- [about her father] Just because you donate sperm does not make you a father. I don't have a father. I would never give him the credit or acknowledge him as my father.
- [on being a teen idol] This is what I've waited for my whole life.
- [High school] My biggest complaint is school when it's Send-the-roses day. Somebody's always left out. I always got roses, but I would give them to someone who hadn't gotten any.
- [Horror Movies] I'm always the one who gets killed. And I want it to be really gory. Body parts all over the place. Mangled!
- [on Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon]: "They're unbelievable. They're an inspiration to young love."
- [on job pressures] There's so much pressure on all of us right now. On Katie Holmes, on James Van Der Beek and myself, to do these movies, and do as much as you can because there is the slight feeling that one day your phone will stop ringing. It's not about the craft, per se. It's so easy to fall for it all because people remind you constantly that as fast as it comes, it can go. And I think there is this sort of paranoia, this need to keep working. And I know that I felt it, and for the first three years of the show, I never had more than a week off, except for Christmas. That was it.
- [on being 'skinny'] How can women be as thin as we are? We have personal trainers to work us out. We have specially prepared meals.
- [on the Internet] I got a computer and I'm learning how to use it. I collect antique books, so I used it to get my copy of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses,' and I use it for travel, to look up customs. I went to Fiji, and I looked up all this stuff before I went, like 'Don't wear a hat in someone's house because it's rude, and don't wear shoes.' You've got to think there's something better I can do with my time than log on to the Internet and say, 'Ooo, let's find out about me!' I think that would frighten me a little bit.
- [on what the word "feminist" means] I don't call myself a feminist because feminism has a negative connotation. It makes you think of women who don't shave their legs. But feminism is not just about not being weak. It's about being able to take care of yourself. Just because you might care about what you look like or what the opposite sex thinks of you, it doesn't make you not a feminist, although it's a word I hate. Do I consider myself a strong female individual? Uh-huh. Can I take care of myself? Yes.
- [on her kissing scene with Selma Blair in Cruel Intentions (1999)] It was a great kiss. It even had a saliva trail.
- One of the greatest gifts my job has given me is that my mother, who gave up her entire life for me, doesn't have to work any more. I'm now in a position to repay her for her devotion.
- I am militant about drugs. You want to do 'em? You're out of my life.
- [on posing nude] Right now I can't picture posing, but I don't believe in saying never... There might be a time when I got pregnant and felt really beautiful and wanted to have a nude picture.
- [on what she would do if she wasn't acting] I would go to college to be a journalist. I always wanted to write for Time or Newsweek.
- You'll never know what you're capable of if you don't try.
- I don't understand why James Bond has to be a man all the time. When Pierce Brosnan retires, why not one of us?
- [on why she was happy to get married:] I'm so grateful I don't have to go looking for a man on a Saturday night. I was always terrible at chatting up men. [December 10, 2003]
- [about Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)] To me, the scariest elements of horror films are the things that could really happen. And what is more scary than high school? ... What I like about the show is that it reminds you it's O.K. to be different. What people think isn't necessarily true. If people walk away with half of that, we've done our job. [New York Times, April 27, 1997]
- [on playing Kendall Hart on All My Children (1970)] I seduced my stepfather, and when he wouldn't sleep with me, I slept with the stable boy, cried rape, and my mother stabbed him with a letter opener. Then I went to jail for perjury, burned my parents' divorce papers, and locked up my little sister. I think that was all in the first week. [New York Times, April 27, 1997]
- [on attending the Professional Children's High School in Manhattan] Everybody there had a talent, and everyone was respected. If somebody didn't like you -- they didn't talk to you! They didn't make fun of you, punish you. You could, you know, mess around with how you dress. You really had that chance to find yourself, and I thank God for that school. I went to that school feeling amazingly untalented. That school was my lifeline. Let me tell you something -- talent night at our school? There was nothing like it.
- Horror films are where women can shine and have a chance to lead. They always save the day in these films.
- [on gay marriage] I have good friends, gay couples, who've been together for 18 years. It drives me crazy that in the eyes of the law, their love isn't acknowledged when I have girlfriends who have married four times by the age of 25.
- [on religion] I don't believe in organized religion and I never have.
- No, that's what bothers me. That's how they think. Okay, this is a summer...I remember that it used to be you could see great movies any time. Now it's like summer is for blockbusters, fall is for the movies that they can't fit into any other time, that's like September. Then Oscar movies start, it used to be post Thanksgiving. Now the awards are earlier so it starts earlier. January is when they dump movies. And it's just so... it seems to me so obvious that wouldn't it be better for the marketplace to have these movies spread out? Not just people don't only go to the movies in summer time. If that was the truth, then in the summer time they would count the whole week's worth of the box office but it's still only a weekend. So why does it matter...sorry, I get a little upset. It's just frustrating.
- Basically I only like to choose films that I don't understand. As long as they're greater than my mental capacity, I figure I gotta be doing something artful, right? Isn't that what makes something art when you don't understand it?
- I wish, and I wish so much for the film industry right now. I wish so much for originality and I wish so much and I think that we're caught in this difficult cycle right now because our studios are corporations now. I keep talking about the old 1940s, where one guy with a cigar and a scotch made decisions for a studio and now, because there are all these computer corporations basically, technology companies and there's so much else that goes into a decision that it's very difficult to get films that are different, that are off the beaten path, made. It's much easier to get something unoriginal made than to get something original.
- "Simply Irresistible (1999) was just a bad choice - and for that it was a great learning experience. I wasn't ready to make that movie. I was too young. The script was not ready. I knew in my heart before I left to make it that I should back out".
- [on how she would like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and her work on it to be remembered] I hope positively. One thing about the show was it was never categorized. It was drama, comedy, action, horror, all of those things combined. And I just want people to remember it as a fabulous run, a fabulous seven years.
- In this day and age, everything is so cross-marketed that the lines have blurred, in my opinion, between what is an actor and what is a celebrity. What is reality? All you have to do is pick up a magazine or turn on the television and you can get ideas from places that five years ago you couldn't.
- [Working in LA filming Southland Tales (2006)] That's so weird. It's one of those things that's like you go on location and you're there for a week getting ready. Here it's like you're walking the dog, you're paying the bills and then 10 minutes later, you have to go to work. It's a very sort of odd- - I'm grateful for it and so glad to actually film a movie in Hollywood. Although some of these locations are pretty far. I could probably fly to some of them.
- [on her doing movies and Freddie Prinze Jr. doing his show] It's funny in the sense of he'll say to me, 'You don't understand. You're doing a movie. I've been on my feet all day.' I'm like, 'For real? For real I don't understand?' So that's kind of odd. And the times are funny because I'm on nights and he's more organized in terms of...or last week he was getting out of the house at like 3:30 in the morning.
- [Her advice for her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr. on his sitcom Freddie (2005)] Do a sitcom. Don't do a one hour. That was actually my advice. He was going to do a one hour. I was like, 'Are you crazy? You know what people make for sitcoms and how little they work, right? You see all of our friends on sitcoms.
- You know what? I only see myself doing films that interest me and that are a little bit off the beaten path. I will go wherever that takes me. I just - - I always say it just can't be generic. I can't be the girlfriend or the wife or the - - you can't play the characters that I've been blessed to play and then do that. I can't be the girl in the film.
- I think the best piece of advice I've ever gotten is to trust myself and go for my dreams. I got that from my mom.
- Being sexy is being confident. It's important to know you don't have to have silicone breasts falling out and a thigh-high skirt. Sometimes you meet people and they think, 'Another cute little blonde actress.' That's not who I am. - on rather being known as clever than sexy.
- [on not wanting children at this point] You can't be selfish and have a child. Right now I want to live my life and have fun. I want to go sit in my Jacuzzi and drink wine all night. [December 2007]
- I had to twist his [Freddie's] arm and leg to see Moulin Rouge! (2001) Although he enjoyed it once we were there. In fact, there was a moment during the evening when I swear I thought he was going to leave me for Nicole Kidman but then, who could blame him? I'd probably leave him for Nicole if she asked. She's hot!
- It sounds clichéd, but when women turn 30 they find themselves. You become more comfortable in your own skin. Last night on Letterman I wore this skintight Herve Ledger dress. Two years ago, three years ago? I would never have worn it. - Gothman Magazine.
- [on her character Buffy Summers] For eight years I had the pleasure of portraying a character that was the very definition of a powerful woman. In my opinion, one of the greatest examples in the history of entertainment. [2007]
- As an actor, you constantly play these other characters. You're always pretending to be somebody else, but at the same time you have to keep a handle on who you are. I think that's where a lot of actresses get lost sometimes, because that's tough. I can only imagine it has to be the same as a pop star because you're not even playing a character. You're a persona.
- [After having her baby girl Charlotte] I'm not going back to work anytime soon. I'll only have my first child once and see these milestones once. I can't imagine not being there. We're (she and husband Freddie Prinze Jr.) just taking it one day at a time. I'm such a cliché right now, but she is the greatest gift that anyone has ever given me, and I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to do right by her. What still overwhelms me is the reality that we created this life together, and now we are responsible for her. She is here; she is ours. I'd say that makes us pretty lucky, indeed. [November 2009]
- [on the suggestion of a 'Buffy' film, 2004] 'My concern with a film is, how can we do it justice? We went out on top, and I like staying there. That doesn't mean I won't change my mind. I'm a woman. It's my prerogative to change my mind as often as I like!'
- [on working with Seth Green] 'If I had my way, I'd work with Seth on every project. I think the world of him...he's an amazingly gifted comedian and he's also a very giving comedian.'
- [on a possible Buffy reboot movie] It was a movie! It's been made. It stars Kristy Swanson, they made it! They don't need to make another one. I think it's a horrible idea to try to do a Buffy without Joss Whedon, I mean that's like honestly...to be incredibly non-eloquent, that's the dumbest idea I ever heard.
- [on the importance of reading] I love books. I'm constantly afraid we're moving into this digital era where books are going to go away, and to me books are the basis to everything in life. Reading is how we function. It's not just creative imagination and creative play, it's how we function as human beings, as human adults, and if you can instill that at a young age then that's a skill they'll have for life.
- [looking back on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)] I think it's gotten me to this point now where I don't have this burning desire to accomplish anything. That was so fulfilling for me in every way that everything I do now is the cherry on top. I don't feel the pressure to do this or have to do this or go here or do that because I feel like I've already won.
- [on enjoying working, but not letting it take over her life] I was 18 years old when I started "Buffy," and work was my everything. Back then, no actor had worse hours than I did. Now I don't work on weekends anymore. Everybody knows you can't sway me on that point, so nobody even tries. Plus, my perspective on work has changed: Work doesn't define who I am. I love what I do, but I don't feel a burning pressure anymore. And because I'm working for fun, I get to enjoy it. I'd watch Ringer (2011) if I wasn't on it! Of course, it's not as much fun when you know what's going to happen. It takes some of the excitement away.
- [on how having a child has changed her perspective on work] I would never fault anyone's decisions and choices, but being a parent was so important to me. I just couldn't be the parent who goes from country to country and leaves their child, or schleps their child with them.
- [on finding it difficult to understand people who view returning to TV after strictly working in film is a step down career-wise] I don't feel like I didn't succeed - The Grudge (2004) is still the second-highest female opening ever. And Ringer (2011) doesn't feel like a retrograde step, not to me. That is the weird perception, but I think it's slowly changing.
- [on whether or not she is fed up with looking back and talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)] Fed up with it? No! No, no, no! I'm so proud of it, and I actually like talking about it more now than I did then. Because I was 19, 20. Sometimes I think, to get true perspective, you have to step away, to realize the impact that something had.
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