I work hard and support myself.

Actresses feel immense pressure to keep up. Nobody wants someone who doesn't know how to market themselves.

The celebrity culture demands a camera-ready-at-all-times look or else the photo is circulated in a demeaning headline.

If you are the writer/director especially, no one cares more about the project than you do. You know it in and out. You created it. So always listen to input but don't be afraid to veto and fight decisions that you know instinctively are wrong.

My actress friends would tell me their horror stories, or say they couldn't get work, and were deemed too old, even though they were established and talented and fit and gorgeous. It was frustrating for them and it was frustrating to hear. Maybe because I was the same age as them and it was already hard enough trying to cross over to the 40s without someone judging your every move.

I love when I'm writing and I'm cringing because I know I'm doing something right.

I will watch a ton of movies while I'm writing for inspiration. "Postcards from the Edge" was one. I love the mother-daughter relationship and all the hard humiliating stuff she has to go through. Or thinks she has to go through.