I love Elektra. I really have a special place in my heart for her. It was very enjoyable for me to discover her and to adapt her for this project and bring myself to this character. So I have a special spot for her.
The great thing about a sitcom is that you're in front of a live audience, so you really get in touch with what audience reaction is, but also there are lots of elements of film that you're dealing with, and there's kind of a great boot camp or graduate school mentality to it, because you're going to suck.
It's funny landing parts now where I'm somebody's mum. I remember the first time I was asked to play a mum. I was easily old enough, but because I didn't have any children, I thought, 'That seems really grown-up.'
I realized that here's a moment for me to learn so until I learn and understand more about how types of films are done - action, sci-fi - even though I have a desire to do it, I won't go into it until I'm very clear that I can do it and that moment hasn't come yet. Maybe one day I will ready, but for now, I just enjoyed playing the character.
Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.
I signed up for 'Brothers & Sisters' because I think it's a really great show. I like my character, and I'm really interested in what he has to do every day - and this cast is so spectacular. I really wanted to work with this particular group of people.
Growing up the son of a director has made me very aware of the various turns that a directing career can take. Sometimes your films turn out exactly as you want. Sometimes they don't. I spent a lot of my childhood on sets. I think as a joke, my father gave me a line of dialogue in each of his films during the worst moments of my puberty.
I learned so much by being an actor, and part of my sort-of development as a writer is big thanks to the scripts I read in my acting life.
I just did a part in 'Sin City 2.' I got to do a scene with Ray Liotta. Amazing man, extraordinary gentleman who was just so kind to me... I'm so excited about that; I think it's gonna be very cool.
Saying good-bye on 'Nurse Jackie' was a really big deal, so I'm sure I was keeping myself guarded from ever having to feel anything like that again on another job, especially a death scene.
It's really wonderful to play characters as different from each other as I can.
I was a million percent in love with Edward Scissorhands. I remember looking in the mirror on the last day of shooting... and thinking how sad I was to be saying goodbye to Edward.
When you age, you can do all kinds of roles. You don't have to look great. You can be the mom, the aunt. You can have a small part. You're an actor.
I think that 'Degrassi' really challenged its actors. I was on it for seven years, and it was one of my first jobs. I can't even watch the early episodes - they're so embarrassing! But I really do think I grew as an actor and learned a lot over the seven years.
I realize I have a lot of amazing opportunities, but I don't know how you can play a human being going through real human experiences without being able to walk down the street. If you can't live a real life, how do you play a real person? It always confuses me when actors work back-to-back-to-back with no break. If you live your life on a film set, how the hell can you relate to real people? You don't know what its like to not have people fussing over you all day, and that's not life - that's silly movies. I will always want to take breaks and I wouldn't be OK with losing that.
I'm a terrible actor. I'm still learning. When I first started, I wish I knew then to trust myself more, really. I was in a terrible panic in the early part of my career.
The directing is something that is incredibly satisfying to me and challenging to me because it's asking me to draw on everything I've been able to absorb over all these years of acting and having all this set experience.
I don't ever recall being nervous before performing because I've already stepped into the shoes and the clothes of the character.
When I started acting, I did many films without even an idea of what the script was about. The film would start, and then we would discover what we were expected to do on the sets. Those days have changed.
I'm not a classically trained actor. I'm not a product of Stavlovski method or anything like that.
I have done my share of looking glamorous on-screen in many films.
I did my first movie, 'The Mambo Kings,' in America without speaking the language. I learned the lines phonetically. I had an interpreter actually just to understand directions from my director.
I did 'Ponthan Mada' with Laboni Sarkar, which had won many awards.
Each character has their own challenges. The challenge to doing one scene is your whole history of who you are and your relationships, you only have this one shot.
I learned more doing 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' than I did during three years at drama school.
