I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish.

Ultimately, it's not your job, as an actress, to satisfy people's expectations or image of who you should be. Even in your life, you are just who you are.

Self-deprecation is not an answer to keeping one's balance. I think that it's very damaging.

And I sit in my jacuzzi with my script.

And that's what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves - parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it's pretty spectacular.

I love Wal-Mart. You can put that down. I love Wal-Mart. My husband and I hang out there.

[Denzel Washington] was rustling with something and when he came back it was with a word about loving myself and the body that I'm in because I was still going on and on about the weight thing. I just liked that, because what people don't understand is that so much of what blocks us as actors is so personal.