Quotes

I have worked with some of the meanest people in the world. You can't do anything to intimidate me.

I think that I've always been attracted to characters who are positive and come from a very innocent place. I think there's a lot of room for discovery in these characters and that's something I always have fun playing.

[on singing at the Academy Awards] It's nerve-wracking! I'll be up there, singing the song in front of billions of people - oh, and Daniel Day-Lewis! And Cate Blanchett. I'll be going to Taco Bell when the ceremony is over. Mexican food cures me.

[on being stereotyped as the naïve one] Not at this point. Right now, I'm just doing what I enjoy and I've done some different films, I've done some different types of roles.

[on working at The Gap] Whitney Houston came in. Someone dared me to do "the Gap act" on her. You know, the Gap act. So I went up to her like I didn't know who she was, and I said, "Hi, I just wanted to let you know about our sale items and make sure to check out our new colors." She looked at me like I was crazy.

Thirty was a big deal for me. It was the age where I reevaluated everything - how I approached life and how I thought about myself. When I look at my 20s, or when I look at any period in my life, I think about how much time I've wasted trying to find the right man. It's like, if I could go back and do it again, I would have taken guitar lessons or something. I would have put my energy into something that paid off in the end, instead of trying to improve myself for men. Oh, the time and the energy, trying to impress somebody who was actually a big jerk, you know? But the truth is, once you have a great man in your life, it allows you - or at least for me - to look at yourself and grow as an individual. And gosh, if I had known I was going to find this, my 20s would have been completely different.

[2011] I was a hostess at Hooters, and that was sort of fun. I was 17, and then when I was 18, I waited [tables] for about a month. I wasn't cut out to be a waitress, and I certainly wasn't cut out to be a Hooters waitress. That was a short-lived ambition. Everyone would agree, if they could see me, Hooters isn't necessarily the best way to describe me.

[on the era in which The Master (2012) is set] We were a society in transition. Women were given responsibility in wartime, and then it was back to the kitchen and take care of your man. The perception of what what was available to women was so different.

[on letting her career be influenced by childhood favorites] I'm like the luckiest girl in the world. I've gotten to be a princess, I've gotten to work with the Muppets. A lot of my childhood dreams about who I wanted to be when I was a grown-up, I at least get to play them in movies. And Lois Lane is one of them. So I'm just excited. I hope I bring something that people enjoy.

[on having the Muppets as co-stars] To see them when they're not animated was really upsetting.

I grew up as a Mormon and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I'm afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie. I'm very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over too. You can't really misbehave without feeling badly about it. At least, I can't.

I had an existential crisis at the Oscars, sitting next to Sean Penn and Meryl Streep, and being like "What am I doing here? I don't belong here." I felt like it could all be taken away.

I was one of seven, and we took a lot of road trips - long road trips. And this was before iPhones and iPads and DVD players in cars. I remember how novel it was when I got my own Walkman so I could listen to music. It's going to sound silly, but one of my favorites was the Out of Africa (1985) soundtrack. I loved watching the scenery go by to that music. I thought it would be a beautiful ballet.

I've always really loved action films, but I don't see myself as a superhero girl, so my Lois Lane is a mere mortal full of imperfections.

Man of Steel (2013) was an opportunity to be in a genre film without having to train... I always want to defeat supervillains - it's just the chicken-and-broccoli diet that I'm not into.

[on her character Sydney Prosser in American Hustle (2013)] (She) is the most miserable human being I've ever played. She is not - happy. I'm used to playing people that, even if they're survivors, there's some sort of light in them. I don't know that she has that, necessarily... I think I like playing happy people.

[on her role in Her (2013) with Joaquin Phoenix] It's a friendship love. Joaquin and I were able to create a male-female friendship on camera, and you don't get to explore that very often without undertones and overtones. We're friends, and you really believe that. Or I believe that. I can't speak for anyone else.

[speaking to Robert Ito about American Hustle (2013)] I want to say the f-word so much in this interview, because these characters are in such a f'd-up situation. [But] I think it's rude. Mormon upbringing. I'll say it in film. But that's a character. I just won't say it in print.

[on being on Smallville (2001)] As an actress people always tease me like: if there's anything you can do to make yourself unattractive you will do it. You'll read it in the script and then you'll like find out in the middle that she has a limp, and you'll be like "Oh my God! This is this is the best role I've ever seen!" And you have a prosthetic nose coming out the side of your face. And I would be like: I want to be interested in that role because I feel like things are so focused on beauty. Anybody can be beautiful.

I was a huge Ann-Margret fan, and I wanted to be like her.

[on turning down the role of the Pink Power Ranger in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (2000) ] A lot of people kept saying 'you're so dumb! ... But I wanted to learn about acting and wanted a job that would help me to do that in a serious way. I wonder all the time what would have happened to my career if I had taken it.