New York, NY – Mary Louise Parker, the smart, sexy star of Weeds, has known both rapturous reviews and highly publicized heartbreak. Now, she opens up to More about dating as a single mother, taking a stand against Botox and the allure of sex in hotel hallways. Excerpts from the interview, on newsstands May 26, follow:

More writer Meryl Gordon arrived at Parker’s Greenwich Village duplex to find a CPR class for adults, including her ex Billy Crudup. Gordon notices the atmosphere is amicable and questions Parker: “I’ve never commented on the situation, and I won’t because it’s not fair to my son.” Then, she softens and says, “Who wins? No child can benefit in that situation. Your love for your child should eclipse any other feelings you have for another person.”

About being “bitter” about a Weeds nude scene: She’d been fine with the series’ wildly erotic sex scenes, she says, but the shot in the bathtub in which the camera lingered on her breasts seemed intended to titillate. “I didn’t think I needed to be naked, and I fought with the director about it, and now I’m bitter…I knew it was going to be on the Internet: ‘Mary Louise shows off her big nipples.’ I wish I hadn’t done that. I was goaded into it.”

In response, the show’s coexecutive producer Roberto Benabib defend the moment, saying that the nudity was necessary to convey the character’s vulnerability: “We felt at that point in her life, her defenses had been so thoroughly stripped away, there was a nonchalance to the nudity that informed the scene…I thought it was wonderful, one of the five best scenes Mary-Louise has ever done [on Weeds].”

Still, Parker enjoys playing her complex and devious character: “I like it the more extreme it is. Jenjii [Kohan, the series’ creator] has been amazing in surprising me.” But, she adds, “I don’t like it when it’s crass and crude for humor’s sake. And I don’t like it when it’s sentimental, when she’s a sweet mother. To me, she’s not that.”

About losing out on the movie roles of her stage performances: “I feel like I do all the work in these plays, and then…” Parker pauses to collect her thoughts and adds, “Well, if I had to pick, I’d pick the play. When theater is right, it’s transporting; a thousand people are in the room and you’re making it happen and they’re helping you make it happen. That’s a bigger experience than having 50 people standing around a camera and you’re acting for a minute and a half and they’re going to edit it.”

About getting panned by the New York Times (and other critics) for her starring role in Hedda Gabler: It felt like “a physical assault. It was really hard – that has never happened to me in a play before. I know when something’s bad; I’ve been in things that are bad. It’s certainly not that bad if you have people standing up at the end and cheering.” Then, grinning mischievously, she notes that ticket sales were solid even after the bad reviews and makes a middle-finger gesture at the Times. “You think you can kill me? I don’t think so.”

Her anti-plastic surgery stance: “Somebody told me that they’d read that I had all this work done and showed me a picture, and it was totally airbrushed…It made me so mad. I don’t like what that says to other women. I’m 44, and I look OK for 44. I’m not trying to look 34.”

About being “crippled by awkwardness” as a kid: “I never had a date in high school, not one.” But, when she arrived at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts at 17 she became an overnight success. “Every boy wanted to date me. It’s because I was at school with a bunch of artists, a bunch of freaks. It was OK to be what I was. Knowing this made me come out of myself.”

About dating as a single parent: “Some men are daunted by it, some are really attracted. I had someone ask, ‘Des this mean we can’t go out anytime we want?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what it means. It means you come fourth, ‘cause it’s my kids, my job, my family.’ Then she pauses and defiantly declares, “I don’t ever want to come first to anyone. It’s too much pressure.”

About whether or not there was truth to her Esquire essay that talked about sex in hotel hallways and by the ice machine: “It was not all speculative. It was not conjured…I just like danger in general. I don’t like to hang out of an airplane, I don’t want to get on a motorcycle. But I like to reveal myself, and I like things that are psychologically dangerous. That’s why I like acting.”

Thanks to Ruwani for sending me the information.