If someone tells you over and over that everything's great, you immediately think, 'OK, what's the rest of the story?'
When I feel something, I feel it to the ninth power.
I knew I could live no other way, that the one thing I wanted was to act and do it well.
I didn't think my success from film was going to translate at all, musically. In fact, it worked against me.
Success is a nice by-product but what I really want is work.
Some people can't connect with their own emotions.
Whatever I do, I'm always struggling to create a visceral experience. With my music, I'm more of a live performer these days. And film is such a different thing. It's where people sit in a dark theater. I want them to feel me as viscerally as if they were at a live show.
I don't have an explosive temper. People seem to think that - maybe somewhere lives the lion in my cage. But I'm actually kind of goofy.
My eyebrows are a mess. They're skinny; they're dodgy.
I was meant to make music in my soul way younger than I did. I was just scared because I knew it would take more of me than anything else. But I was all into facing my fears.
Acting is me, but music is even more me. It's everything.
For me, the most challenging thing was developing myself as a songwriter and as a performer and as the leader of a band. And I just did it.
I'm so used to naysayers.
My parents are just the best.
Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to be a performer - whether it was acting or singing or whatever.
I wrote songs when I was little, and I wrote a journal, but I don't think I knew how to let that truth come out yet.
I don't want to be famous as a movie star and have the whole world love me, I want to be a creative actress.
My only after-school job before I got into acting was babysitting. I had younger brothers and sisters.
It's not my nature to dominate and bully.
Although I missed home, North Carolina is a spectacular place to spend four months. Wilmington has a great downtown area. It is not too small town or too big city. The people were really welcoming and nice. The weather was lovely.
The old footage of my dad, I always knew we were cut from the same cloth, because my dad was such a renegade and always marched to the beat of his own drum. To see where we were both dancing and being silly together, it's too beautiful for words. I was really happy to have that.
When you become famous at 19, it does a number in your head, so you find romance in the mundane - isn't it so great that a guy would pick me up at my house and take me to a restaurant?
The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get these girls who say 'I'm a character actor' then you see them in a role and nothing has really changed but the outfit.
When I do a film, usually I work from my director. That's my boss. The director is interpreting the writer's vision, and we all interpret it, and they create their own vision as well.
I've never really cared if I was famous for my music. It was just something I had to do.
I think I can be beautiful with all the little stuff done, and I can be ugly. A lot of attractive actresses can't be ugly.
I collect clothes - they keep building and building. I buy them instead of having them washed.
Over time, I've loved jazz, Miles Davis and Chet Baker, then Janis and Jimi and Creedence, then classic rock.
I haven't made a career off my looks, thank God, but hopefully how I've moved people emotionally, the directors I've been able to work with, and the stories I've been a part of.
All that schooling never prepares you for the reality of life.
In my work, I'm always striving to be as honest as possible.
I always call myself an emotionalist. I feel.
I've been around for a long time now, and you start to hear these urban legends about yourself.
Nobody would know it to look at me, but the movies I liked as a kid were musicals - 'All That Jazz,' 'Hair,' 'Fame,' 'Annie,' all that stuff - that's where my little youthful imagination was.
I have people come up to me who love 'The Other Sister,' or 'Old School,' or 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape.'
I normally don't concern myself with, 'Will audiences like me or like my character?'
I'm really into coconut oil for everything. I cook it, eat it, put it in my hair, and use it as body lotion. I put it on my face, too - day cream, night cream, whatever. I love the smell. It reminds me of the beach. I'm not particular on what brand as long as it's organic.
For my rock band, I was influenced by things like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' For me, it's live rock n' roll theater.
If you could place blame on entertainment for all the crimes people commit, you'd be in court all the livelong day.
As early as when I was five or six I wanted to perform.
I love the process of working with a filmmaker and the writers and the actors.
I didn't like school at all. I never liked the seven different classes system. I liked having just one, like in elementary school - less disruption. I liked history. I failed math and science and gave those teachers a hard time.
I just care about what I get to unearth and what makes me uncomfortable and what makes me grow because, ultimately, I just don't want to ever play it safe.
I love L.A. I fall more in love with it as I get older.
The praise for 'Cape Fear' will help me work more artfully - I can work with real artists, like Robert De Niro and the directors, and then go to artland, which is the best land to be in in this world.
I thrive on adversity.
I can tell you I have dealt with mania my whole life.
My first boyfriend was a surfer. We bonded over loving the sun, Depeche Mode, and The Cure.
Leaving your home can be a fear at times. You gotta make yourself get out.
