Actress Heather Graham recently spoke on the “Inside of You” podcast, where she reminisced about some of her most famous roles. She then touched upon the opportunity to be in “Boogie Nights.” The role, however, with its sexual content, went very much against the standards her religious family had at the time. “I grew up in a religious family, and they were like, ‘Don’t do anything with any sexual content,’” she recalled. However, as a young woman in her 20s in Hollywood, that left her out of a lot of roles. “I had turned down a few things where there was sexual content, and then I saw other people having really good careers. I just said, ‘Screw it. I wanna do this. The script [for ‘Boogie Nights’] is amazing,” she said. Her role as a porn star in the movie required her to go nude for the movie.

Despite going against her family’s religious values, Graham said she was thankful for the role. “That was a just huge, great turning point in my career. I feel grateful to have been in it,” she said. Still, she did have some concerns about appearing nude for the first time. “You know, as a woman, I have to say, even if you go, ‘OK, well maybe I know sometimes men find me attractive,’ you’re like, you look at all the flaws,” she said. She focused on what her character would be feeling, rather than her own insecurities. “But then there’s an aspect too when you’re an actress where you want to get into the character, so you just try to like get out of your own head and just be like, ‘What is the character thinking?’ I’m just gonna be this character.”

Graham has been estranged from her family since she was 25. She was raised Catholic but doesn’t identify with those roots anymore. She hasn’t written religion off completely, but adopts a much more pluralistic approach. “I wouldn’t consider myself to be very religious, but I do think I’m spiritual,” she told Yahoo Entertainment last year while appearing in the Christian film On a Wing and a Prayer. She stated that despite being focused on the Christian faith, the film could appeal to other faiths as well. “I don’t think it’s trying to exclude anyone from any religion. It’s about having that faith and that connection to a higher power. There’s moments in life where you really need to pray whether it’s to a Christian god or Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist — whatever. Everyone’s looking for a spiritual connection in those moments.”