In Smooth Talk it was a much more intuitive search - I was only 17 at the time, and I wasn't aware, as women are when they get a little older, that there's always a side of a woman that likes a man from the other side of the tracks. We all have an attraction to what's different from us.

I love comedy. David's Lynch the only person I've worked with more than once who sees me as a specific thing - he sees me as the sexy bimbo, in ways, and he also sees me as Lucille Ball. Actually, Nick Cage and I did Lucy and Ricky in two scenes in Wild at heart that were cut because the movie was four hours long.

I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend [Billy Bob Thorton] got married, and I've never heard from him again.

You're not directing an actor toward a thing they can't achieve. Because direction is elusive. When directors hold respect for the various craftsmen and -women who are telling the story, it's the greatest result. I think people do their bravest work when given an elusive canvas.

It sounds like a cliché, but mother is really one of my closest friends, and so's my dad. He and I weren't very close when I was younger, but now we're best friends.

The actors are telling the truth on some level, and people have to believe it. At Cannes, a lot of people said, "Oh, shocking," but this Italian girl said to me, "My god, I just said that to my boyfriend the other night." That's what Lula from Wild at hearts talks about. That's life - to turn each other on, to feel good, to feel in love.

I'm interested in human nature. That's why I chose to become an actor. Whatever people are struggling with, the struggle is often where the drama is.