Cover Girl: Mandy Moore on Self Magazine

Beautiful pop singer and actress Mandy Moore hit the cover of the June issue of Self magazine and dished a little on her new album, and life without a boyfriend. Her new album, Wild Hope, is coming soon. For even more of Mandy, you can sign up for her e-mail newsletter.

SELF: Is singing more personal to you than acting?
Mandy Moore: I think singing is more personal because it's totally vulnerable and you're totally putting yourself out there. I also feel that it is more rewarding. I love what I do and when you love what you do, you don't even give yourself the option of saying, "Maybe this won't work and maybe I'll fail somehow."

SELF: What do you think people's perception of you is?
Moore: I think musically, people think of me as the underdog. I understand why they think that because when I first came out, it was at the same time as Britney, Christina and Jessica Simpson, and I was kind of like the third or fourth wheel, just sort of tacked on there because I was the youngest. I understand that. I hope that people out there will respect the fact that I've grown and am a different person now with different musical taste. I hope the people who didn't like my music then will give me a chance.

SELF: Are you a person who tends to hold emotions in?
Moore: Well, I used to, but I've gotten much better about that. I am a totally open book with people I love and trust. I talk about anything with them, but there is that certain side of me that will contain how I feel about stuff. I'll only put stuff out there so far, and then I'll wrap it up in this little box, put it over there, and then digest and deal with it after I've had time to figure out how I really feel.

SELF: And when you have all these movies [Moore has three movies being released in 2007], you don't really have a lot of free time.
Moore: Yeah, it's been a little crazy and I know that there are definitely some things that I'm going to have to hunker down with later and go, "OK, let me really think about how I feel about this."

SELF: What are those things?
Moore: You know, just personal things. Actually none of it is relationship-related, they are more personal things that are going on in my own world. I am really feeling like a woman for the first time. I have come into my own and have spent a lot of time reflecting and working on myself for the past couple of months and am continuing to do so. I just want to make sure that I'm still in control and very much a part of all the decisions that are being made in life. I guess I'm just really realizing the power that you actually have. So I really need to figure out how I feel about everything and about myself in the scheme of things.

SELF: Are you overly self critical?
Moore: I think I can be. I try to stay with the positive, but sometimes I feel like my self-criticism pushes me to do and be my best. I am my own harshest critic, but I've always been that way, even as a kid. I don't think it's completely out of control. I have come to terms with the idea that it's never going to be good enough, and that's OK. If I'm looking at a picture, listening back to a tape of a song or watching a film, it's just like, "Ugh, eew, I don't like the way I look, I don't like the way I sound." Nothing is really ever good enough for me, but I've come to terms with that. I'm not going to be happy 100 percent of the time.

SELF: Do you give yourself pep talks?
Moore: The only time I do is before I go onstage to perform. I just tell myself, "Mandy, this is what you love to do and this is what you're lucky enough to do with your life. Just go out there and have fun, because that's what it is." I think back to being a kid and doing local community theater. I loved it. When I go onstage now, I just keep trying to find and capture that feeling again. There's just nothing better.

SELF: You've said that this was a pivotal year. What was the fulcrum?
Moore: I had a lot of time to be alone and in my own head, which I don't have very often. I used to shy away from that. And now if I don't have time, especially in the morning, I start to get really anxious. I wake up early so that I have an hour and a half or two hours before I have to be somewhere and do something. I have really come to appreciate my me-time.

SELF: So for the first time you faced yourself and...?
Moore: It was scary! I was scared to be alone. But then it was like, let's jump into this life thing. I'm still sort of figuring out how I want everything to work. Every facet of who I am—as myself, as a friend, as a daughter, a girlfriend, a business associate, a recording artist—I have to take each one at a time and figure out how that definition of me has now changed and therefore how I want my relationship with the people involved in that part of my life to now be.

SELF: You have said in the past that you want to leave Hollywood by age 40. Is that true?
Moore: I don't know why I ever said that. It was really silly of me. To put a limit on anything sounds ridiculous to me at this point. I want to do it as long as I want to do it.

SELF: There's no goal, like "I have arrived, I will be complete, if...?"
Moore: No, because once you realize the finish line, then it's time to just pack it in and go home because there really shouldn't be a finish line.

SELF: Are you ready to date again?
Moore: I'm not looking. If someone finds me, I'm more than open to it. I would love to have some new people in my life. Not necessarily in a romantic sense, but I am currently accepting applications for friends!