Looking the way I look, whenever anybody's looking for a light brown funny guy, I get the call... I'm 100 percent Greek, but I look like I could be Indian or Middle Eastern or Hispanic. If it's ethnic, they'll try and put me in it.
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.
At first I was always cast as the girlfriend. It was a long time before I got to play characters who were people.
In my movie work, if I do one guy, the next guy I do, I want to do something kind of different. Even in terms of genre - it's really great to mix it up a little.
I've been acting for 27 years, and anonymity has always been a part of what I do. Of course you get recognised every now and again, but 'Homeland' pushed me into a completely different strata, and that took me by surprise.
I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out what will happen in an acting career.
My relationship with every film is more or less the same, but the experience is the difference. It comes with the people I am working with, the character I play.
Typecasting is really rampant in Hollywood, and because I played a costumed character and did it successfully, it was a real stigma.
I played the mom in Spy Kids when I was, like, 27. So it was ridiculous. But [Robert Rodriguez] was like, "You know what? If we do our job right, no one will question it." And nobody did.
I did 'Malice,' 'Sommersby,' and 'Sleepless in Seattle,' and they're as disparate characters as I've ever played. But somehow, there was that thing - they were all second male leads, so they all didn't get the girl in some weird way.
Until 45 I can play a woman in love. After 55 I can play grandmothers. But between those ten years, it is difficult for an actress.
I love actors. I'm empathetic to them. I understand what they go through. But I didn't want to be an actor.
I don't get to play the same role over and over in different movies. The roles that I get to play are quite varied, which is great.
I did my share of kid acting, like lots of us do. I even played King Herod when I was 6, but when I got to the end of my school period, that was it.
I enjoy darker sardonic wit more than knock-knock jokes. I spent the first healthy chunk of my career playing all-American, pleasant, average, nice people, so it's fun to have some complications there.
I didn't grow up as child actor.
Sure, I'd play an ape if they asked me. Maurice Evans did.
I've had varying luck with comedy in the past, but I'd really like to give that another go. I don't know if I'd chase down a part, but if the right thing came along I could certainly see myself stepping into that zone.
Thank God for television. I've been able to consistently work in television even when people say, 'Oh my God, I haven't seen you since this film or that project.' At least I'm working. It's very difficult to get that next movie role. I'm grateful to have the television world accept me.
I felt that if I'm serious about acting, I would like people to see me as an actress. It's less of a stretch if I'm singing, unless I'm playing a character who sings.
I've been bouncing around from comedy to drama and TV and film.
I don't want to be 45 competing with 20-year-olds, running to go get Botox. I want to be an expressive actor hired for the age that I am, portraying women who are my age: 40. I'm just hoping I can find some of those roles to play. Otherwise, I have to find something else.
I feel like I've done Pete Hornberger, and that is a painting I have signed, and I don't need to play that character anymore. So I'll get offers for panicky, pathetic guys, and while it's a great compliment to get them, I feel like I don't need to play that again.
I think in Vice and American Me I played very silent, rigid characters and people remember them.
I became interested in educating people in the variety of ways in which women can express their emotion. Which is much easier to do in a large role than in a supporting role to a male protagonist. In general, the women in a supporting role to a male protagonist - cry a lot.
