I think Nancy Reagan felt so judged all the time and she felt so unlovable.

Even when the [Ronald] Reagan revolution happened, it was in large way, a "'Let's make America great again' without saying that" kind of a movement, don't you feel? It was kind of a throwback to an earlier generation.

Every Thursday or something, my mother would shoot it at NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center. And sometimes she would have me there when Morris The Cat was on, and Lassie was on.

[Nancy Reagan] took that career, that obviously mattered to her, and just tucked it away in a box, because she thought, "That's over with now. I'm going to make wifehood my career."

When you're on a lower-budget film, with one guy who maybe has a camera strapped to him, you're a much bigger part of that pie. You can be a sliver in a big Hollywood movie, but you can be a quarter of that indie movie pie. And I feel like, first of all, there is a real freedom that you feel from that, because it's like, you know what, if this is terrible, nobody's gonna ever see it, so I can be more brave.

Nancy Reagan sort of downplayed that, you know - but she was quite successful. At the time she married Ronald Reagan, I think she was keenly aware that [Reagan's first wife] Jane Wyman's career had eclipsed Ronald Reagan's, so she was very determined not to have that happen.

Even though I'm over 35, I feel like so much more of a leading lady than I did when I was 30.