My grandmother took me to a lot of theater. I was exposed to performance quite a bit - everything from Broadway to off-Broadway and dance and music as well. I was very lucky that way. It was a very rich childhood.
— Julia Stiles
I would give anything to sit down with my maternal grandmother and have a cup of tea and play Scrabble. She died 10 years ago.
We don't have cable, so I don't watch a lot of traditional TV. I watch a lot of Netflix, and there's this thing in Canada called Show Me, and then I also get things from iTunes.
Julia Roberts taught me how to knit on the set of 'Mona Lisa Smile.'
Sometimes I have these abstract ideas and then lose track of myself.
I pretty much grew up in public.
I think women get caught up too much in having a plan - 'I'm going to get married at this age; I'm going to have a kid at this age' - and then they just try to find a guy who will fit into that picture. I don't want my life to be based on that.
I was gonna throw the first pitch at a Mets game, but there was a rain delay. So I'm waiting for it to stop, and the team's manager, Willie Randolph, comes by. Now he's already intimidating to begin with. But he comes over to me and says, 'If you screw this up, they will boo you.' And I said 'Thanks.'
It's actually really great to be a student and an actor, because I get to do this job that I love, then just when I think my head might explode, I get to go to school where they don't really care about what magazine cover I'm on.
I'm going to Columbia University but I'm trying to keep that low-profile because I don't want weird people following me there. I want the experience of normal college life.
With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are. The exercise in theater is night after night, you are doing the same play, but you have another opportunity to explore.
I am not a fan of rats or pigeons. In New York City, they have become very confident. When I was a child, you went on the subways, and the rats would stay down on the tracks, but now they hang out on the platform.
I turn on the radio. I'm a really big fan of old-fashioned dial radio. I love WNYC and NPR and also 88.3 in New York, which is the jazz station, and it's usually good for background music. If I'm not in New York City or by a traditional radio, I'll stream it on my phone, although I usually try not to look at my phone first thing in the morning.
I am ambidextrous. I write with my right hand but played basketball in high school with my left.
Even after such milestones as Kathryn Bigelow winning an Oscar, there still seem to be few women in leadership roles.
Of course my family and friends are incredibly valuable to me. They keep me sane, they teach me things and I love spending time with them. I think that ranking what you value is a sort of western and linear way of looking at things.
I met this homeless man who had never owned a shirt in his life. He had taken his pants and worn them as a shirt and I thought it was so creative. He was liberated from the conventions of fashion.
There are a handful of actors who sustain interest because it's exciting to watch them get better at what they do. I want to be one of those actors.
I think that ultimately I just have to be myself. You know, I don't do anything that outlandish anyway.
I wear everything from hip-hop baggy pants to beautiful Armani dresses. I also like to mix vintage clothing with designer pieces.
I become so sentimental on planes: I could be watching 'Bridesmaids' and start crying.
I love podcasts! I wish I had my own, although I think there are already too many podcasts, so I don't know how I would create a new one.
Some of the best projects I've worked on - 'Dexter,' the 'Bourne' series - were leaps of faith. I couldn't read the scripts in advance.
I was in the video for Cyndi Lauper's 'Sally's Pigeons' when I first started acting.
I worked regularly from very early on, and some of it was probably a bit premature.
So I am happy to have fans, especially if it enables me to keep working. And I am really grateful when people respond to my work.
I think audiences, producers and directors included, develop crushes on actors (actresses in particular) and then lose interest and move on to the next one.
I am a big fan of horror movies but I had never thought that I had wanted to act in one because I don't think that actors get to do much in them. They're usually just reacting.
I like analyzing human behavior. It's complex. That's what keeps me going.
I always feel like a goofy little kid.
