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On Echo from the show Dollhouse:
I'm excited about Echo. I think that's an awesome name, Echo, and I'm excited about the fact that she's in this entirely manipulated world but that she's human. And I really like the idea of exploring this young woman who doesn't know who she is, we don't think, but something deep inside her does and is going to start making it known.
On the different challenges of Dollhouse:
Contrary to what many people believe about me. I do have a very vulnerable side. It's funny because my mother was at a polygamist's reunion for my family last year. I have this Mormon ancestry, so this episode is really interesting. I love these stories and I think it's fascinating looking outside the norm. I can understand people wanting to watch procedurals every week with problem solving and equations but I love figuring out people's emotions, expressions and how they're mutating in their surroundings. This is a perfect example for me and the parallels between my life and this show are uncanny at times.
When asked how being in prison has changed her angry and aggressive "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997) and "Angel" (1999) character, Faith:
How would prison change anyone? There was something about the fact that she's a Slayer, so she wouldn't really be there unless she wanted to be because she's got superhuman strength. She could have busted out of that joint if she really wanted to, but she and Angel developed this relationship. He was leading her down the road to redemption, kind of facing the things she's done and recovering from that and hopefully being a better her. She's been in there, doing the time, thinking. She's still a tough girl, but she really has to suppress her demons a little more. In these past few ["Angel"] shows, that's what we're seeing -- her teetering on the line between the old her and the new her
Buffy was my stepping stone back in to this business. I took two years off making movies to finish high school.
Each year, I say I'm going to go to school next year. It's inevitable that I'll end up getting my education.
Everyone wants to be famous, but when you get there, you're not so sure.
For the longest time, I thought I was a boy. I really did. I wore boys’ clothes, played tag football, and even peed like a boy. I swear to God. We’d go on road trips with my mom, and when we’d make the inevitable pit stops on the side of the highway, I’d jump out and line up next to my brothers.
Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?
I always wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor.
I am still not quite famous, so gossip doesn't happen very often.
I can street fight, but in terms of precision and martial arts, they have a very specific style.
I definitely started thinking I was a little tougher than I am. I'd try to get in people's faces.
I don't care who you are, everyone has been through it - that feeling where you'd like to be someone else.
I don't let guys do hickeys. That's like a dog marking his territory or something.
I eat a ton. But I'm active. I lead a busy lifestyle.
I found myself being a role model to young girls. And young girls make up a huge part of our society. It's a really hard place to be when you're a young woman in our society.
I had to smoke for a role when I was 15, and it kind of stuck. I made all these plans to quit this year, but then I got a role in a De Niro movie, and I smoke in that.
I hate whiners. I understand that the pressure can be a lot, and I have days where I just want to scream, but it comes with the territory.
I have said it before and I will say it again; I will follow Joss Whedon anywhere. I have never known such a creative genius.
I know I'm not the most informed person, but I'm not the least informed person either.
I love a guy who can make me laugh, and I definitely dig intelligence. I get turned on by book smarts.
I love leather and it's great to be a bad girl at times. But there is a time and place for everything. When I'm with Grandma it's flowers, and when I'm out on the town scoping guys, you know?
I love my family, my fam is the greatest. Any chance I can get to see them, is the coolest thing.
I love my family. Any chance I can get to see them, it's the coolest thing.
I never sat down and mapped out this career of mine. I've always kind of flown by the seat of my pants.
I play the girlfriend of Robert DeNiro's son. I was totally star struck. He's so talented.
I remember hitting Sarah Michelle Gellar with a right hook during my first week on the job. It was awful. They usually pair actors with stunt doubles to avoid things like that.
I think I'm getting typecast. I know I play tough characters, but there's more than one side to me.
I think some things are just too personal to talk about.
I think there's a lot more to the bad girl than just evil. I try to bring a little understanding to the part. People always throw rocks at things they don't understand.
I think we all have different people in us.
I thought I was a boy till I was 10 years old.
I was kind of this really hard Boston chick. That worked well for Faith and the creation of the character.
I was raised in Boston by three older brothers and a very strong and empowering single mom.
If I feel something, that's all there is for me at the time. But I also have a raging case of attention deficit disorder.
If I wasn't doing this, I'd be in school studying political science or socioeconomic something. I love visiting different cultures and finding out how they make up a society.
If you throw yourself into the spotlight, you can't just turn it off and on whenever you want. It takes patience.
I'm a more mature actress now.
I'm doing my best and being myself, and it seems to have worked so far.
I'm having kind of a lucky streak right now and I want to keep riding it.
I'm not the most graceful person, and I had to work with the choreographer on the cheerleader routines.
I'm self-confident and not afraid to speak my mind.
I'm very moody. I'm sort of prone to doing and saying exactly what I feel.
In high school I had a lot of aggression, and that's why I was perfect for roles like Buffy.
In my first movie, That Night, with Juliette Lewis, I had a scene with two other girls where we applied a cream to our chests to make our breasts grow. I was 10.
In other shows, I used to get to hang out with the Teamsters and kick back.
It was nice working on Angel, because it shoots in Los Angeles. I can drive myself to work, drive home and visit my friends or my brothers.
It's easy to play the bad girl. You just do everything you've been told not to do, and you don't have to think about the consequences because it's only acting.
It's kind of cool to shoot off and do a movie for three months. You're in, you're out, boom, you get the final product.
It's very, very hard to be under the control of a show creator or a studio that wants your character to do something that you just don't feel comfortable doing or you don't understand why they're doing it, and maybe they're conforming to mainstream or all the cooks in the kitchen at the studio. With Joss [Whedon], the executives have such respect for him that he really has that creative freedom to make the good stuff.
I've never been dumped. I have no idea what I'll do when that happens. I fall in and out of love pretty easily. I'm really emotional and passionate.
My brothers weren't too happy when I came home and thought I was a big toughie and would try and start with them.
My mom is this liberal, feminist, Mormon powerhouse. I just love her to death.
My mother would take groups of students to different countries and always brought us along, so by the time I was 10, I had been to Russia, China, Nicaragua and several other countries.
My parents divorced when I was born, and my mother is a political science professor, like a feminist Mormon, which is sort of an oxymoron.
Some guy asked me if I was on TV, and I said yes, and he threw his drink at me. I was recognized, but my face was wet.
The letters from jail are always disconcerting.
The state of affairs in the world right now, I just feel like everyone's doing the grind and working to get by.
There are a lot of actresses out there who are the girl next door. I relate more to characters who have an edge.
They see me drinking coffee and smoking and realize that I'm not a practicing Mormon.
Things just keep happening right after another. I never really think about where I'll be in five years. I'm just waiting for things to happen.
TV can be a long commitment.
We didn't have a TV in the living room and all my friends thought we were kind of weird. When they'd come over, my mom wanted to talk to them about current events.
We weren't exactly a family of film buffs. Growing up, we only went to the theater twice.
When I worked with Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies, she told me, You need a plan B, because when you have six months to a year off, you can go nuts. You need to have another focus.
When I'm shooting, I just try to make sure I wouldn't be embarrassed of it later.
When you get to your mid-20s, you start to feel responsibilities for the things that you do and the people around you. It's a cool age.
When you're doing a love scene, it can be deceiving, like, maybe I'm in love with this person. But I try not to get involved with people I work with. I don't need the added hassle.
When you're on a comedy, you're thinking, I need to do something serious.
You have to draw a line between real life and fantasy. I think I'm pretty good at creating that buffer with people that I meet.
You know, I really am probably one of the sweetest, most sensitive people you'll ever meet.
You've got a character that people count on and see on their screen every week. They really absorb this stuff and use it.
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