Quotes

On Lolita (1997): I don't think there needs to be a movie out where a child has sex with an adult.

On Lolita (1997): I think there's enough exploitation out there that it's not necessary to do more.

Young actors often don't think of the consequences of doing nudity or sex scenes. They want the role so badly that they agree to be exploited, and then end up embarassing family, friends, and even strangers.

On acting: I started to do this at age 11. At age 20, I might say, this is enough.

On violence in the media: We live in a violent world, but since the success of films like Pulp Fiction (1994), it seems every movie has some violence in it, and it's now being used as a form of comedy: audiences are now being encouraged to laugh when people get their heads blown off. I just don't like hearing people laugh at violence.

I also feel I'm a positive role model by not putting my education on hold.

I want to use college to explore what other careers I might be interested in.

On acting: I'm taking it day by day. Right now I like acting, but if something else sparks my interest in college, I'll do that. It's so limiting to say, this is it for the rest of my life. There are so many things that interest me: I love math, science, literature, languages.

On Lolita (1997): Let me tell you, this movie's going to be sleaze.

I'm going to college. I don't care if it ruined my career. I'd rather be smart than a movie star.

I don't know if acting is what I want to do for the rest of my life, it's just what I've, you know, ended up doing when I was little, and I've kinda grown up with it.

When I'm working, they pretty much treat me like an adult, but then when there's a break everyone else goes to their trailers and drinks beer and I like, go to school.

There's so much else to do in the world. To just be interested in doing films would limit my life.

I think school is so much harder than real life. People are so much more accepting when they are adults.

Danny Aiello told me "Don't do television.".

Cute is when a person's personality shines through their looks. Like in the way they walk, every time you see them, you just want to run up and hug them.

I've never tried smoking. I don't drink. I've never tried drugs. (Australian Dolly, August 2000)

Politics is easy to segue into from acting. I'm very interested in it, though I would never run for office. But after this, anything I do is going to seem very bizarre to me. (Interview, October 1999)

No, but I've been thinking about it a lot. I love acting, but I don't know if there's something out there that I love more. That's what college is going to be about for me - checking things out. (Interview, October 1999)

When asked by Seventeen magazine what advice she had for teenagers going off to college, she said "I would say practicing laundry it's so hard.". (November 1999)

There is a lot lacking on the intellectual side and on the values side when being an actor. (Seventeen, November 1999)

Told the November 1999 issue of Mademoiselle magazine that she wished she knew David Letterman because, "He seems to be so smart, but you never get to hang out with him after the show.".

When asked by German Cosmopolitan if she would like having herself as a daughter, she replied, "Well of course. I am a good person, nice, smart, witty, trustworthy, know nice people, don't do drugs and earn a lot of money." On what she likes about her parents: "They have made it quite clear that they believe I can be great. Had my parents expected less of me,I would not be the person I am now. And I am very happy with myself.". (German Cosmopolitan, March 2000)

I'm not planning to be an actress as an adult, I'm planning other things for my future. (Venice Magazine, July 1995)

I don't think I'd be able to deal with just acting, because I don't know if you get to use your brain that much. You do, for certain roles, but not most. Acting is more of a hobby for me.

There's a big intellectual aspect that's kind of lacking," she says of acting in films. "Right now I supplement that through being in school. I'm not sure I'd be happy if I was just acting. I haven't explored a lot of other avenues. Hopefully I'll figure it out by the end of school, so I know what I want to do with my life.

When asked about her prom dress: A designer is going to give me something to wear. It's the most amazing perk I have.

I didn't have this undying need to be an actress. I didn't have that fire in me ever -- at any point. And still, I don't think I have that within me.

I don't really know if acting would have ultimately become my passion as an adult, or if there's something else I would have found had I not been in the pizza shop. That's what college is helping me investigate.

I'm ready to ditch the movies and keep at the books. There are so many other things, and it would feel limiting to say, "Acting is it for me." I love psychology. That's what I'm studying right now. It would probably be difficult, because of my current occupation, to become a clinical psychologist, but I could certainly do research. And I'd like to have a family someday, too.

It's horrible to be a sex object at any age, but at least when you're an adult you can make the decision if you want to degrade yourself.

I don't go wagging my boobs around in people's faces. (Rolling Stone (USA), June 2002)

I couldn't be anorexic because I like food too much, and I couldn't be bulimic because I hate throwing up too much.

I've wanted to be an astronaut, a doctor, a vet - these are things I've said in interviews. Before that, I wanted to be a mermaid and a fairy.

I was in a relationship recently with someone who yelled at me for being too much in my head, you know? He said "I was thinking too much about everything.".

I usually run three or four times a week now. Pretty boring, but it's so worth it. It's done wonders for my mood.

I basically have a little boy's body. They tell me, "Okay, this is where we're going to push up your cleavage," and I'm like, "What cleavage?".

On traveling through Morocco with a guide and sleeping in tents: They knew that I am Israeli, and yet they still opened the doors of their houses for me, offering me tea. They all were nice and hospitable.

As I look back on it, I'm glad that I had this false image. I was who everyone else - my parents, my friends, society - wanted me to be. I was a pleaser, someone who wanted to make everyone happy, to not let anyone down. Now, I'm not like that.

My contemporaries in Israel have a love for life that's amazing. There, there is not the luxurious and rich existence of material goods of Hollywood films, every day they struggle to survive, but they still have an enthusiasm difficult to find elsewhere.

My grandfather was a Polish Jew and a socialist, and as a youngster he helped to organize special camps to teach agriculture to all the young men that were moving to Israel, where in 1930, they created the first kibbutz.

At college I began to do research for a professor and so I became part of the organization promoted by the Queen of Jordan: the Foundation for International Community Assistance. That offers microcredits, offering small loans of money to women who want to start their own businesses. The interest is very low and the results are extraordinary.

I'm pretty much a boring Goody Two-shoes. I've definitely gotten drunk before, I don't think it's possible to go through college without getting drunk, but I don't really like it at all. I actually tried my first cigarette last year at school. I just figured, if many people are smoking, there must be something to it, and before I pooh- pooh it I should at least know what it's about. I took one puff and I was like, Okay, I was right. There's nothing to it. They're just wrong, it's disgusting.

I've been doing like one movie a year so I haven't made that many movies. A lot of girls my age have done 40 already, so I guess I'm a little behind.

I get like 400 Holocaust scripts. That's what you get for being the openly Jewish actress!

I wanted to be able to form my own sexual identity. If other people have you in their mind as some sort of sex object, you have two choices: either live up to it and become super-sexual or rebel against it and be super-asexual.

I'm the anti-Method actor. As soon as we finish a scene, I need to go back to being myself, because it freaks me out. But it was hard not to take this home with me. I would feel cheated on when I went home. There were weekend nights I would lie in bed instead of going out with my friends.

I had a bad early experience when Léon: The Professional (1994) came out. I'm really proud of the film, but it was strange for me to be looked at as a sexual object when I was 12.

I think it is a really beautiful thing that we have recognition within our industry - but it's not that important.

But we have to remember that almost all films are written and directed by men. Female characters are women imagined by men, so it's always this classic figure of a sexy woman with a childish innocence.