I was very shy, but was desperate to meet boys. So my sister told me to be a cheerleader. I didn`t make cheerleading squad, so I thought, "Why not try out for a play?" As soon as I did I found out I absolutely loved it. I could cry and scream and laugh, b...
How do we escape who we are? I think going to college, I felt freer. I loved the clean slate. I wasn`t known as the sort of nerdy, studious girl. I met gay people for the first time in my life. I needed that expansion from a very conservative little town.
I think there`s been a tendency to place me in what has been characterized as the "moral center" of the film. In films like The Ice Storm (1997), The Crucible (1996) and Nixon (1995), that`s the sort of the persona that emerged.
I`m hard to pin down. I tend to look different in films. I get recognized sometimes. But I just live my life. I get on the bus, I get on the subway, it`s not a problem. I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingénue leading lady, who starte...