I feel like maybe I'm going to be in with the robots because they'll see the show [Westworld] and think I'm one of them.

You can become very reclusive in Hollywood. This gave us permission to be able to open up and be intimate with somebody that you might not normally be kind of brave enough or confident enough to do so with.

I mentioned Ellen Page on Twitter in a tweet. It was like, "I met Ellen Page last night and she's so beautiful and lovely!" So then we started talking.

It was really the dream role, and when they first cast me, and I started playing Dolores [in the Westworlds] and all I knew was the analysis mode and her prairie-girl character, I thought, "Yeah, of course I can do this, and I'm good at it, but why did they pick me?" Not because I'm not capable, but I'm also kind of a tomboy, edgy, so I was curious.

What's amazing about this show [Westworld], and what it gives us permission to do, is to be kind of superhuman. Because at the end of the day, [Dolores] she's not a male and she's not a female. She's evolved past that. She's a very highly advanced being, and so I think it's really going to knock down a lot of stereotypes and a lot of gender roles and be a neutral party.

Who you are as a character is kind of the foundation of everything.

I have my own demons, my own pain and darkness, but I choose to embrace them and look at them head-on and deal with them. Then it doesn't hurt, and you learn from it.