I think I'm drawn to characters with complexity or who are under duress in some way and have some conflict going on.

I do strive to find projects that are trying to carve out some new space. I enjoy projects that leap away from the crowd a little bit.

It's sort of a meat market, the whole awards thing, and I don't think you can predict it anymore - who's going to like what you've done, if it's worthy or not. And hopefully, that's not why you make a film, because if you're distracted by that, or only striving for that, you don't do it justice.

If you're very open to watching the world go by, with people's different tics, you absorb it all without realizing it and find ways to put something into your character. I'm not sure I'm always aware I'm mimicking someone.

My family was pretty much the way a family was supposed to be, a Norman Rockwell kind of family, I'm afraid. I say 'I'm afraid' because it will just confirm my critics' view that my views about family are unrealistic.

Everything in my life boils down to my mother. A tradition, which a lot of people do not know of, is that while I'd give my father the money I earned, anything that was special to me - like an award or an album - would be given to my mother.

My mother's rules had to do with feminine deportment, so I never played hard enough to break a toy or muddy my dress. My father's rules had to do with never shaming the family by even a hint of scandal, and not providing business rivals with an opportunity to kidnap me or throw acid in my face.

Competition works. Ask any parent if their child will run faster from the house to the mailbox if he runs by himself or if he races to the mailbox with his sister. It's a no brainer.