It's a very obsessive profession that you need to stay obsessed to get anywhere, and it's very easy for us to get obsessed and then nothing else matters. I was reading Somerset Maugham's novella, Moon and Sixpense, about this artist based on Gauguin's life. It was so beautifully written. You must be first rate because second rate you might not survive. If you're an accountant, you'll survive second rate. If you chance it big, you may not get anywhere.

The difference between me and American-born actors is that I came here with the expectation of not being treated fairly.

I miss directing. I see stories in images and music more so than in dialogue.

If the costumes are wrong, you feel awful in them and it lessens your acting.

Since my mom is the President of Ballet Hawaii, I'm always in touch with stuff going on.

The romantic love we feel toward the opposite sex is probably one extra help from God to bring you together, but that's it. All the rest of it, the true love, is the test.

I enjoy going back to work now because cinema is going through an exciting period because young people are now going back to the movie theaters. But things are different though.