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Oh my God, my girlfriends are everything to me. They celebrate with you, they cry with you, they hold you when you need to be held. They laugh with you. They're mean with you! They're always there, and it's just a priceless thing to have.
I would go so far as to say I would not have the life that I have right now if it wasn't for Gabe Liedman. He is the first person I met in my adulthood that I felt was truly delighted by me and understood me and also was curious about me.
'Obvious Child,' the short, had a nice life online and a great festival run, but the short and the feature still stand apart from everything else I've done. I play a woman who you might meet in life. My other work is much more heightened.
What they did was to make a pilot and it may well go to series at the next festival but I don't have any news on that. It's already been on Paramount actually, but as it's on Paramount it'll probably be on several more times... hopefully.
How do you explain certain physical qualities that somehow sell on screen? You're born with it... Certain people are just more watchable, and I was more watchable, but I don't think I understood acting or drama very well when I was a kid.
I went to the International Ballet competition when I was 15 or 16 and that was the first time I competed. I didn't get very far but it was the first time that I realized what I needed to do to become a dancer. I realized how hard it was.
I think bare legs in winter are idiotic. Unless your naked pins are toned, tanned and veinless, it's best to cover up. There is nothing more elegant in winter than dark tights worn with matching knee-length boots and a belted trench coat.
And people are so het up about the fact I'm in the theatre - it's like, 'Ooh these telly names, can they be any good?' I came out of RADA and my first job was at the National Theatre, but everyone wonders if I can cope. It makes me laugh.
Interestingly, when you do films, sometimes you have conscious reasons, things that you were looking for, or stuff that you were trying to do. And then, you see the film and you think, "Wow, it ended up being something totally different!"
My life isn't that dramatic. My dad really loves me, he just can't talk on the phone. He's too crippled and shy, and that's almost harder. He's there and he loves me, and I try and try and try, it's just impossible to have a relationship.
My kids have always been allowed to have dessert. My husband thinks I'm too free and easy about that kind of stuff, but my kids will throw out a half-eaten ice cream cone if they've had enough, which I've never in my life been able to do.
I was used to theatre classes. I studied with my mother; she was a theatre teacher and directed, too, so it was very family-like. Then I studied with a great teacher in Paris, and she was wonderful; she pushed me, but she was a warm soul.
Not all of us are chameleons that can do every different thing. I hope I'm going to be typecast. I will play the girl next door for the rest of my life if I have to. I always kind of feel like I have that in my pocket when I go in a room.
For me the ideal date would be to drink wine in the backyard under the stars, listen to music and just talk. Then we'd eat steak and, later, dessert. If all went as planned, we'd save some of the dessert and play with it while making out.
I often look at women who wear great jeans and high heels and nice little T-shirts wandering around the city, and I think, 'I should make more of an effort. I should look like that.' But then I think, 'They can't be happy in those heels.'
'Battlestar' was 22 episodes - 9 to 10 months a year - and we were exhausted. You finish shooting, and the last thing you want to do is go back to work. You want those 3 months off because you're tired - it's a grueling shooting schedule.
You have to keep your eyes wide open and your head high and realize that you are going to be OK. I do this with work and with being a mom - I'm a true believer that it's OK to fail, and that there is power in getting back up on the horse.
I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made it.
I think people like to be thrilled and excited. And a scary movie is a safe way to do that because you're not actually doing it. It's entertainment. You know that you're in the confines of this two-hour space of safety in the movie house.
When you live in America, it's kind of insular - the news coverage that you get - unless you're really smart about it and find more international news coverage. I've learned that from my husband. In the French culture, they talk politics.
It was the greatest thing in the world getting fat. Every meal out was an event. Or we'd go to Italy and we'd have pasta, truffles, and dessert and then plan the next incredible meal. It was a happy-go-lucky time. I never had so much fun.
My mom is a script supervisor. It's like the family business. It never had that feeling of entertainment. It was always more like, "Eh, it's just a movie," with that crew mentality, which is, "We've done it before and we can do it again."
My golden retriever, Callie, is so easy to please. She finds great pleasure in our day-to-day routine, which helps me to enjoy the simple things. She loves to jump on the couch with her favorite toys and roll around while I clap my hands.
I mean, if you're being directed very precisely by somebody who has admiration and who's really smart, it's great. If you're being told what to do by a nincompoop - and luckily that hasn't happened very often - it can be very frustrating.
I've always been inspired by female performers and artists who really surround who they are around their voice. For me, it's always been about the voice. I wanna hear someone just sit by a piano, on a stool, and just sing - and that's it!
While you're in the moment of anything that's confusing in your life, you're in the moment, and you have to figure it out. You can go up or down. And I just kept working on the higher road, and trying. I got very involved with medication.
I love Paranormal Activity and The Exorcist. The Shining is a great one too, but theres not a lot that scares me. Maybe its because I know the other side of it, and I know how movies are made, but it takes a lot for me to get freaked out.
Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? (She made this remark in February 1936, at the railway station in Los Angeles upon her return from Chicago, when a Los Angeles police officer was assigned to escort her home)
Audiences are so much more sophisticated than they've ever been. They expect a lot more. I don't think because it's an hour of your Thursday night rather than an hour and a half of your weekend that you should be gypped at all in quality.
Women have a way of contorting things sometimes. We all have our moods, ups and downs. Or if the guy doesn't say anything when you walk out with a new top and the guy has no idea why you're mad at him. So of course, women are complicated.
Someone said to me, 'If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?' My answer was then and still is, 'If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.'
I had a job since I was 12 years old. I did everything under the sun. I pumped gas. I worked at gas stations, car washes, dry cleaners, anything and everything that I had to do to pay the bills. So for me, I know what it's like to hustle.
Particularly for women, I think more of us in the industry need to just do it. I think guys are more willing to put themselves out, that way, at least with the girls that I know. We say we want to direct, but then we don't actually do it.
'Last Man On Earth,' I have to say, is a love for me. I mean, a true passion. To people who haven't watched it or who've watched a little and thought, 'Ah, I don't know where this is going,' or whatever, I urge them to check it out again.
I think if anyone tells you the odds are slim, just keep walking. Just do whatever the hell you want to do, because they don't know what they're talking about. When you love something, and you work really really hard at it, you can do it.
People will say to me, ‘You’ve played so many strong women,’ and I’ll say, ‘Have you ever said to a man, “You’ve played so many strong men?”’ No! Because the expectation is [men] are varied. Why can’t we have that expectation about women?
The roughest thing was learning the realities of the world at such a young age. I was 10 or 11, going to church, hearing the adults standing on the podium talking about world affairs, about history, about war, and how America was founded.
The food was interesting. My background is Russian, so cheese and potatoes are my love. There was plenty of that. And fried cheese! It is really, really, really good. And really, really, really bad for you. It's like an artery on a plate.
My mom started understanding how many people take advantage of a child, so she hired smart people to protect me in that way. I'm happy that when I was younger, people protected me and put me in a position where I can now control my music.
My understanding of the way sex scenes work is that you're surrounded by crew, and you're cold, and you have to do it eight times 'cause they didn't get the lighting. It doesn't sound pleasant, but you think that actors actually enjoy it?
Don't be afraid to fail. For the love of God, don't be afraid to fail, because you're going to fail. So try to fail as hard as you can is what I would say, because you're always going to get up and you're going to learn something from it.
I'm an only child. Which is kind of bad, because having a brother or sister is like another form of friendship. That's something I've missed out on, except I know that I couldn't be doing what I am doing now if I had brothers and sisters.
You either have chemistry or you don't, but a lot of what attracts me is a guy's mind and humor and talent. I need to get to know all those things before I fall for someone. I'm not a one-night-stand kind of girl. I'm a relationship girl.
I recently have gotten into juicing as an in-between-meals snack. I think the more vegetable ingredients the better, especially if they are green. I find that a good juice can really curb my appetite when I need to wait for the next meal.
I'm very careful. I think about everything. Some people go, 'Oh, I went out and bought something and didn't realise how much it was,' but there's no such thing with me. I always think about the future because I never want to go backwards.
You've gotta leave enough space for your actors to bring stuff to the table and whatever the weather's doing that day or what the light's like. Things can shift, and you have to be malleable. Every day is a different feeling and a change.
See, that's the thing: I'm not one of those actors who thinks, 'God, I've got to improvise and make it my own.' No, my first job as an actor is to take what's written and make it work. And then, if they want me to improvise, I'll do that.
What woman doesn't want to go out there and kick some butt? I did it with a sword in 'Conan,' I did it with a crossbow in 'G.I. Joe,' and I've got my multi-tool and my super-suit in 'Continuum.' It's really a release, and it's quite cool.
I went to a Christian high school, so I went under my middle name. I don't think they would have accepted me in the school - 'This is Rebel'... so I have two middle names, Melanie Elizabeth, and I went under those. But Rebel's way cooler.
If you're trying to be an actor, sometimes you get lucky, and you end up on 'The Office', but if you don't, and you know that you have something to say, it's really, really fortunate to be able to get to write and star in your own comedy.