Something that works for one person could be a disadvantage to another.
It was a very well-rounded childhood with lots of different opportunities. My mom will say she set out to overstimulate me - surround me with way too many things and let me pick. As a result, I've always been a multitasker; I've always liked a lot of variety.
I grew up in Harlem in New York, very rough, urban environment, and so what I found is that, if I can have kids travel to different places, countries, areas, it can expand their minds.
I've had a lot of different lives. I was adopted, I grew up in Nebraska, and then I went to Northwestern... Then I had this really extraordinary, different life than my parents.
I have never been stereotyped in one kind of character. I have been a part of reality shows, events, singing and dancing. No one has ever told me, 'She will fit only in this character or this look.' It has never happened to me, luckily.
I think I have been blessed to play a variety of roles. I have experimented and done different things.
If I'm experiencing a different thing every day and seeing a new environment every day, it can create a different mood or different feeling.
You do nonfiction, you get to meet people you would not normally meet.
If you're gonna make connections which are innovative... you have to not have the same bag of experiences as everyone else does.
My father's from Australia and my mother was born in India, but she's actually Tibetan. I was born in Katmandu, lived there until I was eight, and then moved to Australia with my mother and father. So yeah, I'm very mixed up, been to many different schools.
Life is not about acting in films alone. There are so many things in life other than films and acting.
I spent time in refugee camps in Southeast Asia, and in the projects of Chicago. I've been to State dinners with Presidents. I met the Queen of England on a beach in Anguilla. No one is any more valuable or important than you are. No one is more important than your family and your friends.
I've lived almost, like, four completely different lives. (Stripping) was just one section - one little small section, if that - but it was a very interesting and turbulent but kind of wild ride and I'm not ashamed of it all. I think it's hilarious and I learned a lot about human nature.
Everybody's got a different way of telling a story - and has different stories to tell.
Films set in 90210 are ten a penny. But there's rarely room to make films about a different postal code, to show the lives of ordinary Americans who have to live with very limited material resources.
I am extremely eclectic in choosing my films as an audience, and as a direct result of that, I love exploring, I love cinema, and I love learning from different experiences.
I've been through a lot of different things, experienced a lot of different things.
Broaden yourself. You don't have to focus when you're 20. I think the broader you are, the better it is. Later you can focus on your real interests and ideas. The ultimate goal is to be an interesting, useful, wholesome person. If you're successful on top of that, then you're way ahead of everybody.
In my 90-plus years, I have lived a multitude of lives.
I think one of the most important things we can do as feminists is acknowledge that, even though we have womanhood in common, we have to start to think about the ways in which we're different, how those differences affect us, and what kinds of needs we have based on our differences.
Having life experiences outside of acting is something my family has always made sure happens.
I've been in a lot of different arenas of life.
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.
Diversity is not a skin thing, necessarily. Diversity is you have people around the table who have different backgrounds and different experiences and think differently.
Not everyone is the same. You can't label a person just because of what they do or what they've done.
