In your 20s you can be pretty, but you don't accomplish real beauty until you find wisdom and depth.

I was a good student, I was good at soccer, I was vice president of the student council, I was a pretty girl.

I was fortunate enough to be one of those stories where I was scouted on the street by somebody and actually refused to go to the agency, and was approached on different occasions and finally kind of caved and said, 'OK, I'll try it and see what happens.

I think that being isolated from the Hollywood world of premieres and red carpet events was probably good for me because I could ease into those at will and by my own choice. But in other aspects, when it comes to fanfare, Hawaii is nuts and in L.A. they're all so jaded. They don't care.

There's a massive part of me that can be bold and courageous...very strong and very assertive and independent, almost to a fault sometimes.

I don't want everyone to think of me as just 'that kid who called Jesse Jackson a communist in middle school.' That's why I decided to become a famous actress.

I'm very sensitive. Emotionally, I bruise very easily. I'm a Leo, and this is very characteristic of our sign.