It took Sydney Pollack a long time to get me to do Tootsie. I asked myself if I wanted to play some frothy, ditzy character after I had just done Frances. Obviously, I'm thrilled that I did.

I like playing characters who are out there on the edge, where they can explode at any moment or fall off the precipice.

I have made decisions based from purely an actor's point of view.

It was easier to do Shakespeare than a lot of modern movie scripts that are so poorly written.

For me, acting was always a way to explore emotions - to dip into the well and really try to reach rock bottom down there. That was the most exciting part of it. I hadn't found anything that really allowed me to do that until I came upon acting.

Once I started on 'Frances' I discovered it was literally a bottomless well. It devastated me to maintain that for eighteen weeks, to be immersed in this state of rage for twelve to eighteen hours a day. It spilled all over, into other areas of my life.

I never felt like I belonged in Minnesota when I was growing up there. That's why I was out the door as soon as I turned 18.