Let’s Talk With a Few Ladies from W‘s ‘Best Performances of 2013’ List, OK?

Oh, W magazine … what a great list of ladies you’ve compiled this year. I only didn’t recognize two of them, and that’s pretty good (it was Rebel Wilson and a lady named Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who’s apparently in something called ‘Smashed’). Everyone’s pretty fabulous and the interviews are even better.

Example? Here’s Naomi Watts on her life off the red carpet:

“I never get recognized on the street. I’m lucky that way. People see me as the dolled-up movie-star type on the red carpet, but in real life, I don’t look anything like that. I blend easily into a crowd. My husband, Liev Schreiber, is really distinct, and quite often people push me aside to get to him. They’ll say, ‘Isn’t that the guy…?’ and list off all his credits. They will then ask, ‘Can you take a photo of us?’ They have no idea who I am.”

Marion Cotillard on her crush:

“I have a crush on Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas. He was my type of guy, especially when I was a kid. I was totally in love with him. I wanted to go anywhere with Harry Dean Stanton: Texas, Paris, whatever, wherever.”

Nicole Kidman on her first acting role:

“The first part I played was in the Nativity play at school. I auditioned for an angel and didn’t get it. I auditioned for Mary and didn’t get it. So I made up the character of the sheep who sat next to the baby Jesus. I wore a calico head thing that my mom made, and I bleated through the whole thing and got my first laugh. And that was it—I was hooked. That became a metaphor for my whole career: Every time I’ve thought, Oh, I should be Mary, I somehow go and find something offbeat and different.”

Jessica Chastain on action scenes:

“It’s easier to do an action scene than a love scene. I love fighting. When the camera’s not rolling, I’ll usually punch some of the actors, just for fun.”

Amy Adams on Leonardo DiCaprio:

“When I did Catch Me If You Can, in 2002, I had a really big crush on Leonardo DiCaprio. I had fixated on him in Growing Pains and in Titanic. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, if I ever work with Leo, it will be wonderful.’ And then, there I was, with pigtails—looking not at all like Gisele, whom he was dating at the time. I figured my chances were pretty slim, so I just focused on the work.”

Elle Fanning on Ryan Gosling:

“I love Ryan Gosling! I met him at the Governors Ball after the Oscars two years ago, and I freaked out. He stares into your soul. He’s really tall, and the boys in my grade are all shorter than I am. He was looking down at me, which was a first, in a weird way. He shook my hand and said, ‘It’s so nice to meet you.’ I didn’t kiss him goodbye. I didn’t have the confidence.”

Freida Pinto on her film “Trishna”:

“It was much more difficult to do a death scene than a sex scene for Trishna. The sex scenes were disturbing: Trishna is a submissive person, and she is having sex in a submissive way, which is so not me. But I have never died, and I did not want to die in a gimmicky or comical way. It is hard to fake stabbing yourself with great intensity. I was so uncomfortable, I started to laugh.”

Kristen Stewart on dancing being harder than nudity (snort):

“Everyone asks about the nude scenes in On the Road, but I also had to dance, and dancing is harder than being naked. My character, Marylou, is so exuberant, and I had five minutes to do something that showed she was sort of like the craziest motherfucker around. In the book, it says, ‘Dean takes Marylou and they do a love dance and no one can take their eyes off them.’ It’s one sentence. And I was mad-intimidated by it. We did the dance four times to the song ‘Salt Peanuts.’ By the end, I was as red as a fire truck. I was holding onto Garrett [Hedlund] because I was going to fall over. I almost passed out every single time.”

Check out photos of all the lovely ladies in the gallery.