My work is very bodily. It's not a shell, but a body.
It's sheer torture. I have to be up with the chickens every day and go to work on my body. I hate it, but I do it.
Whatever role I do, I've got to do the work. It all starts with the body. Get that ready and everything else follows.
Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other.
I was lucky I went to school in London because the tutors could see what to do. I knew I wanted to do something different. Why would I want to do what other people were already doing, because they would always do it better? I always wanted to work around the body. So throughout my college years, my work was quite free.
I work very physically as an actor. The biggest thing for me has been the challenge of how to be this person [Olivia Pope] with the personal transformation that's going on for me physically... That hasn't been easy. It's been an awesome challenge for me...because so much of how I access character is through my body.
Because I used to play a lot of sport, I've always been in decent enough shape. When I used to get asked to do a bit of body work before a photo shoot I'd lie and say, 'Yeah, I'm going to the gym.' I literally never did anything.
