After I finished 'E.R.', I wanted to concentrate on re-examining what kind of actress I am and taking time for real-life things.

The one thing about being on 'ER' that has changed is that I'm more easily recognizable.

I think the hardest thing about the part is the responsibility that you feel playing something that is so real and resonant in our times. There are people coming home right now with those stories, and I'm just an actress pretending to be that person. You hope that you can shed some light on somebody's predicament.

I think when things happen in our lives that we can't truly understand why they destroy us, it's because we can't truly understand or communicate it to anyone else. And that is what is destructive - you can't communicate it to the people that you love and it makes things deteriorate. Or you're hiding from yourself, or you're hiding from somebody else, and that was really fascinating to me... that life isn't like the movies and you can't always point to one thing and explain why you did things that ended up hurting you.

Being raised Catholic myself, I think people who are Catholic tend to carry a lot of guilt. It's almost a joke.

I'm trying not to put pressure on myself to decide what to do at this moment, and just sort of go with what's happening.

I've been very lucky to have been chosen for and to have chosen roles that are good. Some are better than others and some projects are better than others, whether it's female or male characters. There's still more that we can do and there's still more stories to be told. I would love to see more female-driven projects in general.