I was dishwasher, then promoted to chef in a local kitchen in a restaurant in Seattle, and I was working on a building site as well, putting in insulation and painting houses, and then doing some classes at a community college nearby.

Anybody who believes and experiences their life and doesn't have shades of gray in it doesn't live where I live and is simply not in touch with the reality of the human condition.

I've got nothing against big-budget values. I mean, I was very proud of 'The Avengers,' the part that I played in it, albeit a small one. It was thrilling to be part of it. But it's so huge that you can never really wrap your mind around it.

My grandfather was from outside of Moscow, and my grandmother, although some of her family were French, was from Odessa. They met as immigrants in New York in the early '20s. My mother's family came over from Ireland generations ago.

I have changed a lot as a person coming into showbiz and meeting a cross section of people from all walks of life; it was an amazing experience. But that's the privilege I had of being early into showbiz.

How can we condemn those who are truly blinded by evil? We can't. We shouldn't. How do we bring about conversion of those living in blindness? By love. By truth in charity. By offering forgiveness. By offering mercy. With prayer.

I guess I have a talent for humiliation, a place within me that experience can't reach, which is terrible in real life but something that comes in handy in writing. It seems as though humiliation has become a career for me.

I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living.