Then you received great reviews for [the 1989 indie smash] Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Was that a real turning point for you and your career? It changed my life. There are two things you need to do to be successful in Hollywood: Be seen in a movie that makes money; and be seen as a really good actress. Just doing one is not enough. But that's what happened with Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Suddenly everybody wanted to work with me. It was literally a paradigm shift — the old me disappeared and came back as someone else.

Did you like the romantic comedy portion of your career? I do think it was a genre that appealed to me and I felt comfortable in it. And I got some scripts that just blew my mind. I thought Four Weddings and a Funeral had this classic old-fashioned feeling of romance and wit.

It's hard to believe, but we're coming up on the 30th anniversary of Groundhog Day. Do you have fond memories of the production? I wouldn't change anything about it. And that's because of [director] Harold Ramis, who made my every day perfect. I knew that he really enjoyed watching my performance and was extremely supportive of me and what I brought to the table. I have nothing but beautiful things to say about it.

What's your personal interpretation of a person constantly reliving the same day? I realized the concept right away: You have to just keep making mistakes until you learn your lesson. I think all of us tend to keep going through a situation over and over and over. It's like choosing really bad relationships until you say "Oh, OK, I'm not going to do that anymore." It's a tough lesson when you must learn to be a better person.

How did you reconcile with aging in your business? Hollywood informs our social ideas and our culture. If you look at a lot of old films, you see an older man with a younger woman like Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant or Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. We've bought into the idea that men can age but women cannot. And we didn't have a choice. It's the sad truth. And like every other woman, I was affected by that. But I do think that concept is slowly changing. It's a very slow process. Men are still glorified as they age, and women are not.