Have you been scrutinized more because you're one of those dreaded model-turned-actresses?

Yeah, totally. But it's worked both ways. It's helped me because people already knew who I was, but at the same time, looking a certain way has sometimes hurt me. There have been times when I was up for a role, and it was between me and someone else, and I didn't get it even though they said I was a better actor. I remember hearing that they didn't want to hire Cameron Diaz for Being John Malkovich because they thought she was too pretty. She had to fight for that role. But if anything, that's added more fuel to the fire for me and made me work even harder.

What's been your most rewarding role to date?

A film I did called The Pardon. It's not out yet. It's a period film, a true story, where I play the first woman who was ever executed in the state of Louisiana. She was 23. She had a really traumatizing, hard life. What was so beautiful is that even though they killed her, she had become a better person through the mistakes that she made. I felt like I got to explore a lot of areas of the human psyche. It was fascinating. There aren't a lot of great roles for females out there, which is just the truth. There are great male roles. It's so refreshing to be able to play a role where you see a woman walk through fire or go through great challenges to become who she was meant to be. A lot of times female roles are the girlfriend or the arm candy or the hot chick. Would you be willing to “ugly it up” for a role?

Yeah. The character I play in My Bloody Valentine grew up in a mining town, and she's kind of tragic, so I wanted her to only wear flannels and baggy jeans. Although at one point they were like, “Okay, you need to put on some tighter clothes.” Because I really did look like a little ragamuffin.

Now that you've made a few horror movies, are you less scared to watch them?

God, no. I don't watch them. I don't have the stomach for them. I had really bad nightmares while I was making My Bloody Valentine.