All of a sudden I was Joan [Mad Man] and they're going, "Oh, so she plays a badass in this." And I'm like, "Oh my god, I get to play badasses." Firefly was a little bit of that, but she started out as a mouse and then she turned into a dragon. But I never really had that opportunity. So all of a sudden people were like, "Oh, do you feel like you're being typecast?" I would say, "No, this is just opening the doors." No one thought I could do it and someone finally trusted me to do it.

In the beginning, it was odd to have so much attention brought to my body type. I thought, "Uh-oh, brace yourself." But everyone has been so positive. During the first season, a woman came up to me at dinner and said, "I just want to thank you - watching you has made me proud of my body." I thought, What an amazing thing for someone to say! To make anyone feel good about themselves makes me feel good.

I have to admit, I do loooove eggnog.

We were probably the last people in the country to get a VCR and we didn't have cable. There wasn't any admiration of glamour, no, 'I want to look like them or have that lifestyle', because everyone in my town had the same lifestyle. So I didn't think, 'Ooh, a movie star's birthday!' I just thought, 'What?'

All of a sudden I was Joan [Mad Man] and they're going, "Oh, so she plays a badass in this." And I'm like, "Oh my god, I get to play badasses." Firefly was a little bit of that, but she started out as a mouse and then she turned into a dragon. But I never really had that opportunity. So all of a sudden people were like, "Oh, do you feel like you're being typecast?" I would say, "No, this is just opening the doors." No one thought I could do it and someone finally trusted me to do it.

I admire so many women, it's hard to choose, but I've always loved Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, and Mia Farrow.

I had always heard of Bad Santa one but I hadn't seen it, but it was sort of legendary.