Quotes

When you say no a lot as an actor, you're going to go broke, and that's been the hardest thing to go through in the last 10 years. Being a single mother and having financial problems is a nightmare.

I laugh when I hear someone talking about an actress "making such good choices." Yeah, well, she was probably broke! Or she's being supported and doesn't have to worry about it. And I hope that people keep that in mind when an actor suddenly does a movie for the Sci Fi Channel that is maybe not "important." We've got to make a living. People are going to do the "pay the rent" movie once in a while. The important movies don't pay well. They're for scale, or even worse, something they invented called "independent scale," in which case it's like it's costing me money to make the movie. You're getting $500 per week, before taxes and American Express is calling. So it is our job. It's how we make our living, and you don't always have the luxury of making a movie like Sideways (2004). I even got paid well to do that! Especially for me, at the time. [interviewed by Russ Fischer, CHUD.com, February 2007]

Playing "Lisa" in Fire with Fire (1986) is a perfect example of how I am, intense, impulsive, full of love and ready to risk it all if I have to. Playing her was incredibly easy, as everything was just so natural.

[growing older] My mother said, When you're in your 40s you're free, but when you're in your 50s, you fly. And she was right. I don't know how I feel about 60. I'm not there yet. But the closer I get to it, I'm like, It's all right. I have some role models I can look at and say, I like the way that looks. I want to emulate that.

[surviving abuse early in her career] The thing is, you just move on. If no one's going to do anything about it and it's over, I'm just going to move on and you're not going to ruin my life. If I was attacked by somebody or if somebody scared me, it was like, you're not going to win. I felt like, You're not damaging my life. You're not damaging me. I think that's how I thought about it: I still win, because I'm still standing.

[abuse during her career] It was everything from groping to demeaning comments to making me feel bad about myself. Talking about me like I wasn't there. Threatening me. Threatening my life. Threatening me that if I didn't go over and blow him, I wasn't going to work or, "I'm going to kick your head in."

[becoming a mother] I think he saved my life. I had some health problems. I was living a very selfish lifestyle. I was living for me and the center of my own universe. I think I was probably more depressed than I realized at the time. My career was tanking, I think, because of that. A loss of confidence. So when Jack came along, nothing was about me anymore. Everything became him because he was such a miracle.

[forced to perform nude] There was a lot of trying to convince me to take my clothes off in movies when my contract said I shouldn't. I remember there were five men that stood in a circle around me with the director in the middle, saying, "You have to be naked in this scene." I said, "No I don't. You're asking me to do what my contract protects me [from]." And they would talk behind me and in front of me, specifically to intimidate me, and I did it.

[being ignored as a young actress] When you're 25 and you're a hot babe, nobody wants you to have an opinion about anything. God forbid you open your mouth when you're at work.

[on the passing of her brother, Michael Madsen] I'll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I'll miss the boy he was before the legend. I miss my big brother. Thank you to everyone reaching out with love and memory. In time, we'll share how we plan to celebrate his life. But for now - we stay close, and let the silence say what words can't.