Acting is doing, because everything you say or do is some kind of an action, some kind of a verb. You're always connected to the other person through some kind of action.

I have to be able to shake my imaginary life from my real life when I walk through the door with my children who immediately need a lot from me. It's actually kind of a relief, especially if it was a dark day on set.

I take the responsibility of choosing seriously because it becomes an indelible part of your body of work. Something has to sing to me.

Acting is what happens on the way.

That's the thing about acting - it does have the feeling of downhill skiing. When it's really all going right, you know your lines, you know what's important to your character, you pick the strongest reactions possible to elements in the story. But then you let it all go and you're in the moment and stuff happens. It surprises you and it's super strong; it's like you're living life in a slightly heightened way in the time between "action" and "cut."

I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters.

My major in college was Chinese Studies. It was very intentional.