- [2005] [on filming Wonderfalls (2004)] We [had a fantastic time]. It was so much fun. You know when you say that a crew is like a family - this one, it really was. I remember the guest stars who came, they were always trying to find a new plot for their characters because they wanted to stay. It was really a great working environment.
- [2005] [on Wonderfalls (2004) cancellation] It's heartbreaking but we're trying to get over it. As disappointed as we were, I think that somehow you have to find a way to think that it happened for a reason. At least, I'm very happy that it's going out on DVD because if it wasn't for the fans who signed this petition and were really ongoing about how they loved it, we wouldn't see this DVD right now.
- [2005] [on being asked if she has any irrational fears] Yes, I have one! Driving over a bridge and falling in the water, in the car.
- [2005] You really have someone else's words when you play a character - it's never very close to you, I have to say. I never felt like 'Oh, this is totally me.' That's why I do this job [laughs], to take a break from me.
- [2014] [on signing on to Hannibal (2013)] Well, Bryan [Fuller] was a big part of it. I did Wonderfalls (2004) with him, 10 years ago, and I've always wanted to work with him again. What's great about Bryan is that he never forgets the actors that he liked working with, and he takes mighty pleasure into making you do the exact opposite of what you did before with him. That was really fun. Wonderfalls was a comedy, and Jaye Tyler was this underachiever who was always in a sour mood. And Alana Bloom is the polar opposite, completely. This is a drama. She takes care of people, and she wants to. She has this savior complex. It's fantastic to know that someone believes that you can actually pull off the opposite of what you did before. Also, the cast was just fantastic. They're all actors that I truly admire and really wanted to work with. I also know that Bryan's writing is crazy and beautiful, and he would make this story his own. I thought it was possible to take on that challenge with him. It's such an iconic story, as you said, with the books and the movies, that how do you make people forget, or at least buy a new version of Hannibal Lecter - Anthony Hopkins gave such a memorable performance. I think Mads Mikkelsen really pulled it off by being who he wanted him to be, with a much more subtle way of being evil and a dandy, and all that. So, it was a no-brainer because of all those reasons.
- [2017] [on Hannibal (2013)] It was amazing, it was one of the things that I was part of that I was most proud of. I'm not just saying I was proud of my work. I was proud of the show that we all made together. The writing was fantastic and different and it was a piece of art. It's amazing to be part of something special like that.
- [2017] I love [doing work in both English and French] because it changes things around and I meet a lot of new people. When you've been doing this for a long time and you've only been working in one area, my fear would've been to become bored with my work. This way the playground is large.
- [2017] [on signing on to Mary Kills People (2017)] I think that a lot of actors look for grey zones in characters... Mary certainly has complex thoughts, contradictions and a lot more. The subject matter was also appealing. It's a bit of a coincidence that Tara [Armstrong; the show's creator and writer] started working on this before the law changed here in June. Although our series takes place in a fictional city somewhere in North America where assisted suicide is still illegal, I still think that it's a very important debate to have as a society. The show does very well at that because it explores every angle of the debate. They've also done a great job at bringing humor to the series because it all can't be dark all the time, right? Especially when you are around people who are going through their final moments. It's very cathartic and intense. But like after every funeral you attend, you want to feel alive, have some fun and laugh.
- [2017] [on the worst professional advice she ever received] 'Can you do it again but better?' A director said that to me once. It made me want to scream and leave the premises [laughs]. It's like, you're telling me I sucked, you're telling me you want something else, but you're not telling me what. So I'm just left frustrated. It was a couple years ago, like 10 years ago.
- [2017] I love [Gene Wilder]. There's something about the intelligence that you can read in his eyes and the choices that he made. He was so natural, and I think he was kind of ahead of his time in many ways.
- [2017] It's funny, because we often talk about 'Will the character be likable?' I don't think it's important for a character to be likable. I think people want the drive, actually, to see someone who's behaving in a way that they cannot allow themselves to behave, as an audience. It's like a bit of a fantasy sometimes, to see a character be rude, be bold, to not have to be polite, it's so fun, I think we kind of fantasize about being allowed to be that way, sometimes.
- [2017] I don't think I've ever read a book twice. There are so many things to read and discover that I feel like once I've read a book I need to go somewhere else. I get a little stressed even sometimes knowing all the things I want to read, I won't have enough time in this lifetime. The more you read, the more you realize there are fascinating books to be read and so little time to do so.
- [2013] Both my parents are actors so that's how I started. When I was eight years old I started dubbing American movies into French. A lot of the television that I watched as a kid was all French-Canadian so you probably wouldn't know the shows. I started watching American television when I was a teenager, Full House (1987) and Growing Pains (1985) and all those shows that were on after school. But since I started being an actor so young, I never thought, 'Hmm, one day I'll be an actor.' I was already doing it. I don't really remember a moment where I thought, 'Oh, one day I'll do this' because it was already happening. I remember the moment when I was 11 when I did my first film where I thought, 'Oh my God, this is amazing. This is what I want to do.' I felt the power of it but I was already shooting.
- [2017] [on her influences as an actor] I guess David Lynch has always been the one that I absolutely adore. I love how free he is to go places in his mind that aren't made for everyone to understand. I love the mystery of what he does. I love how storing and nuanced the characters are. He's so interesting because he'll make something very mysterious and dreamy, but at the same time the characters are kind of caricatures sometimes of people. They don't feel completely naturally. And I love that world where things collide and you don't really know what's happening. I just think it's really hard too to make those things happen, because people are scared to invest money, because they think people won't get it. And we often try to make things so that people will understand, but I think it's the wrong way to approach things.
- [2017] [on being asked if she has any advice for aspiring actors] I think just to stay open as much as you can to what's happening in the moment, you know. And that would be advice for acting. I've been thinking about that a lot recently, because I'm shooting a TV show, to just not fight the state that you're in. Every day when you arrive on set, use as much as you can, even if you had imagined something else, because having a pure state of mind gives you something very real to work with. And if you fight that state then your scene won't be rooted as much in something real and natural. It might be a little weird. My mom's an actress, and she always tells me as an actress that 'if you're really, really tired on set one day, and you don't know how the hell you're going to get through the day, maybe your character's feeling like that today. Just use it.' It's great advice, because it's not advice they'll be giving in acting school, because they don't talk about the fact that you will be tired on set.
- [2017] I love roles that are challenging and risky and crazy characters.
- [2017] [on drawing and painting] The older I get, the more I need to do other creative things.
- [2018] [on what advice she would give to her younger self] If I had to think of one thing I think it would be to just own your decisions - don't make decisions to please others. We often try to please other people when we are younger, and we all want to be loved, but you learn later on when you own your decisions that people just go with the flow and respect you for it.
- [2018] [on her most difficult experience in acting] I think acting in -40 degree weather in the Montreal countryside, at night, and in period clothing, was the biggest challenge. It was difficult because I felt I didn't have access to my emotions: my body was shutting down and went into survival mode to endure the weather. I had a lot of emotional scenes to do, but my ability to go there was inhibited and not available to me. I was in a panic. Sometimes it is the elements that you just can't control which are the challenge.
- [2018] I love Cate Blanchett, firstly for her talent but also her beauty, her intelligence, and outspoken nature. I admire her sense of freedom and sound mind every time I hear her speak.
- [2018] [on what she considers to be the hardest part of acting] The older you get, you change, and the way you work changes as well. When I was younger, I felt like I had a lot more control over a scene or what I was about to do when I was on set. Now, it's hard but equally amazing, as I have learned to let go and embrace anything that isn't planned and pops up. The loss of control is something that I have had to habituate myself with and approach quietly, trusting my instincts when a scene goes in another direction. It's okay to not know what the final result looks like; you have to trust the people around you.
- [2018] I tend to be drawn to filmmakers, directors, writers, and stories that I want to tell and be part of as opposed to any certain genre.
- [2018] I really admire a lot of movies that were made in the 1970s in America because I feel like they have a sense of freedom, exploration, and experimentation that we have lost over the years. It also feels like directors had more of a say regarding who they got to hire, but perhaps I am just idealizing that era. For me, I feel that there is something so strong there creatively that perhaps we should allow ourselves to go back to [it] in order to create new things. Today, we are doing so many remakes of stories that have already been told, and, most of the time, that doesn't really appeal to me. There are so many brilliant ideas; I wish the business would collectively make that effort to let our imaginations run wild and give ourselves the freedom to go there. All the grand movies we look back upon and admire were made by people who had the guts to just go for it!
- [2018] [on what inspires her to keep going as an actor] I know that I am privileged to be doing what I'm doing. I've been doing this forever and people still want to hire me, so I try to keep that in mind. I also keep in mind the lovely life this career has given me access to: I have travelled the world because of this job. And of course, the people I love keep me going. I have amazing people in my life, and when I get a little discouraged when work is dense, I am reassured that, because of them, the rest of my life is very fulfilling.
- [2019] [on social media] I've always said that there's nothing wrong with a bit of mystery, because when the audience believes in you, as a character, if they've been going to your Instagram page and know that you've been doing this and been doing that, and this is what you ate, it's hard to make a difference between the actor that they know through social media and the character that they're seeing. I think that's interesting to have this anonymous, I guess, vibe. [laughs] And why not, I want to offer myself this freedom, life is short, and I don't want to be on screen all the time, and we're so busy, all of us. Even finding time to read a book is difficult, even though I'm not on social media, I want to travel, I want to see my friends. I'm blessed with amazing friends that I try to see as much as I can and I now have a daughter in my life. I'm not a snob about it, I know what social media can bring in terms of getting people together to fight about things, like #MeToo wouldn't have happened without social media, probably, so great that it's out there, but I think that we need to give ourselves the opportunity to decide what we want to do with it.
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