There are not that many jobs as an actor where you don't get to know what your character will be doing from episode to episode.

I have sort of the career where, if you are a fan, you've been following me for a while, and you really like something that I've done, so meeting those people is always a really gracious experience.

I think there are great roles for women in television because there is time to allow those characters to evolve. Even if you're the wife or the girlfriend or whatever it is that we women are, playing those things on TV, they are much more drawn out and there are greater arcs for the role. The roles are more integral to the complexity of the story.

People are drawn to watching things that are dramatic. And the tighter a relationship is, the more dramatic it can be. That's something family lends itself to. Everybody has family, somewhere, somehow. Those relationships are always very complex. This takes it to almost Greek-tragedy-level heights. That's fun to watch, although it's very uncomfortable. It explores the darkest sense of family.

We hurt each other because we care about each other.

I like diversity; I want one character to be very different from the next. I love to live with a character for a long time if I can, but I like one character to be different from the next.

I always thought I was a little shy, especially compared to my brother and my sister, but I guess I was always the kid doing performances in the front room.