Biography

I think that the past fifteen years--where women have gone to work and left the men--the baby boomers who are now in Hollywood and control a lot of the money are upset that the wives have gone or mommies gone off to work. There are all these scripts where the women, if they're working, are prostitutes and lawyers with an angry streak who'll kill you. It's a reaction to women leaving their men and men being angry about it and saying it on some subconscious level.

I'm the character actor in Hollywood movies, the girl who has to be annoying so the guy can go to the other girl.

Being an indie queen, people think I have all these choices. Like I've just been sitting around waiting for the best indie film that I deem acceptable. There are a lot of independent films I've wanted to do that I haven't been cast in.

[on if independent film or film in general is evolving to something better] It has to. I think people are upset. I don't want my movie to be judged on how much money it makes. This is a great country. Where are those values of those pioneers? Where are those values? They aren't in the film industry anymore. Where's the responsibility? The arts aren't subsidized. You see what the culture focuses on and it's disturbing. As easy as it is to be nostalgic in these times and come here [Sundance Film Festival] and bemoan the old indie days...

[on if she prefers working in independent film versus the studio system because of the more varied arrange of roles it may offer] I'm trying to work in studio movies, but they won't hire me. I get feedback from my agent saying, 'She's too much of an indie queen.' And then on the other side, my name doesn't get the financing to do a movie over $1 million. And I'm called 'the indie queen.' So it's really a challenging path because I know so much about the indie side of the business. Because I grew up in it. It's like I'm back in junior high here at Sundance. There's John Cooper and Trevor Groth and we all grew up together, you know? But it's different times. And this stuff gets projected onto me. People are like, 'You're here every year, you do so many indie movies.' And I'm like, 'No, I did Broken English (2007) five years ago.' It's just not the same. Our culture's not the same. Independent film and the way people go to the movies in the theater. Maybe it got oversaturated. I don't know...