I'd been doing comedy up that point and hadn't really done a lot of drama, and then all of a sudden he casts me as a 400-year-old vampire from hell. It was, like, "What?!"

There were a couple of years where I was skating and acting at the same time.

I've been an actor for 30 years, so I pretty much know how to do the basics of a fight without hurting anybody.

When they took me to do the camera test for the vampire make up, after they put the prosthetic on, I went though the entire process, I went back to my trailer and I looked in the mirror and I smiled.

I still have people coming up to me, and it was, what, six or seven years ago when that finale aired? And they tell me who they were watching with, what their emotional reaction was, and how they were devastated for weeks about [Rita's death in Dexter].

I went in for an audition [for As Good As It Gets], but the audition was with James L. Brooks. I was the first girl in that morning, and there was a whole waiting room of girls waiting to read for it. So I did my audition, and he asked me to step outside. So I stepped outside, and when he asked me to come back in, he looked at me, and he said, "Well, I'm very excited to work with you on set." And I was, like, "What?" I thought it was a Hollywood blow-off.

I love doing action films that do challenge me physically. I feel it's my job to keep my stamina up and be as physically fit as possible, so that I can just jump in and do it. It takes its toll sometimes and it's hard work, but I love that.