After university, I travelled through China for about two or three months in 1985. It was very much a closed-off country and no one spoke English, so it was very hard travelling through it.
I've always heard that you'll know, but I never understood it. With Peter, we even broke up after we dated for a year, for two or three months, but I still knew. I knew there was something different about this union. Even through the hard times, it was like "How are we going to get through this?
Usually, you can live very well for two, three months, then you're in trouble. Every coach, I think, is like this. For two months, you're happy because you have time, and after two months, you miss adrenaline.
I was a very young 21-year-old. I was very scared. I spent three years at university in west London, and I went into central London three times. I came from Shropshire, and just having travelled that far was enough ambition.
My first trip to China was in 1975 when my father was the 'bicycling ambassador' representing the U.S. in Beijing. This was a time towards the end of the Cultural Revolution where there were very few personal liberties, China was pretty much closed off to the West.
The negative about acting is that you have to spend a great deal of time away from your friends and loved ones, but it's not like working a 9-5 job and only having two or three weeks off a year. I may not have seen my girlfriend for two or three months, but then we can spend two or three months together solidly.
I have a funny relationship to language. When I came to California when I was three I spoke Urdu fluently and I didn't speak a word of English. Within a few months I lost all my Urdu and spoke only English and then I learned Urdu all over again when I was nine. Urdu is my first language but it's not as good as my English and it's sort of become my third language. English is my best language but was the second language I learned.
If you get through the primary and you work very hard for three months and you're not successful, you go back to being normal. The only thing that changes your life forever is if you win.
Six months after that, I left Taiwan, first for Hong Kong and then for mainland China, where I spent another three months studying still more Chinese and generally kicking around the country.
Travelling was a big part of my childhood and one that I value very much. In some respects, I can't help but be a bit of a gypsy as an adult. I get fidgety if I'm in one place for longer than three months.
There are times as an actor when you don't work for two months, sometimes three or sometimes six, and the only thing that's going to keep you sane is if you give back and live your life. I've definitely gone through that. It's like, 'Okay, I'm out of work for two months.' That's two months I can paint.
The good thing about being an actress is that it's very children-friendly. I can work for three months, and then I can have six months off.
The good thing about being an actress is that it's very children-friendly. I can work for three months and then I can have six months off. And then I can work for six months and have six months off.
Even though China was a very closed country, they thought of themselves as the center of the world. It is an ethnic characteristic. After I went to Japan, I had a totally different view. The Japanese are always talking about what the Western world is doing. There is the anxious feeling of an outsider.
Television is my home. It's a special breed of person that can do nine months on and three months off, with 22 episodes of one-hour shows. It's very hard work. It can be a grind. It's not a grind for me. I relish in that.
When I fought in The Ultimate Fighter Finale, I had microfracture surgery, and that's usually eight month's recovery turnaround. I had to fight three months after that, and I fought three months after that. And I had to train through that with that.
Even when I did Ryan Gosling's movie (Lost River), we had a very '80s kind of vibe and I would say for two or three months after that, I was dressing in a very sort of '80s way.