While growing up, I always wanted to see myself on the big screen - more so because there were no laptops then, and viewing on mobile was a far-fetched dream.

I would never want to be treated as a prop, to be looked on as an object just because of my gender.

I always knew from books and shows that the lives of circus artists are not easy, but spending time and learning from them made me realise the amount of effort they put in and how they constantly jostle between life and death.

As an actor, your whole body needs to be expressive, and unless you know the language, your expressions will not match the character you are playing. So, I am learning Tamil to the fullest.

Parenting is love, sure, but it's as much about receiving love as it is giving it. Parenthood is a kind of vanity.

Their educations ended with high school - my father going to work as a clerk and then salesman in a company dealing in printing and stationary, and my mother working as a secretary and then bookkeeper in a firm of wool merchants.

It is pretty amazing. My parents, who came from Nicaragua to the U.S. - who would have thought that they would have American kids on the Olympic team? I think that's the epitome of the Olympic dream.

Be nice' is my family's basic rule but one that often goes unfollowed in Hollywood. There's always a moment when you can choose between being snarky and being kind. I opt for the latter - it's much less exhausting!