Katie Holmes: Tom Cruise Marriage Didn't Keep Me From Acting

Katie Holmes seems to be getting back to her roots as the girl next door. "The Giver" actress -- who retreated from Hollywood after welcoming daughter Suri with Tom Cruise in 2006 -- is now busier than ever with several films on her plate. In a recent interview with Dujour magazine, the "Dawson's Creek" alum -- who divorced Cruise, now 52, two years ago this month -- recalled her earlier acting days and what life is like today with her daughter in NYC.

"Even early on, when I was a young actor and all of a sudden people knew who I was, my dad told me, 'Don't let that change how you live your life.' I've always sort of approached it that way. You have to continue to do the things you want to do and not let outside forces dictate," Holmes, 35, told the mag.
PHOTOS: How Katie transformed during Tom's marriage
"I think I've gotten more comfortable with acting over time. Early on, I could never get out of my head. I'd be thinking, 'I have to get the job.' And even when I had the job, I was afraid that I was going to get fired, or I just had the mentality of, 'I need to be good enough,'" she added. "But the more projects you do, the older you get, the more life experience you get, you start to understand storytelling better. So you're a little bit more confident going in. You're not afraid of getting fired: You just want to contribute."
Holmes doesn't credit her headline-grabbing divorce, however, for reigniting her ambitions. "It's the life of an actor. We don't really have a lot of choice in the matter. You have dry spells, and then you have times when there is a lot of opportunity," the actress, who only completed a handful of projects during the couple's relationship, noted. In fact, she hopes to direct and produce more but admits she "could rehearse for years."

"It's been an interesting journey. Even when I was young, I was like, 'I hope I'm taking all of this in,'" she added.
Holmes' 8-year-old daughter Suri, who she lovingly calls "my little one," actually played a part in Holmes' decision to take a break from acting. "I totally admire women who go back to work six weeks after giving birth but when she was little, I was not ready," she explained to Dujour. "I was a very nervous mother -- like, sleeping next to her crib -- and I was in that mode for a long time."
Holmes and Suri currently reside in NYC together, trying to maintain a bit of normalcy in their lives. "I just try to live in a way that makes me happy," the actress said. "There's definitely an awareness of the fact that people have camera phones, and that your privacy is sometimes invaded, but that's something that I think everyone has had to adjust to."

One of her next projects sounds particularly intriguing: The famous divorcee will play Ryan Reynolds' content wife in the upcoming film "Woman in Gold." Why did she choose to take part? It depicts "a happy married couple," and "it's rare to see that," she said.