When videotape came so a lot of movies that I do have a kind of afterlife in video. Things where movies that I do would come and go they still come and go but you can go rent them and see them on TV.

I've made three musical movies which is pretty good considering that not many are made but I was lucky in other ways. I came along when independent movies were starting to boom.

My favorite characters are the ones that are the most successful movies.

I've made movies that we're very successful that we're a complete surprise and I've made movies that I thought we're going to be very successful that you know.

I feel I want to grow as an actress and be better. I want to progress as a singer and songwriter and produce movies and everything. So there'll be no time when I feel I've done it all.

I just knew that was what I wanted to do. I was going to perform as a singer I was going to perform as a dancer and I was you know going to do movies and be an actress. I was going to do it or die trying. That's what my life was.

We can now have action movies with two stars where one might be African American and one might be Asian American. One of them doesn't have to be white and the other one doesn't have to be the ethnic sidekick. We're way over that. And I think it's happening in society too.

The movies I watch and the music I listen to and the books I read - those are important to me. It's very important to me and I don't know what I would do without those things.

I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can't really move from it: it's on buses in stores it's everywhere. One of my kids has read the books the other two are too small but they like the movies.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.