 I didn't choose the fact that I was gay, but I did choose whether to live my life as a gay woman-that was the terrifying thing for me. Especially being a gay actress. |
| You live with the fear people might find out. Then you actually have the courage to tell people and they go, I don't think you are gay. It's enough to drive you crazy. |
| I stumbled into acting and just loved it. I deferred law school-and I'm still deferred. |
| We must be able to inspire. That's my goal in acting. |
| I ran into Ellen at a photo shoot. She took my breath away. That had never happened to me in my life. |
| I saw Ellen and my knees were weak. It was amazing. And it was very hard for me to get her out of my mind after that. Then when I saw her that night, we started talking, and that's that. |
| I want to exude strength and intelligence. |
| Everyone is their own kind of lesbian. To think there's a certain way to dress or present yourself in the world is just one more stereotype we have to fit into. |
| My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. I had to be with her, and I just figured I'd deal with the other stuff later. |
| When I watched Ellen come out in '97, my jaw was on the floor. I thought, There are some people who break the doors down, hold them open, and some people who walk right through. |
| I'm living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay. |
| I was very sexual from a very young age. |
| My sexuality is a part of me that I really like. But it's not the totality of me. |
| I justified it in so many ways. I had a very, very long and difficult struggle with my sexuality. |
| When you have the paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside your home, the only thing you can control is how you respond publicly. |
| If you've looked at all the glamour magazines lately, all the covers are actresses. If they are on those covers, they are going to try to emulate models. That's just the way it is. |
| I try to be feminine, yet intellectual and smart at the same time. You don't see enough of that. |
| I don't even like watching sex scenes in movies. I have a slight prudish side to me. |
| The most important thing for me was to never, ever, ever deny it. But I didn't really have the courage to talk about it. I was thinking, The people who need to know I'm gay know. |
| When I was 15, I changed my name legally. I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn't fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name. |
