I was lucky on ‘Arli$$.’ I basically got to do whatever I wanted because HBO is great for that.
We actors, we’re a fragile bunch, and yet we need to be strong because 90% of our lives is rejection.
I can get a better role in TV and work more constantly than I can waiting around for my friends in Canada to call me every four years – which they do – and I go up there and play a leading role.
With small breasts, you don’t have to wear a bra with dresses that have some support. It feels sexy without one.
I love my hair. When I was young it had weird kinks and cowlicks in it, but I just grew into it. You grow into a lot of things.
I grew up never seeing myself on-screen, and it’s really important to me to give people who look like me a chance to see themselves. I want to see myself as the hero of any story. I want to see myself save the world from the bomb.
I equate fame towards people who know your work, people who will see your work. But all that stuff, like with the Genies and stuff like that, it was so much fun. It’s so much fun and it’s nice when it comes, but that’s not what it’s all about.
When your life changes and you become a more public person, in some ways you need to be a more closed person, you know?
Becoming an actor? If it’s not a calling, don’t do it. It’s too hard.
I don’t get jobs in films by auditioning. I’m not blonde. You can’t place me in movies the way you can with certain actors. It’s very difficult for my agents.
Hollywood likes to put actors in boxes, and it likes to put Asian actors in really small boxes.
You should see my house. It’s sort of explosive. Like a crazy person lives there.
As a working actor, all I want to do is work. That’s it. It’s terrifying when you don’t work. It’s very hard when you don’t work. There have been times when I’ve been out of work for like six months. I feel theatre to me is like manna.
A lot of things that I can’t get into the room for, even just to be seen, is because they’re just saying ‘No. they’re not casting non-white.’ You’re lumped into a category with people who are just not white.
If you have ever been to couples therapy it’s really, really challenging.
I’m not a slave to fashion; I’m into exercising my individuality.
I think all women should learn how to strip. It’s a really healthy, extremely challenging thing to do.
Being present is the actor’s job. Being aware of your body, in space, and the emotions that are occurring inside, is essential. Well, quite simply, the more aware one is-of yourself, of your surroundings, of other people-the more likely you are to respond truthfully.
All the jobs I’ve gotten in the last two years are because directors have seen the work I’ve done – indie films, plays, short student films, TV – since I moved to the states in 1996. I mean, I have an entire career in Canada that nobody has seen.
I think the roles in television are better for women right now. At this point, I don’t want to continue doing the same things I’ve been doing in film because it’s very limited.