1.
I was playing Addison De Witt in a remake of All About Eve, opposite Brad Pitt. It wasn’t clear why he was starring in the film or even what character he was playing. He was also directing. It seemed as if the screenplay had been so extensively retooled that the character of Eve was no longer even a part of the story. It was a rom-com; Brad and I competed for the girl. We were rehearsing a long scene, to be shot in a single take, and I was having trouble remembering my lines. I hadn’t paid any attention to the script beforehand. I pointed to the script and said, “Can I say something different here? I’m playing Addison De Witt my way, not the way George Sanders played him.” Brad told me it was okay to improvise. One of the lines I made up involved a very precise description of what I had just eaten for breakfast.

2.
My mother and I were having a conversation about something or another, when out of the blue she said, “You know, I read what you wrote about Kubrick’s films. You didn’t fool me–I knew you were actually writing about yourself.” I was very coy at first and then I got really defensive. I said, “No way. I don’t have enough money to live like Kubrick’s movies! They’re expensive fantasies. I can’t live on that scale. My life is totally different.”