“I did do ballet seriously and considered being professional and all of...” — Monica Barbaro Quote

I did do ballet seriously and considered being professional and all of that, and I went to Tisch and got a dance degree.

I did not play guitar. I could tinker around on the ukulele, and that was about it. It was a real overhaul of my life for a minute there to learn.

I remember a day when Tom Cruise was explaining a detail he had changed and why he changed it. Offhandedly, he said, 'Well I was watching 'Casablanca' last night,' and I realized how his practice of constantly studying great historical films informs all of his creative decisions.

Mill Valley, where I grew up, was a flower-power place. It's been yuppified now - more like Beverly Hills than Berkeley - it used to have a hippy vibe. Although my mom gets cross when we talk about 'hippies.' She'd say that was a conservative spin on people who had valid reasons for being anti-Vietnam War.

When I've done gymnastics, ballet or soccer - I was always trying to be the best. I'm really driven. Really driven.

Ballet has a very small audience, unfortunately.

Classical ballet is very extreme. You're doing it six days a week, and it's a kind of obsession of perfecting a move. So every muscle in your body has been stretched and tightened, stretched and tightened.

We moved from the suburbs to L.A. and I picked up break dancing when I was 10. I joined a dance crew in high school and I was battling. I also took ballet most of my life until high school.

In terms of withstanding incredible amounts of pain - both physical and emotional - I don't think there's any better training than ballet.