I think it’s important to never play ‘crazy’ – you have to know what kind of crazy you’re playing.

Yeah, there was the Flora Plum thing, where I trained for about a month and I had taken a semester off for that, and two weeks prior to filming, the financing collapsed.

People in the CIA, they marry each other. They’re like actors! We have to travel without much warning to far-flung places, and it’s very hard to communicate what our experiences are like to those in...

Actors want to surprise themselves. When it’s really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely.

If I took my characters home with me, half of my life would be a misery, I think. No, I tend to compartmentalize work from my life. I’m not terribly method.

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I’m really scared of being alone; because if I’m left to my own devices, I’ll just turn into a madwoman.

Growing up in New York with artist parents – a very liberal environment, where we were always encouraged to challenge the status quo – I think for a long time I confused jingoism with patriotism....

Any story is better with a little love in it, right?

There was a solid year and a half, perhaps two years, after making ‘Temple Grandin,’ when I didn’t do anything. I just didn’t have much patience for roles that were silly, or light, or inconsequential.

Counterterrorism isn’t really about the nunchakus, the guns and gadgets. It’s about psychology.

I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5.

As a young performer, I didn’t know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it’s not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the...

Acting is a humiliating job, from start to finish.

I was very driven to act from a very young age, and my parents were not only tolerant of that drive but also encouraging.

On a film you can really get away with learning the scene the night before and that’s often just not possible with TV, so you have to be a little bit more prepared a little...

Fame doesn’t end loneliness.

I would sign on for projects that were meant to shoot in July, and then they would postponed and they would bleed into the following semester, and then I’d take a semester off, and then...

College was just so essential for my sense of self and my development.

When I was 18 I went to college for two years and didn’t work for a year which was essential for me, because my identity had been so influenced by my being an actor and...

I like marriage. I feel very secure. It helps when you are in love with the person you are married to.

I would rather not work than be a neurotic mess.

However, I’m at a very comfortable place in my career and celebrity, in that I don’t have to audition as extensively as I used to for roles but yet I’m not immediately recognizable.

Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.

I know, it’s true. I’ve played these tortured teenagers. I can’t wait to shed that image.

My character was kidnapped by the Terminator and I was kidnapped by the Terminator production.

I became very successful at a young age… I had lots of opportunities and lots of power and had no idea how to focus it.

I am not a genius. But I am nerdy.

I have to expose myself and then accept the judgment that audiences and critics will have. And that’s okay. I appreciate the elliptical nature of it. Sometimes people are more in the mood to be...

Every time I make a movie, I’m prepared for it to become influential and career-defining – but I have no control over these things.

By the time I went to Yale, I’d been acting for a long time and I was really tired of it. I was restless – and a little bored – and I was really eager...

I really have never been concerned about being beautiful on-screen. That’s just not my jam.

I’m exceptionally open with my own parents, and they’re exceptionally open with me.

I finally realized that yeah I did want to be an actor and it wasn’t out of habit, but I needed to grow up for myself and then kind of re-enter the industry with a...

Every three seconds in the developing world, a child dies needlessly due to lack of basic health care and other things we all take for granted.

People confuse fame with validation or love. But fame is not the reward. The reward is getting fulfilment out of doing the thing you love.

The first time I realised I was patriotic was after September 11th.

I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I’m trained!

Growing up in New York City, I was always encouraged to question authority, and I think I confused patriotism with jingoism.

Autism does exist on a spectrum, and there are so many manifestations of it, so many kinds of expressions of it. And every case is particular.

I can get a dance party started pretty much anywhere and anytime.

I care about being formally physically attractive in my life, and I think that I am quite vain about my performance. I’m just not vain about how I look while I give the performance.

I really liked Yale, although it was extremely intimidating. When I visited the campus, I was hiding behind trees, I felt so unworthy.

In New York City, everybody goes into therapy.

I got an agent when I was 12, and I started working in more amateur productions well before that. But even as a kid, I never felt like a kid actor, you know? I always...

I actually think in some ways that it might be more challenging to be bipolar because it’s so mercurial – it’s so ever-changing. You can’t get any traction. You can’t build on a system. Whereas,...

I’m so impressed by Jennifer Lawrence and Carey Mulligan. They have this exquisite taste. They are very gifted in their ability to make great choices.

Voice over can be tricky. It can be dangerous because it’s over-used or inappropriately used.

Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.

When you really get it right in acting, it’s an act of empathy. You feel less distant from others, and that is really exciting.

I could truly have gone through life thinking that women were these venomous creatures. Turns out, they’re not.