraced 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?

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...

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.

That’s the bottom line — that no one gets hurt, no one gets injured, or hurts someone else while they’re on the road.

I would say that a lot of the characters I’ve been attracted to are very vulnerable and they expose themselves emotionally. Not so much in ‘The Fighter,’ not so much in ‘The Master’ – I...

I probably never would have been hired on Broadway had I not moved out to L.A. and pursued acting and film, which is sad, really.

When I was younger, my sister thought it was funny to pretend to punch me in the face because my mom was concerned about my teeth falling out. They were loose for a long time,...

School was hard for me. If there had been a school for the creative arts, I might have thrived, but… I needed that creative outlet so much. Also, I’m just bad with numbers.

Most of the time it’s the parents who recognise me. They try to tell their kids, ‘Look, it’s Giselle,’ and I say, ‘No, no, no, don’t ruin this for them,’ because I’m usually standing there...

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...

You know, Ashley doesn’t have a whole lot going on in her life, so she’d probably been romanticizing Madeleine for weeks, when she found out she was coming. So when she shows up and exceeds...

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...

I thought ‘Out of Africa’ would be a beautiful ballet.

I think a lot of times we don’t pay enough attention to people with a positive attitude because we assume they are naive or stupid or unschooled.

I’m one of seven kids. That’ll keep your ego in check.

It was a lot of fun. I felt like I was being allowed to sit at the big kids’ table. It was very overwhelming – all of the history in that room.

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...

In high school, I was so painfully self-aware that how I thought of myself was probably very different from what other people thought of me. I thought of myself as just painfully awkward and dorky....

Oh, we’re going to have a great time.

I have a hard time articulating the emotional experience of working on a film. Even when I have meetings on films or discussing them with directors, I find that’s my biggest challenge. Different words mean...

I watched ‘The Muppet Movie’ obsessively. I can still pretty much say a lot of the lines and do a pretty mean Fozzie Bear.

I like Cinderella, I really do. She has a good work ethic. I appreciate a good, hard-working gal. And she likes shoes. The fairy tale is all about the shoe at the end, and I’m...

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.

She’s grounded in an honest place.

As an actress people always tease me like: if there’s anything you can do to make yourself unattractive you will do it.

I always had a larger view. I’m interested in real life – my family, my friends. I have tried never to define myself by my success, whatever that is. My happiness is way beyond roles...

It’s a tough category to predict. I certainly don’t expect to win. I don’t typically prepare speeches. Maybe I’ll do a little internal list of people I want to thank.

I think that I’ve always been attracted to characters who are positive and come from a very innocent place. I think there’s a lot of room for discovery in these characters, and that’s something I...

I’m just grateful I didn’t have to spend my early 20s in front of paparazzi cameras.

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 do love shoes that make my legs longer. I have the upper body of someone who’s 5ft 8in, so high heels help me even out the discrepancy.

Ashley is a role for me.

I find that it’s the simple things that remind you of family around the holidays.

I saw some musicals at dinner theaters where I grew up. But I didn’t go to a big theater to see one until probably after I graduated from high school when I took myself to...

You’re always surprised. Even people who were considered locks for a nomination were surprised. This year, there are so many first-time nominees, 14 out of the 20 in the acting categories, I believe. I’m sure...

Once I moved to L.A., there was a dark moment of trying to keep up with the girls I thought were pretty. Until I realised that’s the stupidest thing you can do because people are...

I’m not the kind of actress who asks a lot of questions of my directors unless it’s something I really need to know.

I’m pretty Sicilian if I’ve been crossed. I don’t seek revenge, but I never forget. And I make it hard to repair, which is not a great quality because if people held me to that...

I was the dork in high school who sang musical numbers up and down the hallways.

Ashley decided that before Madeleine even got there that she is the best person ever,