I love going into the room for auditions, but hate doing self-tapes more than anything.

I think we can all be divas, but as an actress, you can't only be the diva; that would be boring. But sometimes, perhaps, it's fun.

I'm always guilt-ridden if I give a bad performance. If you're doing a theatrical run, your day has to be geared to that show. You can't mess about, particularly when you get to my age.

I don't like to watch myself. I can't get into the story; I'm too critical.

I earn a lot of money in England doing voice-overs, especially in documentaries. Turn on the Discovery Channel here, and you'll hear my voice a lot. It subsidizes my vice of acting in the theater.

If I can do concert recitals, adapting the repertoire to my needs, then no problem, that's good enough. But with operas, unless the right circumstances come up, my career is done.

I think what actors have to do, what performers have to do to emotionally get to that place and have a camera and have your face 20 feet high on a screen, is such an incredible thing.

The art of acting is to pitch good. You do the pitching and hope that the other person catches the ball and does some good pitching back to you.

I'd always liked having a laugh with my friends, and I'd done comedy in plays; but then my friends asked me to join this improv troupe and it went well and I started performing with them.

A passion for any novel, and any character, can crystallise your ideas when you really need to be as open as possible as a performer.

I came from the musical stage. My first show was '110 In The Shade.' I started as a ballet dancer and then sort of gravitated toward musical theater, so any time I got asked to sing or dance, it was a...

With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting, you...

In fact, my uncle did his first full play at the Westin Playhouse because my dad put in a good word for him to the producer.

From the moment I saw 'Camelot' as a kid, the organic inclination of performing before a live audience is raw and visceral. Once you're out there, there's no yelling 'Cut!' or any such thing as a...

I think theatricality is just one way of performing. I don't think it's a better way or the way, but it's my way.

I want to be like Robin Williams, really. It's all the different characters he does, all the different voices.

It's all about the sensuality of movement, every movement you make. That's why I love doing action movies. It's all about movement, dance - even if you're hitting someone in the face. You've got to...