Whether it's with her smile or her voice or, most indelibly, her expressive eyes, Edie Falco has a unique ability to draw audiences in. She did it, most famously, as Carmela Soprano, in HBO's "The Sopranos," and when that show ended, she kept it coming, first as the title character in Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," and then in a series of independent films, the latest being "Outside In," which premieres in New York and Los Angeles on March 30.

On "Salon Tallks," Falco spoke with Salon's Tom Roston about her character in "Outside In," a teacher in a troubled marriage who finds purpose by helping one of her students, played by Jay Duplass, get out of jail. Falco says she values how the film covers "the gray areas of existence." She discusses her animal rights activism, the similarities between Carmela Soprano and Ivanka Trump and what she says may be the best acting she's ever done: It was on the night of Donald Trump's election and she put on a good face for her middle school-aged son. "This is what you call democracy," she recalls saying. "He kind of bought that. And since then, I haven't stopped cursing," the Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner joked.