It took me six years to be comfortable modeling a swimsuit.
When I finally discovered the 'Sports Illustrated' swimsuit issue, I browsed through archives and saw a picture of an incredibly stunning model, Damaris Lewis. Her images inspired me, and I imagined being in the magazine myself. Never in a million years did I dream it would actually happen.
Sticking to my schedule, I've gotten over seven months ahead, which allowed me to write a 'Pearls Before Swine' movie script for the big screen.
People always ask me how I can hit the ball so far, and I say, 'I just swing.' It's the coaches who first told me I had good bat speed. I was just swinging, and I guess it was fast. I'm pretty fast at everything.
My mom never taught me to be waiting for some prince on a white horse to swipe me off my feet.
No one in Switzerland knows me as the Swiss Machine, and that's good, because I don't like it.
The bigs are there on the help-side if the guy goes by me, and I'm able to switch to other offensive players.
There are staples to my show. I have to be conscious about switching things up because I know people who saw me last year will say, 'He did that last time.' But if certain things work, they work.
When I'm on set, I'm on set, and I focus and get the work done. Then when I'm done, I kind of have this button that I switch. I'm constantly switching this button and putting on different masks, and that kind of keeps me organized.
I moved to Switzerland when I was 8, and during our breaks, we'd go to snowboard, and he'd take me to the mountains; we'd take a train. It was kind of crazy, you know. When I think about it, I wake up at 4, take a train to the mountains, sleep in the train and then go snowboard, and then come back. It was quite a mission.
During the Volvo China Open in April 2011, a lot of players fell ill. My son also was taken ill. I contracted a strange viral later, which had symptoms of swollen ankles and wrists and has left me weakened.
My mother persuaded me not to pluck my eyebrows when I was a teenager - right now I'm so grateful I never did! She also taught me to pour 2 kg. of salt in my bath whenever I feel swollen and tired - and to end it with a cold shower. It does wonders.
What made me this way was watching my father go through bad employment experiences. When I was 17, and he was 65, I saw him go through the experiences working for a boss that was rude and obnoxious. I swore if I was ever had the capacity to run a company that I would do it in a different way.
I swore to my parents that no one would ever be able to buy me.
I swore on screen when I got the Olivier for 'Legally Blonde,' I was so surprised. Awards where the public vote mean a lot. I'm a big Twitter fan and like talking to people who support me.
I swore to myself that I was never going to lose again, and that's what drives me still. More than money, more than titles, more than fame, it's the desire not to be defeated.
For a while, the world for me was like a set of monkey bars. I swung from one place to the next, sometimes backward, sometimes forward, capitalizing on my own momentum, knowing that at some point my arms... would give out, and I'd fall to the ground.
I was born in Cairns, Queensland. Then my parents and I moved to Sydney. We moved to New Wales. We moved around Australia. I was just really close to my parents, and actually, we moved around a lot when I was very young. I think it played a big part in making me the shy teenager that I was.
She had a hit for every syllable: 'Don't. You. Ever. Talk. To. Me. Like. That. Ever. Again.' That was the last time I ever talked back to Mom.
If any syllable that I utter might be interpreted in 13,000 different ways, then the best way for me to never be tarred and feathered is to never open my mouth. So the next time that someone calls on me for an opinion, you know what? I won't say a thing.
