Summer Glau

Summer: (on playing Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) It's the most difficult acting I've ever done. Very, very demanding, and I wanted to do my best because many people don't get a script like that, especially in TV. It's just a really special script and it's definitely my favorite.

Summer: I think that's why I liked dancing. It was a way for me to communicate and show how I really felt without having to connect with anyone.

Summer: Being physical is an important part of being a woman--feeling good about yourself and being in tune with your personality.

Summer: Sometimes when I get home after a long day, I'll turn on music--I love Latin, disco, and pop--and do my own workout, even if it's a short one. Know a good song to work out to? 'I Will Survive.'

Summer: When I learnt how to fight, we actually made contact. I learnt how to roll off their face when I punched, and tapped them when I kicked them. I had to appear like I was pushing with all my force but I was actually just tapping. That was really hard. I'm glad that I did it, but I don't ever want to do martial arts again.

Summer: I always look for roles that make me feel good about being a girl. I have to say that there are a lot of roles out there that make me feel really bad about being a girl. You can imagine what the things are and I shall not go into detail.

Summer: When I was little, I had a feeling that I was going to end up being an actress. I spent a lot of time alone, I was a very shy girl, and I would pretend I was telling someone about this new role that I got.

Summer: I'm definitely one of those actresses who comes to a set knowing how I want to do a scene, and I definitely love input from my directors and my writers. I know that there's some actors who like to be left alone, they like to be very independent, but I actually really enjoy the teamwork.

Summer: I came to act because I wanted to do lovely period dramas. Very Jane Austen. But I guess I have become more of an action girl. I have no complaints!

Summer: When you become an actor, you find out things about yourself that you can bring to a character that no one else could. That's the way to get cast. Instead of doing things perfectly, you have to be real. That was something I had to let go of when I started acting, the idea of being perfect.

Summer: (about letters from fans from outside USA) Every time I receive a letter from anyone, I am surprised and honored, but knowing that people enjoy my work in countries I have never seen, is truly amazing.

Summer: I love the way dancers express their feelings through movement instead of with words. I would have enjoyed making silent films.

Summer: I really don't like to sing! I feel shaky and terrified.

Summer: (on playing the new terminator in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) People still ask me about Arnold Schwarzenegger and how does that feel to be the new terminator. I can laugh about it because no one can possibly compare me to him. He is an icon, and I'm doing something really different, so it is a relief for me.

Summer: (on the Firefly River Tam sessions) I remember when I was trying to memorize it, I hadn't been in my LA apartment for a month. I was lying in bed trying to memorize the dialogue that I was going to shoot the next morning. I couldn't sleep that night going in and out of bad dreams and talking to myself. I got scared from trying to prepare for those emotional scenes. It was a hard night to get through, the words were powerful.

Summer: (River is the character she played in Whedon's Firefly) My ideal role would be someone that Joss created – naturally. A girl like River in some ways. Damaged but special, lost but brave. Someone in love but this time not with her brother.

Summer: (on being typecast playing nutty young girls) I just want to get cast, that's all [laughs]. I'll play as many crazy psychics as possible as long as I'm still working.

Summer: In this business, it is close to impossible to get somebody to take a chance on you. Everybody wants what everybody else wants, you know what I mean?

Summer: If I could count on both hands and toes the number of times I've seen Dirty Dancing! I practiced all the moves in my mirror and I love that story. I even love the new one [Havana Nights] and I would be overjoyed to get to do a ballroom dancing project. I love how they take a shy girl who's not very sexy and who isn't very comfortable with herself and they turn her into this really confident, hot, little – she gets out there and she blossoms.