It's often women who are writing leading roles for women. Most of the stuff that comes my way is not actually about women. I'm just asked to be a supporting player in a story about a man, and I, frankly, was not interested in doing that.

I certainly enjoyed having my sister, because when she came I felt a certain responsibility to help her fit in, and help her learn English. I wanted her to play with all my toys. I was actually, I think, really scary to her, because I had so much energy.

What's great about good writing is that it feels like life, so it's not hard to relate to her circumstances.

Why do we insist women are cast 10 years younger than the role they're playing? Men don't know what a 30-year-old is supposed to look like because on TV she's always 20.

I played a lot of moms. You're always too young when you're playing moms. My first kid when I started playing moms was about six months old. And then a month later I was doing another commercial audition and my kid was two, and then about eight months later my kid was 11.

I'm a middle child, and I'm pretty diplomatic: the peace-maker.

I have this idea of myself as this quiet, observant, thoughtful child, which my parents roundly contradict. They claim that I was loud and bossy and dancing all the time.