You say you were a changed person after season one of Westworld.
“Dolores’ journey was about finding her true self and facing trauma and her past. That was a catalyst in me opening up about my experiences. [Wood is a rape survivor.] Playing her got me to face a lot. Life was imitating art. By the end of that show, I did feel like I was standing on firmer ground and that I had conquered certain fears. I was owning it in a different way. I was less afraid and less ashamed.”
It sometimes feels that as a woman, especially in this political climate, you’re never going to win by playing according to any set of rules, so you may as well do your own thing.
“I just felt the gloves come off and I was done. You need to be vocal and be yourself and keep fighting.”
What effect has speaking so publicly about some pretty personal stuff had on your more private relationships?
“I’ve been able to talk about it in a new way—from a place of strength rather than still kind of going through it. And there are still good days and bad days. That stuff never fully goes away. Even when the response is positive, it’s still overwhelming because people start opening up to you about their experiences and that’s really heavy. But it’s kind of like how I felt when I had my son, where it was like ‘All right, now you get to take your experiences and turn them into lessons and you get to kind of be there for him instead of just wallowing in your thing.’”
Has your son’s life changed with all of this new attention?
“Bless him. He’s a gypsy by proxy because his parents are. He’s only three now, but he’s starting to understand. He hears one of my songs and he knows that that’s me, and he has seen me on TV and he’s starting to put the pieces together. His parents are very different. My ex-husband [actor Jamie Bell] is lovely and very British and straightedge, and then he’s got this glam-rock weirdo for a mom.”
What do you think he thinks of it all?
“He said something to me that was so profound I wanted to put it on a T-shirt. I was just poking fun at him lovingly one day and I said, ‘You’re weird,’ and he said, ‘I’m not weird. I’m playing.’ And I was like, that’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard. I’m not weird, I’m just playing. That’s my motto for life from now on.”
If you could rearrange the world, start it all over, what would it look like?
“Honestly, I don’t even really want to change people that much. I want to make sure everyone’s got access to affordable health care and things that help people stay alive and sane and taken care of on a base level. And then, seriously, I don’t care what you believe. Just let everyone live the way that they choose to live and let’s not try to force our ideals on everybody else.”
There’s a fatigue that comes with being combative all the time.
“I also don’t want to be a hypocrite. If that’s what you believe, I so strongly disagree, but I’m not going to hate you for it. I’m not getting mad at you unless you’re harming somebody against their will or taking away rights or meddling in people’s lives.”
Read the full interview at Elle Canada.
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