When it's working, what acting is really about is getting into the essence of a moment in a creative, joyous way - through whatever frees you up.

I'm realizing that the hard work has really paid off - not hard work acting-wise, but spiritually and principle-wise. That's given me faith enough that my heart hasn't led me astray. I've started to realize that you can do it your way. There are no rules.

There's been a slow death in a way. On the positive side, there are films getting into the Academy Awards that wouldn't have, but on the negative side, financiers are now dominant and making all the decisions. I can't count the ways a director's vision is compromised.

Cannes is a very strange place. I tried to show up as best I could and to try not to be cynical.

Being famous gives you a lot of illusions of false self, of self-importance, a grandiosity, it becomes difficult to stay humble and real. You see so many people who don't succeed.

I felt that the biological clock was some myth to keep me from doing what I wanted to do. And so I rebelled against it in the '90s. I thought it was a backlasher, some sort of faulty data. But it's real. I'm glad I woke up before my body was just like 'uh-uh.'