Directors are our teachers, and I'm always craving to work with a great director. They're pretty much the first thing that interests me about a project. Let's put it this way: It'll take me a lot longer to read a script if there's no director attached.

I love being outside with trees and water, lying down somewhere or walking. I do transcendental meditation, which keeps me calm and steady.

The thing that I love about acting is the fact that I can help people feel things, know themselves or feel less alone. It's my form of expression, in the same way that someone might paint a picture or sing a song in that you're hoping that it moves somebody outside of their own way of thinking.

Liev cares about a lot things. Israel is one of them. We had the good fortune of going there a couple of years ago. To share that experience with him was a great pleasure.

Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets.

My spirit had been broken a bit over the years by my having to work on films I didn't love. Hollywood's a surreal place, and it really is an assault on your spirit.

I don't think of myself as a terribly confident person. But I have a survival mechanism that was instilled in me by my mother.