We don’t go through life with it all being smooth sailing. … We all understand situations where you know it’s swim or drown. It’s a choice you have to make, and sometimes we surprise ourselves,...

Like one of those snow-globe things, it’s this fragile little ball of perfection, and I think people have forgotten what actors do. After a while, I was like, `Well, what did you want me to...

People said, `Oh, you’re doing another ugly movie,’ … I said, `No, I’m doing another film about real people, and it’s not about ugly vs. anything.’ It’s about searching for that constant truth, and I...

I guess there are very few actors that I’ve worked with that I would like to work with again. You never think you’ll have that chance and, if we didn’t do Italian Job together, there...

It took me awhile, to be honest, because this was so extremely foreign to me. I had never done anything in the genre and I didn’t feel like an expert. So, it took me a...

I had big dreams when I came here, but this is an incredibly amazing gift, … If somebody had told me then that this would have happened one day, I would have laughed in their...

In many ways, my mother is my audience, so I do listen to her advice.

So I did that for a long time in my career, and I waited for parts to play myself just physically down a little bit. But I do feel like I’m at a place in...

I’m extremely happy in my relationship,

There’s only so much you can do with the material you’re given, … A lot of films are very male-oriented, but this is a male-dominated industry. Let’s not lie. I don’t care what character I...

Then they started telling me stories about how this abuse didn’t just affect them. It affected their children when they went to school, when they went to go play hockey. It wasn’t just something that...

[The actress is going for a change of pace next. She’s about to guest-star on five episodes of Fox’s sitcom Arrested Development .] I am a huge fan of the show, and I’m very picky...

And didn’t just happen in Minnesota, … Anita Hill wasn’t an isolated case. There are cases everywhere. And I don’t think it’s stopped.

Head in the Clouds.

When you’re playing with aspects of sexuality, certain things have to be hidden. That’s what my mother always used to tell me. I wanted to stay as true as possible to the original character, but...

I had called her up a couple of weeks before then, because I had heard this vicious rumour that she did not like the movie. It was very upsetting for me. I am very sensitive...

We’d have dinner with them. We’d bowl, we went snowmobiling and ice fishing. And they started trusting us. They really wanted us to tell the story right.

I’d love to get pajamas. Good, nice and warm flannel ones.

This year has proven to make those kind of films you don’t need to make them feel like medicine, you can make them powerful and still entertaining.

Something I learned very early on in my career is that there are a lot of things that you do not have any power over.

Hell, I would be terrified if Hollywood showed up in my community and was going to pick a scab, … The other thing was: ‘How are the men going to be portrayed?’ You have to...

McDormand is an incredible gift to the cinema, … There’s something so organic about her character, straight from the gut.

I was told to go to a director’s house at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, so I went, thinking maybe this is the kind of thing you do. He opened the door wearing pajamas....

I am a huge fan of the show, and I’m very picky with my comedy. I don’t get to do comedy very often, and when they asked me, I jumped at the opportunity. I was...

If they ever do my life story, whoever plays me needs lots of hair color and high heels.

I can’t change the way I look nor can I sit back and let that rule my life when I know in my heart that I’m a real girl,

I feel really lucky to have the body I have; I love it!

I have been working a lot, and I like it. And you know, it’s hard for me not to. I guess I’ve been working a lot because I get to play with brilliant people.

I come from a ballet background; I did ballet for 12 years and I consider that my theater. I told stories with my body for 12 years and then came into this industry. I couldn’t...

Besides, … I ‘ m not a big pampering girl anyway.

It’s our job as filmmakers to reflect the world right now, and this year has proven that you can make these movies and make them not taste like medicine.

They really stay just characters to me. I look at them, and I don’t see always the same person up there. And hopefully, people will see that too. Because it’s very easy to bore people,...

It was a combination of my painkillers (for a neck injury) and the fact that everybody was paying tribute to this incredible woman, this incredible actress, so I had to go to the physical aspect...

we were concerned we were going to sound too broad, and maybe get laughs in the wrong way. We tried to fine-tune it a little, staying kind of neutral. Part of the transformation in any...

Besides, … Im not a big pampering girl anyway.

It was a combination of my painkillers and the fact that everybody was paying tribute to this incredible woman, this incredible actress, so I had to go to the physical aspect of kissing her a**,

It’s always nerve wracking. Any red carpet is always nerve wracking.

This has been such an incredible year,

I was very scared going in, but also really excited about doing a film using my body again. I like that she never spoke. This character, she was very quiet, but she was telling her...

I like what I do, and I’m very fortunate now to be in a very nice place. Which is that I don’t have to work anymore. So the work that I do now is purely...

People said, ‘Oh, you’re doing another ugly movie,’

because thanks to women like her, I get to work and live in a very safe environment. I respect women who come from harsher landscapes, where survival is much harder than in cities, because they...

I feel so fortunate that I am in a relationship with a wonderful man. I find it incredibly unfair that because of our sexual preference, we have the rights that we have, and that, because...

Well, because I think that there is a comfort level that you have in a relationship that I think is sometimes hard for people to get around.

I think of myself as a highly sexual creature.

This case was only settled seven years ago, and you go, ‘How dare you sit back as a young female and think the feminist movement happened in the ’60s, some bras were burned and now...

Whether its a real person or not, is irrelevant, … The human condition is the same.

I sat down with Karyn and said, `You don’t understand. I don’t know these kind of movies,’

We’ve come a long way, and changing a law is really important. What I’ve realized is laws change, but you also have to change how people think. And that takes time.

That’s the best I’ve had in years!