All those days of waiting on tables until I could get a role on Broadway, all that time going to school taking lessons, and all those years of being a nobody following a dream-and now here it is. |
Brad works in a really different way because his craft is very different. His upbringing is very different. Brad came up through film and he was like, what, 10 when he did Thelma and Louise? He came up through film, so he has a whole different way of working. What I loved about Brad-and a lot of people won't do this-Brad is extremely generous. He'll try anything. |
Dad, who's here tonight, thank you for teaching me how to soldier through tough situations, and mom for teaching me to do it gracefully, |
Ed Harris and I first worked together in New York on Sam Shepard's play, Simpatico. Harris was never boring, which made working with him a blast. I never knew when he'd lunge across the stage and say his lines an inch from my nose, or get tickled and go upstage with his back to the audience so they couldn't see him laughing. |
Having a dad in the service was helpful. I was forever meeting new kids, going to new schools, moving to new neighborhoods. I was encouraged when I attended the American School in Germany. |
I love it when ugliness is beautiful. I love character flaws. |
I think in terms of family, in terms of relationships, in terms of work, competition to be the favorite, to be the noticed, to be the one - I don't know if it exists for all personalities, but I know for sure it did with me. |
I was always the child who wore her emotions on her sleeve. |
I was barely in my teens, living in Greece where my dad, an officer in the U.S. Navy, was stationed. He took me and my four brothers and sisters to this ancient theater at the foot of the Parthenon, and we saw this amazing Greek drama. He tried to make it a learning experience. |
I'm going to work forever, and I'm going to have a million different kinds of roles so the pressures and the desires are a little bit different, and maybe they wed at certain points. Of course, I want to carry a movie that means something to me, whether it's an independent or a major studio film. I want to play a character that's substantial and means something. |
I'm just a pack mule. I've played leads and I've played character roles. Any actress in Hollywood will tell you as your age climbs, the leads thin. |
I'm not a big fan of mediocre. |
In our family, we recognized that jockeying for position, so it meant a lot for me to be able to play the character who was doing that in a transparent and needy way. I think mothers-I don't know-make each one feel more favorite. But then again, maybe not. The weird thing is, does it affect you in later life? If you knew you were the favored one? |
In the theater, it's about taking time in a musical segment, a pause in a musical way and then moving on. |
In theater, you have a rehearsal period and you know just who to be. |