Rosario_Dawson

Hmmm.

I don't know, let me think.

It was really amazing. I was at the Golden Globes last year, I took my mom, we were backstage before the awards started for everyone who showed up on time and early (and it was amazing that I was there, cuz I'm always late for everything) - I was there on time, and John Goodman was there, and she said "Oh my gosh, it's John Goodman we have to say hello." and i don't know him personally, but I thought let's do this, let's introduce ourselves, and as I was walking up to him, he started gushing and saying "Rosario Dawson! I love you! You're super great!" and i remember my mom just beaming, and I was struck silent with this remarkable thing.

I didn't even know what to do, just hugging him, I love him, and we just giggly walked away afterwards.

And then LATER, the same day, which is super-awesome, that same night, I saw Bill Murray. And he was dancing, and mom and I were again fanning out, and staring at him, and he looked over and said "You can't just stand there, you have to dance" so I started dancing with him, and I said "You can't get better than this moment right now, but what would make it better is if it we were walking in slow-motion" because he had a fan encounter where he shot a film of them walking in slow-motion, instead of a picture or autograph, they were just walking in slow motion as if it were an opening trailer for a movie and filmed it together, so I had seen it and thought it was the coolest thing.

So when I started dancing with him, I said that, and he started dancing in slow motion, so then we started dancing in slow motion with each other to a super upbeat song for quite a few minutes actually.

So that was a good day and night. John Goodman knew who I was, and I slow-mo danced with Bill Murray.

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS was hilarious and awesome to make. I got my hair permed, which was a horrible idea, especially when it grew back with straight roots. But it was really really fun. I got to pretend to be a rockstar and wear ears and a tail every day, which was amazing. I remember when we were filming that, I remember feeling like Macy Gray compared to these other girls because of my big curly hair, I was so much taller and bigger than these other girls who were so tiny, they were like the size of my thigh, and just laughing hysterically with them because my character was always the odd one out. We got really really close, that was the time I remember it being all about the two-way pagers, and we would get these like matching things, it was very cute and sweet. DuJour is incredible. The people were sweet on it, I think that movie was TOTALLY ahead of its time, and I quote it all the time, and no one ever knows what I'm talking about!

DUJOUR MEANS FAMILY!

I think it's the most hysterical and awesome movie ever. And I'll always be fond of Target.

Mmm.

I felt very connected to Mimi, so I thought there was quite a lot of information about who she was - subtly and comments - but having grown up in an abandoned building in the lower East Side right at that moment when Jonathan was inspired to write RENT, that whole world felt very familiar to me - from having transgendered friends since I was six, to having friends with HIV and AIDS, to know i could share food and drink with them - I was just raised that way - and the lower East Side being a place where artists, and struggling artists, because that's where the misfits could survive and support each other, sometimes it was dark and scary, but it was also amazing. Sometimes there were scary riots, like the Tompkins Square riots, but Wigstock being there - my uncle and his band called Conk, really amazing underground New York music, Madonna was their gogo dancer and Basquiat was their best friend - I was a little girl there... it was Grace Jones, and women wearing suits, and this sort of empowerment, and Africa being really sexy and interesting, and having Keith Haring who was walking around with lesions on his face - it was an insane time, the crack epidemic, graffiti art, the dawn of hiphop, technology with music and Spanish and African music, it was just this whole eclectic noise, chaotic, insane beauty that i Loved so much. And RENT was so perfectly epitomizing that. Mimi's strength, her fiery spirit, her lost-ness... and so young, and everything just connected to me. I wasn't a trained singer or dancer, I felt really ridiculous going in and auditioning for the movie - Tracie at least went to Juillard - and I was so in love with this project that i almost didn't go because i was so nervous going in there, but I felt like I was Mimi, I knew her so much, and I wanted to be a part of it - I had been a part of it my whole life, and it was a validation for me, that these stories were special and these people I grew up with are special, and they deserved to have their stories told too. So I'm so grateful I got to bring Mimi to life, and it was really a powerful experience.

I love that people connected with it. And that New York is gone now, you know? My friends who were fire dancers or this and that - they are like "Where are all the freaks? The block parties?"

It sucked that when you called the police, they didn't come, but the neighbors did.

it was a different world, a different space, but specifically Jonathan Larson created a space to epitomize all the aspects - functional and dysfunctional of that world- and he would be someone I would like to have at my dinner party.

YES! 100%! I mentioned that earlier, and I"m excited to come back. Like with Gail in SIN CITY 2, I very rarely get to go back and revisit the character, and it's a fun thing to do, so I'm curious to see what Kevin imagines for them and where they are at in their life now, and what hijinx they'll get up to. It'll be hard to top a donkey show, but I think he's game for it. He'll knock it out of the park.

I read. I like puzzles. I travel. And I cook. I like to ride bikes and do crazy things, like zip lining or go to burning man and make huge art installations. I really like arts & crafts types of things, I knit and make ornaments and homemade hot sauce for 100 people, and I cook with my mom and do lasagna nights for fundraisers, we'll make lasagna for 200 people, and I'm a sous chef, I love chopping fruits and vegetables and I get anal retentive about how pretty they look... I write, I sing, I know that when I'm not in my best place, my key to knowing that is when I sing less or dance less. If I catch myself singing along, or dancing a little, I know i'm in a better place. If I'm going through a breakup, I'll notice that it will be a while before I hum or sing along to be happy. I like to write songs, I like to paint. I like to kind of do things. I like to veg out. Play video games, marathon TV shows i haven't seen. I'm especially fond of if you're in New York, just going in spontaneously to watch a film back to back, that's always fun. I love conversations and talking to random people, that's why if I have insomnia, I can go off on Twitter. I was on my flight from Miami to New York and I was next to an engineer, and we talked about civil engineering, I took a civil engineering course at Columbia when I was in high school, and he heard me talking about engineering, and he worked in Sierra Leone during the war, and we had an amazing conversation, and at the end we said goodbye and were just smiling, to have had such an existential conversation.

I love those New York moments. Just passing in the night. You don't have to exchange numbers at the end, but just be present. Be as present as possible.