I was a dramatic kid. I remember, I was very young, and once I knew what I wanted to do I, like, created a theater company, and I would direct, and we would sell lemonade to buy props.

There I was at 'The Tree of Life' premiere, holding hands with Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. That walk down the red carpet was a real rite of passage for me. Suddenly, journalists began asking, 'Who's this actress?'

My whole life, I wanted to be an actor. Perhaps the seed was planted when I saw Sigourney Weaver in 'Alien', wiping the floor with the men on the ship.

I don't want to be in my car all day. I love getting up in the morning in Venice and walking my dogs down to the cafe to get my tea, and then perhaps going to a bookstore and sitting and reading, then walking to the beach.

We need to understand that femininity is not weakness. And our society, for some reason, equates the two.

When I get a script that has the opportunity to create discussion and inspire young girls, I don't want to say no to that... I just want to contribute.

I'm the unknown everyone's already sick of.

I sometimes go to a movie and eat my popcorn and turn my brain off. I love those movies. But the movies I like to be in, for the most part, are the ones that challenge you.

I've spent my life being embarrassed.

I'm either thought of as ethereal or fiery. And maybe that's the interesting thing about red hair: there's that fiery Renaissance connotation and the ethereal.

I can't even open my eyes underwater.

Women can be powerful, graceful, and complex, with the ability to make any choice they desire.

I write all the time because I'm lonely. When you're acting, you're working every day all day. But then you have long amounts of time off.

The happiest moments for me, creatively, are doing readings of a play around a table where there's no audience.

I felt self-conscious going out in the street prior to ever even being in a movie. That's just me.

I feel equal parts lucky and scared anytime I get a job.

Who walks around proud of things they've done? That's an obnoxious quality.

I always think the second worst thing in the world is to go on stage at night, and the first worst thing in the world is sitting at home at night. For me, it's scarier to not be doing it than doing it.

I don't concern myself with thinking ahead to the finished product. I focus more specifically on what the character is experiencing. Once you relieve yourself of the very arbitrary and always punishing pressure of what an audience is expecting you to do, acting becomes a lot more fun and pure.

I see writing and acting as different parts of the same continuum. Writing is better for intense emotion. If you're very angry about something, you shouldn't present it as strongly when you're acting. But if you're really angry and writing about it, that's the best way to get it out and across.

The only suggestions I get on my plays is to make them more of what they already are, and that's wonderful.

Actors dread working with studios because they dictate what you do in a way that independent movies can't.

It's a struggle for me to watch things I've been in because I'm just distracted and self-critical.

My feeling is... when you show up to a movie set where there's, like, 50 people standing around and months of preparation gone into it, you want to be as prepared as possible, so you should make a million baguettes. That might not actually help in any explicit way, but it'll make you feel more prepared.