Quotes

There's been a slow death in a way. On the positive side, there are films getting into the Academy Awards that wouldn't have, but on the negative side, financiers are now dominant and making all the decisions. I can't count the ways a director's vision is compromised.

I guess the characters I play may be at the more destructive edge of the spectrum, more damaged or whatever, but I find a lot of female roles uninteresting. I would rather play someone who's fucked-up and deep than someone who's one-dimensional and invisible. I would rather drive something and be crazy than be forgotten and nothing.

As a woman, a lot of stories haven't been told and we've got a lot of catching up to do.

Being in an ensemble is a good experience, but I don't feel like I need any more of those experiences. I love the principle, but I also feel like I want to take up more space. It's hard because it can, when you're not there every day or in every scene, be tricky to anchor down a character.

After I'm finished playing a part, it's almost like a ritual kind of thing. I've brought them to life, they've had their time. And now it's time for them to go back in...in whatever way they do. Then I go on with my life.

I like to play smart, three-dimensional women. I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people.

(On landing Brooklyn's Finest (2009)) Antoine was in town, and they were auditioning people. I liked the script, and it was just one of those average, "Do you want to go on this audition?" sorts of things. When I went in and met him, I really liked him a lot and I thought, "I hope this works out". Because I liked his intimacy; I liked how, if something wasn't working that was written on the page, he'd say, "Let it go. Let's find ourselves". I love that kind of flexibility. When they said "Do you want to do it?", it made total sense to me.

(On The Haunting (1999)) When I talked to Jan de Bont and saw the script, my impression was that it was going to be a remake of the original. The original was really scary. It was good. That's what I thought we were going to do. With that same information, I'd do it again but, obviously, the final product did not turn out to be what I thought it was going to be.