Shirley Knight is the consummate actress. Her career has spanned three decades and her work on stage, screen and television has garnered her countless awards and nominations. She recently won two Emmy awards for her work in the HBO movie "Indictment: The McMartin Trial" and "N.Y.P.D. Blue." Underground filmmaker Todd Hughes caught up with the busy actress at her lovely home in West Hollywood for a discussion on her unique career.

Todd Hughes: How did you get started in this business?

Shirley Knight: I had a small course at the Pasadena Playhouse and then joined an acting class with Jeff Corey. Dean Stockwell, Robert Blake, Jack Nicholson, and Sally Kellerman were in the class and we decided to put ont he play "Look Back in Anger." I got an agent from that and I assume I went up for the part of my first film "Five Gates to Hell." The very first film I did that I recognize as a wonderful part was "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs."

TH: Why did you leave Hollywood in the 60's?

SK: I instinctively knew that if I only did films I'd probably become a movie star and earn a lot of money but I wouldn't be a great artist. My goal was not to be famous or rich but to be good at what I did. And that required going to New York and studying and working in the theater. Film actors reach a certain level but they don't get beyond it unless they work in the theater. It's no accident that Tony Hopkin's is a wonderful film actor. There's a great difference between being popular and being an artist.

TH: You were part of the "Studio Kids" portrait in Vanity Fair's 1995 Hollywood issue.

SK: That was great fun. I was surprised when they called. They said this is Vanity Fair, and I said, "Oh, I already take the magazine." They said Annie Leibovitz wants to take your picture and I thought, "How nice!" We did it at MGM, where I had done "Sweet Bird of Youth" with Paul Newman. I'm 59 years old. I was the youngest person in that picture and that was fascinating for me to be in a photograph with people like Milton Berle, Ginger Rogers, Gene Autry and all these people that I saw in the cinema when I was a young person. So I went around with my camera and was taking pictures all day. I took individual photographs of everybody including Annie Liebovitz, I kept taking her picture too.

TH: What do you think of today's young actors/

SK: Johny Depp is extraordinarily talented. Lili Taylor is a very gifted actress. If Jennifer Jason Leigh does some work in the theater she is going to be really, really be good. She's very talented.

TH: I find it inspiring that an actress with your history agrees to do short films...for instance, you were in short film, "Death in Venice, CA" (written and directed by SL 2000 editor, P. David Ebersole). How did that come about exactly?

SK: It was pretty single actually. I was directing my own short film at the American Film Institute, "Far From Home," as part of The Directing Workshop for Women. David was a fellow at the AFL, he had admitted my work, especially in the film "The Rain People," and asked me if I would act in his film. I read the script and said yes!

TH: How was our Mr. Ebersole to work with?

SK: Wonderful. Just wonderful. The thing that separates a so-so director and a great director is a love and caring for film. David exhibited the qualities of a great director. So many directors are solely focused on their own success in Hollywood and multimillion dollar budgets and deals; where David was only concerned with making an excellent film. There was no budget and David worked with the constraints and limitations, successfully overcoming them. And now, as a true director should be, his primary concern is making another movie.

TH: And finishing the next issue of Silver Lake 2000! Besides your work in "Death in Venice, CA" and your recent Emmy winning performances, you've also been in several feature films including the Sharon Stone remake of "Diabolque" and you've been appearing on the L.A. stage. Is your high-visibility part of a come-back?

SK: My career has been odd in the sense that I did a lot of films early in my career and then for years I only worked in the theater in New York. I did the occasional odd film like "Endless Love." About four years ago I moved to L.A. and decided to do films and television again; mainly because the theater in New York is totally dead. There's a period when you're a woman in your 40's, it's not the best time to do films, because there really aren't that many roles. Then suddenly you reach 50 and there are more roles again. Mother parts.

TH: What's in the future?

SK: I'm going to New York to discuss doing more plays, I've done a TV sitcom pilot, I'm developing a film called "The Cleaning Lady," I'll be acting in David Ebersole's feature "Flowers for Albuquerque," and I'm writing a book and working on my one woman show, "Learning To Be Human."