When I read a script, I’ll have a very visceral gut reaction to what does this mean to me? How does she feel in my skin? Could I play this role?
I’m with someone who makes me incredibly happy. I’m not one of those people who subscribes to the idea that marriage takes the romance out of things. I think it gets better, it deepens. I love being a wife. We have a blast.
I’m not someone who likes to plan too much ahead.
Why should you have to atone for making big movies?
Well, you wear underwear. That helps.
To not make any resolutions. Whenever I make them, I wind up ultimately breaking them. I think a lot of people are that way, so I am going to try and avoid inevitable disappointment next year and just not make any.
You shouldn’t strategize your career if you’re in a creative realm. You can’t either. I love the unknown. I love the element of surprise. I’ve always felt really inspired by it. I love the spontaneity of the job. I think you can’t really fight against it.
It’s funny, because when you work on a set, everyone is watching you. You are being observed by everyone.
I think a shot can actually influence a scene in a huge way. For example, comedy is always better in a two-shot. What’s between the characters is what’s funny. So you learn about these things as you go along.
You feel very much like a puppet, but it had been what I was accustomed to – so you just get on with it and try to find something that rings true.
Americans are a lot more open, of course. There’s something more declamatory in the way you express emotions. It’s a stereotype but it’s true. British people can appear repressed in expressing emotions. Not very good at self-evaluating, or affirming situations, touching, anything like that.
I’m definitely not a science nerd. That was not my forte at school.
A lot of period dramas can appear quite arch to most people, stuffy.
I’m such a diva on set.
I’m about to do my second Bikram yoga class in Anchorage, Alaska. It’s the only way to stay warm. I’ve got to get into shape. I’ve been eating nothing but fish and chips.
As long as everyone is playing for the scene or the movie, rather than themselves, then you’re going to have something really good.
It just proves good movies don’t need 100 million dollars to be good.
What’s wonderful about Into The Woods is that you have a combination of all the most famous fairytales in this one story.
I had to learn to dance for ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ and it was nearly impossible. I turned up with my knees knocking in my leotard and went home and cried my eyes out.
It’s nice to play someone who is naive.
I find it very strange doing voiceover stuff, because you find you have to enunciate and make stupid faces in order for the point to make sense, because it’s playing against the deadpan Simpson face. If you’re just speaking in the regular way you speak, it will sound really boring.