Its going to seem idiotic to say this, but I think that at a given moment we all need a place to ourselves where we can refuge ourselves and cut ourselves off from the world.

Scratch a Russian, and you'll find a peasant.

Unfortunately, I don't train enough on an everyday basis to be a black belt, but if I put my mind to it I think I could definitely move very quickly in that world.

You have the energy when you're a kid to really fight for rights - that's why kids make great soldiers, right?

There is all this controversy that women and girls are too skinny or too overweight. I say to just do martial arts and everything will be okay. You will tone up your body and find a confidence you can't find just sitting around watching TV and hanging out with friends.

I really connected with martial arts. I'd always had a fantasy as a kid of being a ninja warrior, so it definitely answered that sort of need in my psyche, too - a need to be superpowerful.

When I did The Fifth Element [1997], it was like, "Oh my goodness, who is this character?" I loved doing Resident Evil, but Resident Evil is Resident Evil with or without me. It's an entity of its own. It's not like Milla made Resident Evil.