Terry Gross

Actress Chloe Sevigny is known for her fashion sense, but she doesn't mind wearing a prairie dress for her Golden Globe-winning role as a wife in a polygamous family on HBO's Big Love. Sevigny explains how she prepared to play second wife Nicki Grant -- and remembers her other film roles.

Though they work as a tradition African-American string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops' members throw in some modern twists. The Durham, N.C.-based trio plays a wide variety of instruments, including the banjo, fiddle, jug, bones and harmonica. All of those sounds are featured on the band's newest record, Genuine Negro Jig.

William Hurt has been nominated for four Academy Awards, and won in 1986 for his role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Hurt prepares for his performances by burying himself deep inside the character — for his role as an ex-con in the film The Yellow Handkerchief, Hurt spent a night in a Louisiana prison.