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In order to make characters real - no matter what the character is doing - you have to see yourself as capable of having done that.

You can say to actors that you've got to be the character and really get into it, but you have to make it realistic by bringing an element of yourself into it.

I can't act, and so I have to live that particular character in my real life and then exhibit it on screen.

You want to be honest with a character and play it truthfully, and you want to be genuine with your character.

With actors, all our ages are out there for all to see - you can't hide anything, really. And it's kind of a relief. This is my age, this is what I look like without makeup on - who cares? That youth culture - that lying about your age - it's all denial of death anyway.

You need the audience to become invested in the characters and in order to become invested, they need to identify with the characters... and that's why the characters need to be real.

Character roles definitely age better than your ingenues. You don't get to keep doing that.

I never faked anything. I never played the Disney game of smiling and being a princess and then suddenly having a hard time, saying, 'That isn't who I really am.'

I've always played characters that were younger than myself.

I never base characters on real people. There are people who do that but I really don't know how to do it.