When I got off '24,' pretty soon after that I did a movie that took place in the '70s, this movie with Jimmy Caan and Gena Rowlands, and I needed to kind of have that '70s pouffy housewife hair.
You know what I did? I turned down an offer to do 'Enemy of the People' with Steve McQueen. It doesn't matter that the film was never really released. A movie like that, successful or not, adds to your credits. It leads to other roles.
I would never make a purely autobiographical movie, because it would be incredibly boring. But I always bring something. It's usually some emotional truth I've experienced, like in 'Get Him to the Greek,' the relationship between Jonah Hill and Elisabeth Moss, I had certainly had that kind of relationship with a girlfriend.
On the movie side of things, the difficulties come with so few movies being made, and when they are, it seems that it's a marketing game. Story sometimes takes a backseat to that one grand marketing idea.
If there was no Hollywood, no next movie, no deal at Warner Brothers, no place in Malibu or Venice, I would still be really happy.
My debut feature, 'The Baby-Sitters Club,' got good reviews and made good money for what it cost. But it took me six years to get to direct my second feature. I think a guy would have had another movie out the same year.
When I was a kid, I was kind of obsessed with that movie 'Dick Tracy.' Burger King had all this 'Dick Tracy' stuff, and I collected all of it, and I had the posters, and I watched it on a loop.
I'm directing and writing the 'Big Stone Gap' movie.
The day after I got an agent, I got called in for a role in a TV movie called 'Legion Of Fire: Killer Ants.'
When a movie is called 'searingly honest,' it's almost invariably grim and demonstrates how bad things can get.
I watched some serious '80s television. 'Alice,' 'Good Times,' 'The Jeffersons,' 'Family Ties,' 'Cheers'... every night it was eat dinner, watch 'Cheers.' I was actually on 'Jeopardy' with Rebecca Lobo and Dot Richardson, and we were laughing because I was just nailing every random '80s trivia question - sitcom, theme music, movie, you name it.
You get to a point where you have to start planning, when you cross that line where you have enough value to get someone's movie made if you attach yourself to it, you have to be very thoughtful and have to plan.
With 'Carrie,' I did, like, seven auditions. I'd never done a movie, so they wanted to make sure I wasn't going to ruin it. I don't blame them.
In the case of 'Shape Of Water,' I want it to feel like a song. I wanted people to come out of the movie humming the movie.
The craziest place I've probably ever visited while filming would have to be Jordan. I did a small test shoot for a test movie. We arrived in Jordan, and we stayed in Amman for a night. Then we drove down for three hours into the middle of the Wadi Rum Desert, which is in the absolute middle of nowhere. It was insane.
'Up' was the best. The first 10 minutes of that movie made me weep. It was so well done... even if that montage was all I'd seen, just as a short film, that was great. That was my favorite thing of the year.
A 'Torchwood' movie would be incredible. It would be sensational to have a beginning, a middle and an end in ninety minutes. A big walloping 'Torchwood' crunched into ninety minutes would be breathtaking.
The job is trying to create movie shots that have depth, that have the meanings you need them to have, and then good enough so that they will add something to the final picture. They will make the picture; they'll get into the picture, and give them what they need. It's an interesting job.
I can't make a choice to do a movie because people will go see it. People look at what a movie becomes and decide if they'll see it.
I remember in high school thinking that I wanted to be a lawyer, and now I realize I saw that movie 'And Justice for All' when I was a kid and thought, 'That's what lawyers do, and I want to get up and yell and scream in the middle of a courtroom.'
I was the first companion to kiss the Doctor. I played Grace Holloway to Paul McGann's Doctor in the 1996 TV movie. We shared three kisses, in fact: very sweet and chaste. When I took the part, I'd never even heard of 'Doctor Who.' No one warned me that the kisses would be a big deal.
One of the real worries I had before the first season of 'Treme' aired was that, man, people in New Orleans really hold movie and television shows up to a high standard in how they depict the city.
I've thought that 'Soulmate' in the 'Night World' series would make a really nice TV-movie or just a movie.
I would've given my right arm to do something on the 'Ray' film, the movie about Ray Charles.
I've personally been involved in movies where people on set were talking about awards for the movie, and I bought into the hype. And then the movie would come out, and not only was it not good, it was horrible.
I want to do 'Company of Heroes 2,' if they do it. It depends on how the movie performs, but they hope it will perform well. They have a franchise on their mind, and if it's a franchise, man, I'm going to be a very happy person.
I had a big problem working with stars, because they are too expensive and have too many demands. Their names help you raise the money to make the movie, but then they demand close-ups. They change things. You end up doing things at their service instead of servicing the film.
I'm the worst at picking what movies are going to do well. I have no idea. I'm really surprised if a movie I like does well.
I think the older that I'm getting, the more I'm understand what a privileged job I have, and what an opportunity I have. Now I'm directing films and I'm getting my first movie in America off the ground, and you start to understand how the system really works.
I love the first hour of a horror movie, the fear and anticipation. Then, when it gets bloody, I lose interest.
I start with the music before I start writing the movie. It's such an important part for me, emotionally, to set up the tone for the movie.
I'm envious of actors. You shoot a movie or you do a season of 'Big Love,' and then you're on hiatus and you have a bunch of free time.
The reason that most British actors are better than most American actors in the end is that they don't make any money. At the very end of their lives, they get into a space movie and they make a lot of money, but until that happens, basically, they don't have bank accounts. They live from day to day.
If I hadn't been a model, I couldn't have become a movie actress.
My stuff always starts with interviews. I start interviewing people, and then slowly but surely, a movie insinuates itself.
I get offered a World War II movie at least once a week just because I speak German and was born there. I have always stayed away from it because I didn't want to be put into that box.
