Annabella Sciorra

Annabella: Your mind can't always tell the difference between pretend and reality if you pretend too long; or if you go too deep and really believe in what you're doing. If you're going to be that kind of actor and go way out there, it's really important to take care of yourself and have a safe place, whatever that is.

Annabella: I feel that I've worked with a lot of interesting people, and I have no regrets. I'm just curious about what I might have done if I'd had people in my life then who did explain what the publicity game was.

Annabella: There was definitely a moment, a time after The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, when I did get offered a lot of women in jeopardy-type roles. But I couldn't do it, physically, I just couldn't. But now I know what I know, I wonder if I should have played the whole fame game a little more. The thing is, I wasn't surrounded by lots of people who were helping me build a career.

Annabella: Unlike a movie, you kind of learn things about yourself every week, ... When you get a new script, you find out, oh, I was with the FBI, or oh, my father was this, or oh, this is where I grew up. They can make it up as they go along.

Annabella: Press junkets are incredibly annoying. You sit in a chair for three to six hours and have different journalists shuttle in for three minutes at a time, asking cheesy movie questions to get a quick sound bite -- and that's their only objective. You can't really move or eat. You're just stuck there. It's pressure, constant pressure.

Annabella: There's no character, there's just you and a bunch of words on a page. And sometimes you say them with a funny accent, or wear funny shoes, or dye your hair. But basically it's just you. I think it's very simple, I hate it when acting teachers talk as if it's some strange, mysterious thing that maybe, some day if you're lucky, you might achieve for about two moments. It's very Zen to me. You just breathe and open your mouth.

Annabella: I know if I want to I can still go out to L. A. and be a more career-orientated and ambitious person. I think my problem is that I'm lazy. I don't know where some actors get the energy to do that business stuff. I'm torn between going to a meeting and having a nap.

Annabella: I think there is a difference between letting your career have its own path and trying to manipulate that path.

Annabella: I grew up in a pretty progressive household. My mother was a feminist and extremely encouraging in terms of me choosing what I wanted to do, without pushing me into anything. She made me feel I could be anything. I was very fortunate.

Annabella: I think space exploration is very important. I think there is very intelligent life on Mars. I believe that Martians are spying on us from the bottom of the ocean.

Annabella: You can never judge your characters. You have to love them, really care about them. You're never just playing a villain or the crazy lady.

Annabella: I'm always really surprised by people who are comfortable revealing all of their secrets on TV or in a magazine. It's actually quite shocking to me.