Elisabeth: I think every role I try to find something that I can relate to, even if it was the smallest thing. With Polly in Girl, Interrupted, what I identified with... was the feeling of maybe displacement and not feeling like you belong. With Zoey, what I find is that we have a similarity in that we're both getting used to coming into the public eye, and even though we might deal with it in a slightly different way, I think I'm more comfortable with it because I chose to be in the public eye. But it's still that same strange feeling.
Elisabeth: I think what I enjoy most about playing Zoey is the fact that she's a lot more comfortable and open than I am. That's one of the wonderful things about acting, is that you get to do things that otherwise you would never dream of doing.
Elisabeth: I hopefully I have a long career ahead of me. So, frankly, I'm not in any hurry.
Elisabeth: The opportunity to work with Rob Lowe, Martin Sheen and John Spencer, that was completely intriguing to me, because they're all... legends! And great actors and wonderful people.
Elisabeth: I've worked with a lot of great people, so I've gotten a lot of great advice. But I think the one I use the most, I picked up from James Lapine, who directed Earthly Possessions. He told me to take every sentence and figure out exactly what the thought was behind that sentence, and to have a specific thought for every line. And that was something that really opened a lot of doors for me.
Elisabeth: To go from Girl, Interrupted, where I had to cry every day, to a TV show like West Wing where I get to laugh and joke around every day, has been a welcome relief.
Elisabeth: When I first walked onto the set of Girl, she [Winona Ryder] came up and gave me a hug and said, "I'm so glad you're here." She made me feel very comfortable.
Elisabeth: It was entirely filmed in an abandoned mental hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was incredibly creepy. Even though it was a while since anyone's been there, you still felt, I don't know, ghosts.
Elisabeth: Not to be too caught up in that, but every time I saw this horribly disfigured person, it made me have an incredible appreciation for the silliest things like eyeshadow and my skin.
Elisabeth: To be honest, it really didn't take much. The story behind Polly is that when she was 11, she poured gasoline on herself and lit it to burn off what she thought was a rash. A couple of years later, her parents couldn't take it and they institutionalized her.
Elisabeth: There's nothing like getting yourself into character and seeing a different person. It really wears on your vanity.
Elisabeth: I think one of my biggest influences is Bette Davis. I've seen almost every one of her films, and she's been very inspiring to me.
Elizabeth began her ballet training when she was six.
Elisabeth decided to choose acting over ballet, which she also loves.
Elisabeth was nominated for a 2004 Independent Spirit Award of Best Female Lead in Virgin.
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