Daniela Ruah

I majored in dance in college.

No one wants perfection. I want a confident, smart guy, obviously, but what's hot is a guy who doesn't have all the answers. We gals like a guy we can help because, ultimately, we like being needed.

I'm always competitive, but if I didn't win fair and square, I didn't win. And I want to win if I'm genuinely better than my competitor.

I do go online a lot.

I'd rather have a house that's nice but usable.

Nature is a beautiful thing - it does what it needs to do when it needs to do it.

Early on, my parents noticed an aptitude for being a show-off. I loved attention. I was always saying, 'Watch me do this, watch me do that,' which I now realize with my own kids is a phase that most kids go through.

I really thrive being onstage.

I was one of the lucky people who found what I loved at a really young age. When I was 16, I got my first job in a Portuguese soap opera, and I realized how much I really loved it.

I was born in Boston, and when I was two and a half, my parents moved to Minneapolis. And then from there, when I was five, we moved back to Portugal. But before that, a lot of family members had come to visit us, and we had been back to Portugal many times because my whole family lived there.

Having a gun in your hand is very empowering.

I try to be as full-time mommy as possible and also full-time working woman. That is the example I grew up with. Working mommy but also very present.

I think my mom put me in tap classes when I was three, which I never pursued. I don't know how to tap. Then we moved to Portugal when I was five, and, I think, she put me in ballet classes immediately. Then I was expelled for being too restless - I am too high energy - and was told I could go do rhythm gymnastics.

With River's birth, nothing went according to plan. My water broke three weeks early, and after 12 hours of labor and Pitocin, I was in incredible pain and still only one-centimeter dilated.

I would suggest it to any actor to get some movement classes because it really, really makes a difference.

You'd rather have a good headshot that cost you a little more but that's going to last than pay less money for a headshot that's not good enough.

No actor has a flawless career, but in the long term, I'd like my name to be synonymous with good quality.

As I understand from the real military personnel who I've had the opportunity to speak to over the last few years, humor is very much used to diffuse stress. I think that if they were to keep it as serious as the situations often are, there would be a lot more nervous breakdowns.

I love playing complex characters.

Acting with your mom? It's not something you get to do very often.

No actor in the world started off at the top.

There's a very fine line between martial arts and dance. Kicking with your foot stretched out, or kicking with your foot flat in someone's face, in terms of flexibility, it's all kind of the same thing.

There's this accent that I think everybody has when they grow up going to an international school. It's a mix of not quite English, not quite American. When I moved to L.A., it just went completely American.

The goal is to work as much as possible in projects I respect and that will help me grow.

I was born here in the States. I moved to Portugal when I was five. And then my parents put me in an English school.