I've played a different type of character in a different type of thing, for the most part. It's not like you can't mine tons of fascinating stuff from any character that you play, and I've always been fascinated with women and relationships, but this has been a completely different experience, for sure.

It's refreshing, honestly, to be able to have more intellectual conversations about sex and the meaning of sex, and intimacy and what that means in relationships. As a person in the world, it's on your mind. It's a part of your life, after a certain age until you're dead. So, to be able to examine it in a different way is really fulfilling.

If you're raised in a household where questions are encouraged, you're the minority. It's sad. One of the things that has resonated the most for me is that, in the '50s, if your sex life was unfulfilling, it was your fault, as a woman. It was never the man's fault. Millions of women thought they were working with faulty equipment. If they couldn't have orgasms from having sex with their husbands, then they were broken. That's insane, and everybody believed it.

I become an actress to do things that scare the sh*t out of me and I felt like I didn't stand a chance to get this part because people have preconceived notions about me, but if they gave me the part, I would do everything in my power to not screw it up.

'Party Down' is the most fun I've ever had working in my life. We shoot 10-episode seasons and we shoot it in 10 weeks, so it's very brief: 4-day episode shoots. You never get sick of anybody, and it never feels like a drag. It's way, way, way too short.

It took me a long time to realize that being a girl is so much more powerful than being a guy, but I really saw myself as boy for a long while.

There's only so many times you can read how ugly you are and how much people hate you.