Tilda Swinton is a great example of a person who completely disappears into a role.
— Jenna Fischer
'Cause it's really hard, it's hard to be an actor.
Sometimes doing a movie for a short period of time is better than committing eight months to a television show.
I didn't want to go to college. I wanted to move to Los Angeles right out of high school.
I don't have any type of sketch-comedy or stand-up background.
Well, I don't know if this is true of everyone, but I have this relationship with my parents where, despite however mature or articulate or grown-up I think I've become, as soon as I go home, I turn into this petulant 13-year-old, especially with the tone of my voice.
Sometimes acting is really cool because it forces you to exercise certain muscles in your personality that you wouldn't normally be called upon in life.
I loved the domesticity of my life as a struggling actor. When I wasn't going to auditions, I could do things like cook dishes from scratch and take them to parties or be really thoughtful about birthdays and anniversaries.
I'm a very thoughtful, forward-thinking, planner kind of person. I love Excel spreadsheets and five-year-plans, and I love to review every year how my New Year's resolutions went.
When I'm writing my blog, I think of myself at 13 years old, back in St. Louis, daydreaming about Hollywood.
I had this crazy job, though, when I first got to Los Angeles... I answered this ad in the back of the newspaper to be a telephone psychic, and I did that for two days.
Yeah, you know I don't ever see myself doing a super-gritty, hard-core drama.
Well, now that I have a baby, I'm that person who's looking for all the parks. I'm also the person who lost their coat because I was juggling so many items. So I'm that person: I lost my coat, I lost my scarf, and it's cold now.
I also love horror movies; I like me a big Peter Berg action movie. I'm a movie lover in general.
Even in college I tended to get cast in the comedies more. It was what I liked doing.
I'm a believer in the parent first, friend second philosophy, and trying to find that balance.
As the lead of a movie, you really set the tone off-camera as well, and that's a really big responsibility.
I spent my whole adolescence, when you just want to be accepted, looking much younger than everyone else.
I get really excited about jewelry.
You never go into a marriage expecting to get divorced. You go into a marriage expecting it's going to last forever, and you have a lot of ways you dream about the future. You have all these expectations, and then you have to adjust those expectations, and it can be a very unnerving, confusing time.
The Farrelly brothers make movies the way you imagine a movie set would be when you're a kid - fun all the time.
I know so many amazing actors who don't get work... and then there are a bunch of real duds that work all the time. The industry is just not fair in that way.
The fun is getting to wear multiple disguises and getting to explore multiple personalities and bring them to life. So a movie career definitely affords me that.
Well, I knew I wanted to be an actor, and I didn't necessarily need or want to be famous or a celebrity actor.
I went to a little liberal-arts college in Missouri called Truman State University.
I've had Susan Sarandon play my mom, and now Lesley Ann Warren has played my mom, so if I could have Debra Winger play my mom, then I would have the trifecta of my favorite actresses playing my mother.
I'm not one to air my dirty laundry for the whole world.
I still get nervous when I have a lot of makeup on, a big hairdo, and a dress.
I think that there is a tragic misfit at the core of me, and I've just done a lot of work on myself. I love a good self-help book; I've read a ton of them. I love self-help seminars and therapy and all that.
I studied theater in college, and I really wanted to be an actress and play a lot of different roles. Then I made landing on a television comedy my main focus.
I don't have real big aspirations to be a movie star. I would love to be on a long-running hit TV show. You end up playing a defining role.
