Being a movie star is a quality that somebody sort of embodies, and being a celebrity is something that people recognize in you. I just hope to make good movies.
Do I ever get nervous about this, right now, being the pinnacle of my career? Yeah, I do. At the end of (filming) every movie I think, 'Wow - this is the last one! Nice working with you."
Everyone in Hollywood is so damn skinny and you constantly feel like you're not skinny enough. But I have 'fat days' and I accept that I'm never going to be rail thin. It's hard not to feel pressure in this industry and I already use anti-aging products on my skin. I try not to let the pressure get to me but Los Angeles is a very hard place to be unless you have people here that love you. It can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don't take care of yourself.
I always check in the mirror to make sure nothing is see-through.
I always had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do, my parents were very open about that. Acting has been a passion of mine. I wanted to be in musicals as a kid, and took tap dance, so for me it's a dream come true, my childhood was filled with things that I loved to do, and also very normal things: I lived in New York, I have a family life and went to a regular school. If anything, I look back and think, 'Wow, I did a lot of things that a lot of people don't get to do in their lifetime'.
I am all about fashion, cheeseburgers, and bright red lipstick.
I am very independent. I can look after myself but I still need a lot of love and care.
I can't stand clutter. When I stay in a hotel, I clean the room before the maid comes. You will never find laundry on my floor.
I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don't want to be an old hag. There's no fun in that.
I don't go to McDonald's anymore. After I saw Super Size Me... no way!
I don't know if I've got swept up. It's so shocking when you hear that Calvin Klein wants you for their new campaign. You're like, 'who me?'. I guess you have to decide where you draw the line between you saying, this is fun, pretty and fabulous, and being over-exposed.
I don't know why young men won't come up to me anymore. Seriously. I only get balding men with giant guts since that comment circulated. I never said that, okay! Young men can feel free to try to seduce me. - Esquire February 05
I don't talk about my personal relationships, it always ends up kicking you in the face. But I've read a lot of things about myself and think, `Wow! That girl sounds really saucy.'
I don't think there's any kind of preparation for sudden celebrity. I think you almost have this slight nervous breakdown when that kind of media attention happens. I mean, you're doing the same kind of thing that you do all the time, only you have to make these weird adjustments. Like, you're buying a slice of pizza and somebody's outside photographing you which is weird - that's not normal! It's very uncomfortable.
I don't worry about aging- it's ridiculous. I'm 22. What's to worry about? It's coming and there's nothing we can do about it except live a healthy lifestyle and drink a lot of water.
I get tested for HIV twice a year. But contrary to popular belief, I’m not promiscuous. It’s part of being a decent human, to be tested for STDs. It’s disgusting when people don’t.
I have a lot of actor friends who worked with their parents closely and have had really horrible experiences. They end up suing or being emancipated. The wonderful thing about my mom [who is also her manager] is that she completely respects my creative weirdness and supports any decision I make.
I have an obsessive character. I manicure my nails at three in the morning because nobody else can do it the right way. Maybe that's the secret to my success.
I hope they make a video game of me. At least I wouldn't have any cellulite then.
I just adored working with Woody. He was more than I could have ever dreamed of. I'd do it a million times over.
I like cheesy TV shows like Judge Judy. I can't stop watching Jerry Springer when it's on, either. That's not all I like, of course, but I like dorky things - TV dinners and stuff.
I like clothing. I can shop like none other. You'd be surprised!
I like to play pool too; that's about as extreme as I get. My boyfriend is like my mentor. Although I did beat him once, actually. It was the most exciting time in my life.
I love when I see a movie and it's like you're not even in the theater, but you're right there with the characters, in their world, and going through the experience with them. That's what I hope to take away when I watch a movie, and I hope that's what people experience when they see a film - any film - I'm in.
I nearly failed the driving test because they said I was too cautious. The truth is, I drive like an old woman.
I once heard that women dress for women--not for men--and I think that has some truth to it. Men, what do they know?
I so fancied him when I was young, that to see my name on the credits next to his makes me go all girly. He was a hunk back in those days. - On David Hasselhoff, after they had both worked on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004).
I started acting when I was seven. I had a couple of lines in this play called Sophistry with Ethan Hawke. I studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and that really gave me an opportunity to perform before live audiences. There's absolutely a difference between that and working in film... like you can mess up in film and not worry about it.
I think I have really good feet. They're cute!
I think I look kind of like a boy. I mean, not my body, obviously.
I think it's difficult for actors to have any kind of relationship because we are so moody. It also doesn't help that your profession keeps you away from your partner so much.
I think that I sort of see other actresses are kind of proud of the way they look and show it off. That's never really been my style. I really don't think that it's disgusting or wrong, if you're 18 you're 18, it's your body, it's your right to show yourself, however, I don't really take a part in that. I like to look nice, but I think that there's ways of doing it that are more tasteful than just wearing a bikini wherever you go.
I try to stay fit and eat healthy, but I’m not anxious to starve myself and become unnaturally thin. I don’t find that look attractive on women and I don’t want to become part of that trend.
I want my career to be filled with projects that I have fun doing and feel emotionally attached to and passionate about. As far as exploding into stardom or whatever, the one good thing about being more recognizable is the power you get in the industry. You can do those projects you're really passionate about, and you don't have to take things just to work.
I want to always be able to do things that I'm passionate about. I always want to be proud of my work. I always want to be a truthful person.
I was driving through Los Angeles and I look up and see the biggest photo of me I have ever seen in my life on a massive ad space. I screamed and slammed on the brakes. I couldn't believe it. It's very strange to see my cleavage the size of a brontosaurus. My breasts were huge. I had long hair and my goodness, I couldn't get past the cleavage.
I would love to have kids. I haven't really figured it out yet. I can see having a kid or two. And I would like to adopt children. I think I'm tender with children. I got along really well with them. They make me feel young, like you're nine-years-old again.
I’ve never considered myself a femme fatale as I’ve never seduced anyone and ruined their lives. At least as far as I know.
I'd never consider myself a femme fatale as I've never seduced anyone and ruined their lives. At least as far as I know!
If I find something that is just ripening, I grab it. The nice thing is, I’ve been very fortunate with other actors. I can go directly to an actor and say, "Let’s do this together" and it happens. Whereas, if it’s something like a big studio film with a lot of girls fighting over it, whoever’s film has made the biggest box office is most likely the prime suitor for the part. I kind of avoid that stuff. It’s better for me to burrow underground and then pop up.
If I would have been a 70 year old man, I would be Woody Allen, and if he would have been a 21 year old woman, he would be Scarlett Johansson.
I'm a total Prada junkie. But I'm confident enough to wear whatever I want without making an excuse for it.
I'm actually not that type of music listener, Britney Spears type culture thing but I was telling someone earlier that it's not like I don't know the words to "Hit Me Baby One More Time," I think we all do because there are such few words. I don't have anything against it, if that's what you choose to listen to and be a part of, then so be it.
I'm curvy - I'm never going to be 5' 11' and 120 pounds. But I feel lucky to have what I've got.
I'm never going to look at a picture of Uma Thurman and think I can have her body. It's not what I'm supposed to look like.
I'm only 21 and that's how I look, but i'm an old soul in a young body.
I'm small but I definitely have curves. I'm like a slice of cherry pie.
I'm so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it's unusual...those people have always been close to my heart.
I'm the kind of person that doesn't put up with bulls**t. Does that make me uncommonly mature? I don't know. I think you mature with experiences, and how other people view you and your maturity really depends upon when you have those experiences. If you have them at the age of 13, you're gonna seem really mature, and if they happen when you're 75, you're gonna seem immature. I think I was born with a great awareness of my surroundings and an awareness of other people.
I'm very responsible when I'm working. I'm not the kind of person who is going to show up to work three hours late, or maybe not come at all.
In The Island, Director Michael Bay told me to cover my breasts, I refused to do that. Women don't normally wear a bra to bed, right? So i can't wake up with a bra either, that's ridiculous.
It's a great thing to get older and learn. I don't feel bound in any way by how many years I've lived. I identify just as much with my 86-year-old grandmother as I do with my sister.
It's a place of solace. I love London, it's an amazing city. I've met some wonderful people there and I also have some family there. I'm from New York, so I feel very at home in London. It's like a metropolitan breeding ground for culture, art, music and diversity. It's a beautiful city, with beautiful history. In Hollywood, it's hard to step outside of the circle once you're in it. But in London I was really moved by how accepted I felt there. There was definitely less need to wear my big sunglasses!
It's a required part of your film history to know who Woody is. His movies are so wonderful, and not just funny but so insightful about human behavior.
It's not a matter of becoming an actress, but being an actress. You are born as an actress.
LA's a very hard place to be unless you have people there that love you. It can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don't take care of yourself. In LA, nobody wants to talk to each other, everybody's giving each other catty looks.
Life can get very complicated when you travel the world. I don’t want my private life to determine whether I take a part and go far from home.
Maybe I had one too many champagne cocktails, but I got home and opened up my door and it wasn't my kitchen! I realized my key opens up somebody else's door in my building!
My hidden talent? I don't keep any of my talents hidden! With me, it's more like, "Hey, look at what I can do!"
People forget what it's like to be a child. When you're a child actress, people sometimes regress into being obnoxious and patronizing. But there's no reason to dumb things down just because you're working with kids.
People think I'm going to be some brazen harlot, but I'm not out there with every Tom, Dick and Harry or catching hepatitis.
The man of my dreams? John Travolta, he has everything i'm looking for in a man, he's tough but also vulnerable.
The most important thing to me is that the character is something I can play. I can’t play a cheerleader. It’s going to come out awful. Some people are good at that. I think I look for projects that are unusual, films I haven’t seen before. Also you look for films that remind you of films that you like and then what director’s going to be working on it. Where’s it shooting?
The most precious moment in life is when you're about to fall in love. You're lying in bed together and he's gazing at you and you're gazing at him and there's a sense that something truly wondrous is about to happen. It's a nervous moment - but it's exhilarating.
Tons of that stuff comes to me, but a lot of it is awful. All these teenage slaying movies, and movies about girls that have deformities that become cheerleaders and then marry the prom king!
Unfortunately, because it's adults writing these scripts, it's tough. The problem is that adults portray kids like mall-rats, and not seriously; after all, we're just like little adults and people with feelings too. Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth. I'm getting sick of reading ridiculous scripts about mall-loving teenagers, but we won't go too deep into that. Let's just say we've gotten some painfully bad scripts, on a weekly basis. And these range from huge studio projects to nothing projects; it's just painful.
Well, you put a little piece of yourself into every character that you do. Even if you're playing some psychotic person, which of course I'm not, some part of you is in that character and it's hopefully believable. I always come back to the fact that my own instinct is better than something I build in my mind.
What I respect most in people is naturalness and authenticity. I like to be able to see into their soul. I aspire to being a truthful person.
Whatever you see on my face in a movie is the way I feel. I'm not lying to you.
When I was three, I used to tell my Mom I had a fire in my brain to act.
When I'm single, I don't try to find someone. I focus on a guy if he's a boyfriend, but I don't focus on finding a boyfriend. Anyway, they're never around when you want them! …I had a great boyfriend in high school. I totally thought we were going to be together forever, which is how it should be with a guy.
When you wear a corset for 12 hours, you’re not feeling as fabulous as when you first put it on.
When you're doing an independent film, it's more like you're doing it just for the love of film making, whereas a lot of the times when you tend to do big-budget movies, it's more about getting the money back and making stars out of people.
Whose life would I like to step into for the day? The president's. I could probably get some things done in the Oval Office.
With people my age, there's not much respect for elders. But I'd like to think I'm not like that. It's so interesting to listen to what older people have to say. Your grandparents, your parents, it really affects the way you look at things.
On filming The Island (2005):
I came home and I thought I was going to die. I was in agony. I had muscles that had atrophied. I couldn't run any longer and it was only the first day. But, actually, Ewan was in the same boat. He had black and blue marks all over him. So, it wasn't so bad since someone else was in agony.
Commenting on why she was glad that Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) was a small foreign production:
It would be hellish to have the pressure of putting on a Hollywood ending or putting in a scene where Vermeer sees Griet washing her breasts
About the media:
It's unbelievable, they even follow me when i'm going to buy toilet-paper!
Asked to name her dream date:
Who would I most like to be romantically linked with? Probably Patrick Swayze. That would be my dream come true.
Claiming nobody ogled her or Keira Knightley when they posed naked for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine:
We were going to be wearing thongs but the stylist snipped them off. Here we are, Keira and I, and we're totally naked, and some guy is on his BlackBerry computer. Everyone was busy working. But I guess it's better than if they were all looking at me. It was surprisingly comfortable.
Her thoughts about Los Angles:
LA's a very hard place to be unless you have people there that love you. It can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don't take care of yourself. In LA, nobody wants to talk to each other, everybody's giving each other catty looks.
On filming The Spirit with Samuel L. Jackson:
We shared a hair and make-up trailer and among eyeliner and other things, we also shared make-up ideas - we'd come to the set and both of us would have ideas of how we wanted to play around with our characters' looks. Then we'd show it to the director Frank Miller and he would say, 'I like that' and we'd think of how to put it into the film.
On married life:
This is a very beautiful time for me. Getting married is a huge moment in anyone's life, and the few months leading up to it were a little crazy. But Ryan and I are in love, and we're enjoying evolving our relationship together. I feel that my life and my work are heading in the right direction.
Revealing her fascination with men's nipples:
The one thing I don't understand about men is nipples. I don't know if there is one aspect of men that I don't understand other than why they have nipples. Honestly, why? I guess it has something to do with the X chromosome. What is the function of the male nipple? Maybe we all start as androgynous creatures and then they become men?
About getting to entertain US troops in the Persian Gulf in 2008:
This USO tour to the Gulf region truly means a lot. I've wanted to go over and visit for some time, and now my moment has arrived. It's one thing to reply to a letter or extend your thanks to service members in a speech, but it's another thing to visit them and spend time with those that do so much for us back home.
On comparisons with Marilyn Monroe:
I love Marilyn. I think she was incredibly beautiful and a very underrated actress. I am a curvy woman who is blonde, and perhaps we are both comfortable in our femininity, but I think that is as far as the comparison goes.
On film sets:
You get those reminders sometimes. You go to the loo between takes, and come back and see everyone doing their job, and think, 'Ah, I love doing this'.
On Woody Allen:
I just adore Woody. We have a lot in common. We're New Yorkers, Jewish. We have a very easygoing relationship.
On David Hasselhoff, after they had both worked on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004):
I so fancied him when I was young, that to see my name on the credits next to his makes me go all girly. He was a hunk back in those days.
On getting her wisdom teeth out:
I hear it’s painful and horrible. Every time a dentist tells me I have to get them removed, I just change and get a new one!
Scarlett on felicity winning the Golden Globe:
I was very surprised and happy that Felicity Huffman won. It’s always exciting to see an actor who takes a chance in smaller independent films and gets recognized for it.
About Tom Cruise:
It's because he's so damn gorgeous that people don't want to believe he's a great actor.
About "The Horse Whisperer":
That was the first time I realized I could manipulate my own emotions.
On age differences between two lovers:
You can't control who you fall in love with, not even when the person is forty, fifty or sixty.
