Always surround yourself with people who are even more talented and competent than you.
My mother-in-law thinks I'm more beautiful than all the other faces around. She keeps encouraging me to take up more work.
The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.
Good people hire people better than themselves. So A players hire A+ players. But others hire below their skills to make themselves look good. So B players hire C players. C players hire D players, etc.
Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. A successful business owner never stops learning. They educate themselves on the things they need to learn, and they never stop growing. They never arrive at a certain point and think, ahhh... now I don't need to learn anymore.
After Princess Diaries, I was labeled a good girl, and for the first eight years of my career I had to fight to get any other kind of role. But I like fighting for a job, actually. Once you get it, you feel like you've emerged victorious from the scrap and you're like, "OK, this one's mine. Did it. Done."
'Performance' gave me doubts about my way of life. Before that, I had been completely involved in the more bawdy side of the film business. But after that, everything changed.
My business acumen is definitely growing.
I got a divorce, and I felt like I finally started my career. I started making movies and projects that I just really believed in.
I've gone from the edgy girl to the girl you call for H&M and L'Oreal, which is something neither I nor the myriad agencies that rejected me when I tried to get signed could have predicted.
In TV, you get so many different opportunities, and especially, you get to try something different you don't get to do as a normal person, then great.
My advice to young women who are looking to be successful; make sure you're passionate about whatever it is that you're doing. And make sure you're fulfilled by the opportunities within your job.
I love working in America, I love being part of the industry out here.
When I work on a movie, I never aim for records, collections or the number one position. I always concentrate on my work and look for ways to improve my acting abilities. I also advise my co-stars not to concentrate on these pretty issues and just focus on acting.
I still feel like when I walk on the set, I'm starting from scratch, until I realize, 'OK, I do know what I'm doing. I'm human.'
The bad news is, I have worked less than I have liked. The good news is, I can look back on my body of work and feel truly proud of the work I have done.
On the last day of my teaching career, I was sitting in my apartment, having a glass of wine, thinking I'm glad I did it, that I had been somehow useful, that I had learned something.
At the beginning of my career, it was very hard to go up. Now, it's very hard to stay on top. You have to stay there, and I want to stay there so badly. I'm still standing.
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.
When I first got started I had no idea my career would last as long as it did.
I've grown and changed, and I'm still making television and movies that I feel really proud of.
I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer and to - as my father puts it - finally have a real job.
There was a time in my career when my hackles would really get raised if someone came in and said, 'We need you to do this or that.' But the fact of the matter is, you're working in a shared universe, and all elements of the universe are, ideally, going to mesh and work together. That's my goal. I want to be on the team.
I'm not from a political family and didn't grow up dreaming of being George Washington. I started working in 8th grade and have held every odd job possible - working in a gravel pit, weighing big wheelers, ticket sales, data base management - but I knew if I worked hard and got experience, I could apply that experience to my next endeavor.
I got my first job by exceeding expectations.
