I was a single mom.

I love showing off my tattoos.

There's never been a 'girl wonder' mythology.

The first thing I did for TV was a pilot for CBS.

Because I came from the working class, I still identify with them. I don't identify with the middle class.

I had breast cancer. I caught it early.

In the early '90s when the American independent movie started, it held personal vision as a premium. That was brilliant timing.

I had always felt deep down that I owned the characters. Much as I adored and cherished the work of my actors, I felt that they were cast to do and be what I could not physically do or be.

In 'Honeymoon in Vegas,' after Nicolas Cage tells his fiancee that he's given her away to pay for his gambling debts, she gets into a tizzy as if she were a 6-year-old. I couldn't believe it.

I hope the next actress offered millions to play the 'fat girl for the day' stops to think about this before she signs the contract - even if just to ask, like any professional actress would in any other situation, 'Why does she weigh 350 pounds? And why me for the part?' If the director can't answer these questions, don't do the movie.