THE SUNDAY CONVERSATION - She's L.A. to the bone

Is your personal life all set up in L.A.?

It's hard to see friends. You can see people once in a while -- they can stop by set. I went to my friends' wedding in July; I was a bridesmaid! I knew her since she was 7 and he was 12. I see people who've moved from different places, and they don't have those long friendships. It's nice when you have that history of people, it's kind of a shorthand! They know who you are, and they can call you on things that people can't.

Rarer and rarer.

I'm surprised -- I have a lot of friends I've grown up with that I'm still friends with. But it's funny that I've met a lot of people and I say I'm from Los Angeles and there's two things. You say you're from L.A. and people say, "I'm sorry." I hate that! That usually happens outside L.A. And the thing people say in L.A., they say, "You're the second person I've met from here." Or the first person!

That's crazy.

This is a place people come to sometimes for the wrong reasons. And that's why people say, "I'm sorry." I think people come here seeking fame and fortune and stuff like that.

How dark are you? You're not a happy-go-lucky Valley Girl.

I'd say I'm more a positive person than a negative person. But I think that's also a choice.

Right.

I realize we can all get stuck in negative thoughts and negativity. I do it myself. But I try to fight against it. It's a struggle, but I'm not an unhappy person! I'm not an extremely dark person. It's important to embrace certain dark things. I guess, dark thoughts? In order to accept them and move on. I'm not freaked out by -- I'm doing this show about death all the time. And that doesn't freak me out.

As a smoker, I've been thinking about death quite a bit.

I think that people with smoking, and drinking, or drugs or overeating or any of that, they want that pleasure in the moment. Instead of the pleasure of living a longer life. You make that choice: I really want the pleasure of a cigarette right now. I don't think there's a smoker who doesn't think it can harm their health. But you make that choice -- until it becomes not as important to their health in the long run. I never got addicted to them, so it's easy for me to talk about it!