I'm naturally a graceful human being. So meditation helps me stay grounded. When we're silent for a moment, it helps us to hear the hum of the universe. Hear the message or what the universe is trying to tell you. It's your inner voice and instinct. If you're hearing that, then you're in the flow of things. It takes years to try and trust that.

I have a lot of very, very powerful women in my life. My mother being the first.

Well, with each character that I play in my life as an actor, I try to figure out how to find the challenge.

I feel that we have come a long way as American people, and we have to start looking at ourselves as human beings.

Many times - especially when I'm playing an historical character - I want to be really on target with how I create that character and really nuanced with who that human being might be. But I don't want to lose the likeness of me or the depth of my own personality. So meditation and my spirituality has helped me to realize that, yes, I want to get out of the way but I also want the ability to hold on to what the audience likes of what they see of me.

I'm not someone who is a fan of a lot of violence.

When I perform on stage, you have to remember my performance or buy another ticket to the party! In television and film, you can see it over and over again.