A whole film is just about arriving at a moment where you hopefully transfer some feeling to the audience.
I think I am looking as an actor to find ways to push myself into places I haven't been before as a human being.
I think we're always looking for an excuse to connect.
I've found myself at one in the morning just sitting at my desk spending an hour returning emails from the day until like two in the morning. It's ridiculous, I should be sleeping, or dreaming, or reading a novel.
You know, I can't imagine 9 to 5 writing. That takes some stamina.
I think I realized very early on that you can spend a lot of time constructing a really perfect scene in final draft and just end up throwing it away because you didn't figure out that mathematics of the story first.
I think sometimes big budget means explosions! CGI! CGI, the possibilities are so limitless that it begins to be impractical.
Then in college, besides economics, I also majored in studio art and got involved in photography and making short films and acting. But I didn't know you could make a living that way.
I'd studied theater growing up and loved that, but didn't have many examples of artists around me.
A lot of people think, 'I'll give acting or poetry or filmmaking a try. And if it doesn't work out I'll go get a law degree, do something else that's more practical.' For me I went the reverse way. I lived the back-up plan.
If you play it safe every time, then you're missing the best part of acting. You haven't learned anything about your humanity.
The only thing that's important is that every day I'm waking and doing something that I really love to do.
I think what's so attractive about acting is that you get to live several lifetimes in one.
When I was a kid and going to the movies I was overwhelmed by the way women were always second-class citizens in the film.
Modern life has gotten so strange, we all get 150 emails and text messages a day, and it's hard when things are moving that quickly to keep that sense of wonder about being alive.
As an actor, you have an accumulated knowledge base. But there's also something about it that every time you really feel like you're doing it for the first time; you have no idea whether you're capable of it.
So at some point you realize that your life is not just going to start one day in the future, that you're living it.
I didn't understand how you could be an actor if you didn't also study philosophy and study political science, astronomy. And also just go out and live life and have experiences.
I feel like I'm a much better person when I'm developing my imagination and my innocence and my vulnerability. I like that version of me better than the version where I'm just working on my analytical mind.
So writing became a way to get to act in things that I thought were meaningful, and hopefully write stronger roles for other women.
