"Gene Kelly plays a silent film star who falls for cloche-wearing babe Debbie Reynolds during the industry’s awkward transition to talkies. Hollywood: The sunshine! The song-and-dance! The handsome, dynamic men! It only took me 25 years to discover it’s all true. There’s a funny-terrifying scene about the complexities of wiring Kelly’s bitchy leading lady for sound. Sometimes I think of it when I’m taping a tiny microphone inside my bra and running the wire out through my armpit."

"This is one I’ve watched a couple of different times in a couple of different forms. I’ve watched the film version and I’ve also seen the mini-series. I think when I first saw that it changed my idea of acting. I go back to it sometimes just to put myself back in that place where my discoveries about what was possible on a film and the level of immersion between people — this incredible dance that they do — really formed."