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When you grow up on film, people sometimes have difficulties accepting the fact that you are growing up. They always imagine you younger.

Though I technically come from a film family, my father had stopped making films even before my brother and I were born. So I did not really grow up in a filmi environment. And when I was growing up, becoming an actress was still quite a taboo. And you may not believe this, but even my father did not want me to join films.

All of us have read the stories about young people in Hollywood and all the challenges they have to confront there, and I think that artistically, I really didn't understand the commercial side of the film business, so I went back to a purely artistic setting.

I just feel lucky to have grown up where I did because I think it gave me a nice base. Hollywood can really mess with your sense of self and I feel like coming from the South keeps me pretty grounded.

We live in a youth-obsessed, aesthetically obsessed culture. That is no more evident than in the film industry.

Hollywood, young or otherwise, is a very trend-driven town, and that can get a little out of hand at times. I just try to stay true to my own personal taste - incorporating my personality while not taking myself too seriously.

When I started in the late nineties, it was all about young Hollywood. There were jobs for all of us if you were 18 to 21, were slightly good looking, or could be funny.

I did not enter the industry to create a certain image. People happened to see me as the friend/sister/daughter next door. I like that association very much. It's close to what I am in real life. As for films, I just focus on the job.

It's hard for women at my age in Hollywood, but I'm not discouraged.

Being an actress is a very physical thing. If I didn't look the way I looked, I would never have started in films.