She has made her mark as a charming love interest onscreen, but if Drew Barrymore has her way, she’ll be tackling more serious roles from now on.
Here are the highlights of her interview:
On her breakup from boyfriend Fabrizio Moretti: “It’s hard to be with someone for five years and say, This isn’t going to work. But it was a time in my life where I finally just said, I can’t live for anyone else anymore. I have to be on my own.”
On the Hollywood career she would like to try: “I’m in my thirties now, and I really want to try all the things that I haven’t gotten to do yet, like directing, and doing a drama. I’ve produced and gotten to do a lot of optimistic love stories, and that was so where I was at for 10 years in my life. And now I feel like, Okay, now I know how to do that. I wanted to get scared again.”
On preparing for the role of Grey Gardens’ Little Edie: “I did what I do when I have a big challenge lying in my path. I go to school. I shut the windows, the shades come down, the phone gets turned off, I don’t go out – I study.”
On completely transforming for the role: “I knew this was not a courtesy meeting, but not far from it. I didn’t want to come in there like a hungry freak. But I also felt every second counting. So – polite conversation, then he started looking through my binder, and I saw his demeanor change, actually noticing all the hard work I had put into it. So I just put it out there. I said, ‘Look – I have all of this inside of me, and I promise you that I will change my face to be her. I will learn how to stop talking out of the side of my mouth. I will go to school to relearn body language. I will shut out the world. I will not talk to my friends. I will give up my life for this, because I don’t think you can play this character and have a social life and balance the two mentalities. I won’t act. I’ll become this person.’”