It's a great way to start the day, hearing you've been nominated for an Emmy. It's just thrilling.

I think one of my big skills is making unlikable characters likable or real in some way. No matter how hateful people are, there's always something vulnerable about them, or something that you can understand or relate to. I think that's my job as an actress - to find those.

It's hard to describe to people how terrible it was when you could only watch cartoons at a certain time in your life.

The pre-shoot days are so relaxed and fun and the writers are laughing. I love the rehearsal process.

I'm not very comfortable being an actorvist so to get to do something that I believe in is a much more comfortable way for me to be political.

There was a courtroom scene where my son is convicted of killing Kevin Spacey's character. I find the bloody T-shirt and realize my husband did it. I get up the courage to take the shirt and send it to the police as evidence. I go out of the house for the first time. There was all this stuff I had to do that became quite truncated, because they slimmed down the movie. I understand the American Beauty is brilliant without all that stuff, but for me, personally, it was hard to see all that go.

It is a very difficult job, being the servant of two masters.