I won't say I'll never go back to a soap because an actor's life is so precarious. You can have the most wonderful patch where everyone wants to work with you, and in the blink of an eye the phone won't ring for a month, even a year.

It just seemed like an unattainable dream to go down to Los Angeles and to land a professional working, acting gig on a show that you really love with a character you really connect with. That doesn't seem possible; that seems insane.

You have to have brilliant people to work opposite, and then it does become like a real tennis match and this is our sport. With somebody like Mark Lewis Jones, who is extraordinary anyway, you just know it's going to be a good match.

When you receive a script and it leaps out at you and it's breathing with its own heartbeat - I suppose when you read something like that it's not a choice of whether you do it or don't. It feels like it chooses you, so you just do it.

I had never been to Texas. Id been through Texas, but Im so glad to be back in a place thats not L.A. or New York. To talk about Dallas, to talk about there being sweet tea on the catering table, its rich and saturated in American-ness.

When you understand the purpose [of life], then you can deal and journey through the obstacles, the rejections, the stops and starts, highs-and-lows with a different lens because you know that you're moving in what you're supposed to do.

I love all kinds of movies. I love a really good comedy and not the cheesy ones. My parents hate this, but I love horror films. Those are my favorite, and of course, dramatic roles. Im really drawn to those as well. All different genres.

When I can afford it, I'm very into organic food and I love going to restaurants that use organic produce and such. I think that it's a shame for everyone that, unfortunately, organic can be pretty expensive, so you just do what you can.

On the one hand, I always get the young ingenue, pretty parts. But I don't think of myself that way because I was an ugly duckling when I was growing up. I have to be reminded when I play a part sometimes that I'm playing the pretty girl.

When I was younger, I didn't know who a lot of those people were because I couldn't watch any of their movies. I actually get way more starstruck now. I think starstruck is the wrong word - I get overly enthusiastic about who I work with.

I love all kinds of movies. I love a really good comedy and not the cheesy ones. My parents hate this, but I love horror films. Those are my favorite, and of course, dramatic roles. I'm really drawn to those as well. All different genres.

Sometimes it's necessary for soaps to hang on to an audience by sensationalizing, but it's a beast I don't understand any more, an art form that has fostered extraordinary talent. It's a great arena to learn your craft before you move on.

I stopped eating beef in high school, and in college I stopped eating poultry. I am not a huge fan of factory farming and what we're doing to animals. I try to eat as clean as possible because I want to know what I'm putting into my body.

My mom, who was a constant fixture at work with me until I was 18 years old, did an amazing job filtering out all the things a kid didn't need to see or hear on film sets. So, acting was just a fun, breezy, extracurricular activity for me.

Other people do better going on to grad school and others yet are naturally inclined and do just fine without any formal training at all. Everyone is different. The only things I think are imperative are focus, determination and hard work.

I was born again. It happens to Episcopalians. Sometimes it doesn't hit you till you're 47 years old. It changed my whole life for the better... I spent a lot of time giving Christian witness all over the country to church groups and stuff.

I had never been to Texas. I'd been through Texas, but I'm so glad to be back in a place that's not L.A. or New York. To talk about Dallas, to talk about there being sweet tea on the catering table, it's rich and saturated in American-ness.

Basically, we are all different and we all have something to learn and it doesn't mean people need to change who you are but one should be open to new things and, above all, tolerance and understanding are essential for growth and happiness.

The Australian film industry is a small industry, so you have to really be flexible within working in different mediums. A lot of actors work in theater, film, and television, because there's not much opportunity in terms of employment there.

It's not something I'm embarrassed about. Depression is an issue that tends to be brushed under the carpet. My hope is that if people with a public profile are prepared to talk about it, then it might prompt other people to talk about it too.

For Elektra, I just wanted to be very clear. She's traveled the world. She didn't go to boarding school, but that's the type of girl that she'd be. So, I just wanted to make sure that I could bring that to her, which goes through the language.

I think we're in a time that calls for that level of courage, that level of resolve - you know, to be completely disgusted with injustice to the point that you will have to take some huge leaps of faith. And it may take one person leading many.

I know it's a lot harder for women who don't have enough help, but the truth is, no matter how much money you have, if you want to stay involved with your children and don't want to lose being a primary parent to them, you're still in the game.

The truth is, I've been going pretty much nuts all year. I constantly have to fight being scattered. I feel like I'm on automatic pilot from fatigue. The hardest thing is trying to be present, living for the moment, for everybody in the family.

I think going to university, getting married, having children, and then having the choice to stay at home to raise those children is a very valid one for women and they shouldn't be castigated for it. It's a great job. Not many men would do it.

One of the great things about 'Jericho' that is a parallel with 'Over There' is, in this country, we tend to forget the news we don't want to know about. We're so oversaturated with media and other images that we can turn our head a little bit.

Working on 'Malibu Country' with Reba McEntire is truly a gift. She is one of the nicest people that I have ever had a the pleasure to be around. She is so professional and always on time and has it together. It really is a joy to be around her.

You want to work with people who see something outside of you and that you're maybe not aware of. If someone gives you advice or tells you to do something, you want to be able to follow through with what you're asked to do, and also believe that.

Thank God for Canada! In the context of this narrative [in Underground] and beyond, Canada was certainly an additional option for the many traveling the treacherous terrain of the Underground Railroad in pursuit of what was perceived as "freedom."

I'm just a really big fan of street style. When I went to New York for Fashion Week, it was great to watch everyone on the runway and see all the beautiful clothes and to get ideas, but again, I think it's just about being open and looking around.

I believe you should find at least two hours of every day to spend doing the things that make you happy and relieve stress. I try to wake up a little early so I have an hour to work out and try to allow at least an hour a day to hang with friends.

I think I'm a part of all the characters I play, definitely at different times in my life. In real life, I'm kind of a tomboy. I like to read a lot I like watching T.V. I don't think I'm as interesting as my characters, but I like doing what I do.

When I look in the mirror, I sometimes think I'm getting old, but then I have two generations behind me so that helps puts things into perspective. I am a grandmother now, but at least my nine-year-old grandson Jude calls me Glamma and not Granny.

You can spend the day at work, but when you go home, and you're in the role of a father or a husband, you don't have to remind yourself that you shouldn't tell your wife to hold the messages. If you do, that marriage is not going to last very long.

I'm from Manchester, Mass., so it was lobster, lobster and more lobster! Also, lots of fish that we caught in the summers, clam chowder and roast beef sandwiches. But my mom was pretty healthy; we had a lot of chicken and broccoli and rice as well.

That is what thrills me, personally. Small acts of kindness; thoughtful, large acts of kindness. I feel like we're in a bit of a precipice, and I think that any beautiful energy on the kindness continuum will just help us fall into a lovelier place.

I don't carry sai blades for the sake of it in my personal life. I had to learn how to manipulate the sais. It was very tricky, because it's a weird shape. It's like a big fork. There's a lot of ways that you can use them, but it's not like a sword.

I grew up watching old musicals and seeing Ginger Rogers wearing a beautiful fitted bodice that had ostrich feathers. I love how it moved when she danced. Theatrical pieces like that stayed with me. I wanted to grow up to wear those kinds of things.

I'm seeing a guy now who has nothing to do with films. It's so much nicer with somebody who isn't an actor. Two crazy people in one house would be too much. It's better there's one crazy person, and one nice person who looks after that crazy person.

Because I was crazy and because my parents wanted me out of their hair, they put me in an all-day acting class... so they wouldn't have to deal with me, probably. And it just so happened there agents auditing the class, and I ended up getting signed.

I became an instant fan of the show [Underground] seconds into the opening frames of the pilot. When that drone shot carried us through the main house with Rosalie, played so unflinchingly-brilliantly by Jurnee Smollett Bell, I signed on for the ride.

I didn't know I wanted to go into entertainment, but I knew I wanted to be on stage when I was about seven. I saw a play, like most kids do, at a children's theater in Cleveland, and I just saw them up there, and I thought, 'that's where I want to be.'

I would leave school and go to my theater class, and that's when I'd actually sit down and listen. I wouldn't pay attention in school, or I'd sing in class and get in trouble - I'd always get in trouble. Theater is the only thing I always came back to.

There was this thing written that I had gone into a candle store, and my hair went up in flames because of all the hair spray. First of all, I never have hair spray in my hair, and I've never even heard of this store, and my hair has never been burned.

My view of myself doesn't change. I know who I am. I'm Cuban American; both my parents are Cuban - one was a little browner than the other one. That's who I am. I feel sorry that it's taken so long for the film industry to figure it out and to catch up.

The first concert that my parents took me to was in this canyon in Saudi Arabia called Buttermilk Canyon. You sleep under the stars in the desert, and ex-pats - German, Swiss, Canadian, American - would play classical music that filled the whole canyon.

Love is a true unconditional space to me. To love someone or to be loved is to be seen, and I think, gosh, as humans, all we want is to be seen, to be heard, right? To be valued. To be respected. But mostly just to be held in a safe, unconditional space.

I guess there are all these women with a big secret - they're hiding men they are ashamed of. They come up to me and say: 'I've been dating this guy for six months in secret but none of my friends know. I can't give him up even though he's embarrassing.'

In Israel, if a person doesn't agree with you, she just says no. In Alabama, someone would say, 'I'll think about it.' We would take that literally. So, if you ask for a favor and someone says they'll think about it, they're really not thinking about it.

The only way to come to a full acceptance and understanding of yourself is to embrace your own culture, quirks and differences while learning about those around you and exploring, incorporating and embracing their cultures, differences, quirks, etcetera.

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