A: As a kid I was fascinated by old men and bag ladies and I’d create these characters based on them. I think it was my imagination as a ten-year old girl that gave flesh to living out my life as an actress. You grow up, pay close attention to the human spirit with all its myriad and conflicting feelings, and try to figure out how that knowledge, fascination, and awareness can translate to the big screen. I was a weird kid but owe a hell of a lot to my conservative folks for never squelching that in me. Instead of therapy, they put me in community theater.

          A: I play the tough-spitting role of the Prison Guard in charge of a women's death row block. As written, my character's actions are down-right base, mean, and, ultimately, devastating to the inmates. I had to look at these women as pond scum, looking up at sewer rats with wide-eyed admiration. It was never my job as Prison Guard to reform or appease. I am here to punish. And never let them forget that they destroyed lives. And, come on, who doesn't want to act on that false sense of retribution and irrational "power unfolded" within them...right?!

          My character had an unusual animosity for the lead character "Daisy", sentenced to death row for killing her mum. At first glance, I thought, yeah of course I should substitute my own mother... What if someone hurt her? Blah, blah, blah. But then you re-read, take it in a bit deeper, and realize it has nothing to do with the mom relationship. It has to do with Daisy. Innocent, beautiful, optimistic Daisy. Her presence had to devastate the Prison Guard. Because for my character, with Daisy comes all I never was, and with her goes all I ever hoped to be.

          A: This film is special and beautiful and heartbreaking. To me. That I know...But I'm not sure how to answer your question....The only work, as I understand it to be, is to fill the blueprint of the words and story given. How do I make this come to life and, at best, what could this be. You hope the excavation process was specific enough, honest enough, then you lay it all out on the line and pray that someone somewhere will have some sense of communion with it. Not all will.

          A: This is at the risk of sounding incredibly cuter than I really am BUT if I heard one more time from the outside world that I would be inappropriate and not believable playing an angry, ugly, bitter Prison Guard...aw man! To live, breathe, and work in an environment where we trust that "ugly" can stem from within, outer, and all the places in between, I owe Steve and my theater background a huge thanks for allowing me the experiences to explore that.. I am not that cute in real life..nor am I that base or ugly. But my imagination is, so I thank Steve for trusting me with this role.

          A: We were a day before shooting all of the "inmate" scenes. Before Jane Weidlen, Susan Traylor, Mink Stole, and Pleasant Gehman shot a minute of film they were taken to the studio and locked in their "cells". Brilliant Steve instructed them to decorate their cells in the vein of the characters they were portraying. I copped squat in the corner and watched these four amazing, creative, intuitive women go to town. Half-spontaneous, half home-brought. Mink brought Jesus paintings and crosses from her deceased Mother's house; Pleasant hung fishnet stockings and scribbled on the wall "I know I am going to heaven, cause I done my time in hell..."; Susan pasted these crazy black and white photos of soulful musicians. All backdrop in the cells are from the inmates: what they brought, what they drew, and what they knew. They were so specific, so personal. I was humbled. And never more excited to work with a director...Steve rocks, man. He just rocks.

          A: I played a small town News Reporter and this was the very first feature film I ever did. Ever! I was doing a really bad play at the time I got cast, I remember that. I had 24 hours to teach my understudy and I was off to Illinois to start filming. I had read the book "Spoon River Anthologies" by Edgar Lee Masters from which the film was based, read the film script a few times, and gave a great audition a few months previous....None of this lined up. I was so nervous. So green. They knock on your motel door at 11 pm with the sides for tomorrow; you learn the new lines between commercials on cable TV, checking pores in bad mirrors, and the obligatory ice machine visit. It was surreal, really. I was just so unknowing of film technique acting and protocol back then. I came from a theater background and I remember thinking on the set "hmmm...this may not translate well".

          A: This was based on the true story of Richard Speck who brutally murdered eight nurses in one night. I was the seventh killed, had my neck snapped, and spent many days tied up in rope, trying to keep to the truth of what these women went through. My character's mind-set was simple: "My family will have to live with the knowledge that I went out like this". Brutal really, if you think about it. I did. Deeply. For eleven days. We shot most of the film in this abandoned, creepy hospital in downtown LA. There was a presence, I swear. There were these burly crew guys who would not even go down certain corridors. Next to the hospital was this random mental instituition. So every time you'd go outside to craft services the mental patients would scream, whistle, and rattle violently through their iron-barred windows. Then you'd try and use the bathroom and in red writing there would be handwritten on the walls "dead people walk among you", "you are not looking, turn. he's right there". And all this time, you're shooting the true story of a serial killer and playing a woman who died violently. That was a visceral and creepy two weeks, I tell ya.

          A: Aw, yes, "The Ripple Effect". Here I was in a film with one of my favorite actors, Forest Whitaker. I had a sizeable role. The director had us improvise each and every scene. There was no definitive script just an outline of what each scene needed to entail. My scenes were on the comedic side. I played this lawyer, whatever. Anyhow, in the editing room the director decides this film is serious. But here I had already shot scenes with this actor would spout these random improvs like how he loves this woman who smells like chicken but that it never made sense to him because she was raised on a peanut farm...whatever. My scenes had no chance! I have yet to see the movie. My mom says if you don't blink, you can briefly make out it's me in one scene. Nature of the beast. What're you gonna do?

          A: I have started up my own film production company, Making Mudpies. We are set to shoot a feature length script I wrote entitled "Them That's Got" late September. Next week, I start acting in a film called "Minuteman" up in northern Texas.

          A: Can we live in a utopian future for a moment? If so, I would have on the buffet table in front of me one year from now: a completed and distributed film from my production company, my suitcase packed for a film acting gig on location someplace in Europe (why the hell not?!), and a dog. I have wanted a dog lately and I don't know why. One of those little yelping mutts. I'd name him Petunia.

          A: Give me one day with Harmony Korine. He directed "Gummo", "Julien Donkey-Boy", wrote the film "Kids"...He doesn't apologize, works in the periphery. I dig his work. Be fun to get in that twisted sandbox with him. And, please pretty please, can I be Joaquin Phoenix's anything: wife, sister, bitch? Matters me not. As actors we represent anyone who has ever lived "that" life, right? Be it a mother who buries a child and her breasts are still full...Whatever- fill in the blanks. Joaquin Phoenix, for me, is a master of understanding this. Anyone who has ever lived the life he is portraying could stand up in the audience and say: "Yes, thank you. You have represented me well. You have told the truth of what my life is". That boy gets it on such a profound level.

          A: Really good writing. I love quirky roles, I love getting to explore complex characters, all of it. But at the end of the day the script has to be great. And by great I mean the truth. Did the writer write the truth of what these characters would say and do? I don't care how fun or interesting a role may be within the script, if it's bad writing I walk away.

          A: Film.

          A: What you didn't know about me? Hmmm....I play bass guitar and had this all-girl, bluegrass-meets-punk band in LA. We called ourselves Fyrtle Myrtle and we'd rehearse like twice a week for hours. We even put together a cd of our original songs to play around town. Yeah, um, no one ever hired us. I guess we were pretty bad. But I loved it and if I were to ever have another whack at my 20s, I'd have kept that sentiment in check more. Do it cause you love it; who cares if no one else does.

          A: "Fright Night" and "Silver Bullet" my older sister and I have memorized. We are both obsessed, obsessed with werewolves and vampires. When "Underworld" came out, my sister and I were the first in line at the theater.

          Can I do an obnoxious plug to your readers? I have a very Alfred Hitchcock-esque thriller flick coming out soon. It's called "The Locker". Keep an eye out!

          A: Back at cha. I'm honored.