Saving the world via medical research or going off to Gobi Desert to dust off dinosaur eggs is what I thought I might be doing when I was a kid, and I'd love to bring those interests to a show like 'E.R.' or 'The West Wing,' or a movie like 'Jurassic Park.'

I get really tired of getting painted up all the time. Basically, I'm a bum.

When the AIDS epidemic broke, because I happened to be a science nerd and knew a lot about viruses and a lot about that virus at the time, I felt a moral obligation to go out and try to stem the fear and get out and explain to people what the disease was and how it worked.

I try hard to look hip but ladylike; current, but not like I'm trying to be 16.

I'm about as Baptist as you get in Hollywood.

I was a little fat pudgy kid with big thick glasses, and I was quiet and never said a word, you know - teachers loved me, straight-A student.