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I would say asking for help, which is something I'm not really good at. I think a lot of Type A personalities aren't! Recognizing that you can't do it all and you can try but the main priority is prioritizing joy.
I almost moved into a place over a funeral parlor. My father said, 'That's just too macabre,' but I thought I'd be embracing my mortality. I told him it would keep me grounded - like when people get skull tattoos.
There's a lot of magic involved in movies that as a child I really appreciated. So I love bringing my son to set. It reminds me of what I loved doing as a child, and also, as an actor, you have a lot of down time.
Quite often I'll turn on the television and something like Sound of Music will be on or Victor/Victoria and I might watch a moment or two. But I don't actually sit down and say I'm going to watch one of my movies.
I can say this: You haven't lived until you've had to wear a triplet pregnancy belly. You would be amazed at what a girl can learn based on the different months of pregnancy to make her character more interesting.
I am a very strict mother, and as a mother, it's my responsibility to guide my kids and tell them to go how far and no further. There should be rules and guidelines for the kids, and they should know their limits.
A casting director who'd cast me in 'Assassins' sent a video to Kevin Reynolds, the director, and Mel Gibson, whose company is producing '187.' Then I went in and auditioned, and a few hours later, they called me.
There wasn't even a movie theater in the town. Nothing. Not even any fast food chains of any kind. Regardless, I knew that I was going to leave and become an actor, and be in film and television, and I've done it.
I make no apologies for loving the finer things in life or the men I choose to date. I don't feel bad about the person I am. Now, I do have an edge, rawness and realness, and I can tell you I'm going to keep that.
I grew up under the British system, which I think is horrific for children - very, very strict - a system that did not recognize children as being individuals. You were small animals earning the right to be human.
For me, the spirit of Christmas means being happy and giving freely. It's a tradition for all the kids in the family to help mom decorate the tree. Christmas is all about family, eating, drinking and making merry.
Initially I thought: 'I would never get cast opposite Will Smith! No one would ever buy it with the age difference, our personalities.' I can't think of a couple that makes less sense in every way, shape and form.
I'm so sick of hearing how there's no strong roles for women. I don't care about strong roles. I just want to see women who are characters! A nun, a serial killer, a housewife, as long as there's some depth there.
Sex as something beautiful may soon disappear. Once it was a knife so finely honed the edge was invisible until it was touched and then it cut deep. Now it is so blunt that it merely bruises and leaves ugly marks.
I'm not religious. I was as a child, and like lots of people, I suppose, rapidly became very disillusioned with the whole thing. I also feel that organised religion has caused far more problems than it has solved.
I'm much more of a minimalist. My mom was Russian, so she loved lots of jewelry and opulence and tons of paintings on the wall and lots of clothes. I'll buy one thing that I love a season and wear it all the time.
One of the great thing about New York is the neighborhood - you go for your walk in the morning and you know your dry cleaning lady, you know the guy in your coffee shop - that's your neighborhood and I love that.
I have all these rules for avoiding depression. One is going outside in the morning. I don't keep breakfast in the house, so that I have to go out first thing when I first wake up. And then I come back and shower.
I am 5 ft 6 in, and at my peak, my vital statistics were 37-22-35. I didn't even think about my weight - but now I work hard at keeping healthy. Fortunately, my husband Richie is as much of a fitness buff as I am.
You know how macho boys get when they're all together? Well, the set of 'Desperado' was like that. They were all trying to put me down, saying, 'Bring on the stuntwoman, Salma can't do that.' But I did everything.
I like to go into an audition room, particularly when they think I'm not right for a part, and really fight for it. There's something so exciting and challenging about proving to yourself that you can pull it off.
The reason why people are huge stars is nothing to do with acting. It's the magic. Charisma is a word that's used too often; it's something special, and it's what makes stars. It's luck, and basically, it's genes.
I know competition is there, and it can come my way by new, fresh faces that are around or are coming up. It pushes me to work hard. I know if I don't work hard, I will be left behind. So, I continue to work hard.
Either we want to have segregation or integration. And if we don't want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you're only awarded if you're black.
There's nothing that's in an actor's control. I've learned at this point you do things and you let them go. There's no way to control the outcome. The only thing I have any sort of reign over is my own experience.
There is no greater cause than making the world fit for children. I feel very strongly about carrying on the family tradition by working with UNICEF to help improve the lives and well-being of children everywhere.
I go to a Calvary Chapel church out here in Los Angeles. I had been here about two years at the time. I'm very close with my church, very close with the pastor and his wife, and I work with a girls' ministry here.
I wish the people of India and Pakistan peace and harmony. Artistes and craftsmen in both the countries must interact with each other as talent has no borders. We both have common music, culture and craftsmanship.
We're still working out the details, but I'd be delighted to do the film. The problem at the moment is my busy schedule. Shooting on this film has been extended by a month, but I need to be in the U.S. by Dec. 20.
I think people need to understand that with plays and with cinema, when you hear about it, call and get a ticket then or go and see it then. It's especially with the play, which I can do because it's a limited run.
My parents keep telling me to be thick-skinned in the industry. They tell me how people will put you up on a high platform and then bring you down. They also tell me to not believe in the image created by the hype.
I would never want to do something just for the sake of being independent or for the sake of doing big films. I'm always surprised by the material I'm attracted to. And that's how I like it. I like to be surprised.
My 3-year-old daughter is somewhat psychic. I hate the abuse of that word, so let's just say... intuitive. She was born 'in the caul,' meaning my water never broke, and superstition says that makes a child psychic.
Jean-Luc asked me to play a small part in 'Breathless,' the role of Belmondo's former girlfriend. It was just one scene. I asked him what I had to do and he said, 'You have to take your clothes off,' and I said no.
I had no words for these feelings. And then people started using the word Ms. Suddenly, there was this handle with which I could identify myself and understand why I felt so out of whack with the culture around me.
If you go for an audition, you have a character description, and for the women, it's always about being beautiful, sexy. And for the men it's more about the character than how he appears physically. That annoys me.
I think a pixie cut is so cute. I just think that everyone that has one is the most courageous person. It's so daring to do that! I get geeked out by people when they do that. They're awesome. Would I do it? Maybe.
Design, whether it's on your body or in your home, is the same thing. It's mixing different colors, different textures, and unexpected patterns - elements that you wouldn't often put together in an interesting way.
So much of the world is being brought up on these stories that Hollywood is coming up with and exporting all over. They have so much power and influence, so it's really important that they represent women properly.
If there's one thing that I know how to do, it's talk to actors. From what I have experienced working with so many different directors in so many different things, a lot of them don't really know how to talk to us.
I can't say there were parts I was offered and turned down, but there were meetings for parts that I didn't go to, meetings I should have gone to, meetings I was advised against going to. I listened to that advice.
I remember my father saying to me once, 'I finally know how to describe you, Charlotte. You're prickly.' And he was right - prickly is a very good description. If I had to be an animal, I'd probably be a porcupine.
I give the character a history and a full life; this way the tears come naturally for the character in whatever situation calls for tears. Also, sometimes a certain song will help me feel emotions that evoke tears.
It took 17 years to get 'Rambling Rose' made from the time Calder Willingham wrote the script adapted from his novel. Ed Scherick, the producer, was interested in it. Martha Coolidge was interested in directing it.
Is it harder having kids and working? It definitely is, but the payoff is you get to go home to your kids, and it all balances out. And I know I'm a better mother when I'm engaged in something outside of the house.
I am very tall, and when you're a teenager, you want to be like everyone else. I used to slump a lot; it's very human at that stage to want to be part of the crowd and not want any part of you that is sticking out.
I'm the kind of person who, if I were living in another time, if I had to pick any time, I would probably be a pioneer. I just love the simplicity of what it means to work hard with your hands - to eat and survive.
When you leave Africa, as the plane lifts, you feel that more than leaving a continent you're leaving a state of mind. Whatever awaits you at the other end of your journey will be of a different order of existence.
For me, being an actress, my responsibility is not to pay attention to all the noise around me and to pay attention to the script and the director and protect the character and try to tell her story the best I can.
A movie that I've seen probably the most is 'Fanny & Alexander,' the Ingmar Bergman movie. I even dragged my friends to the super long version that had an intermission. I don't know how much they liked me that day.