Katie Holmes has returned, and she is better than ever.

The Giver actress, who stepped away from Hollywood after giving birth to daughter Suri with Tom Cruise in 2006, is now busier than ever, with many films on the horizon. In a recent interview with Dujour magazine, the Dawson’s Creek star — who divorced Cruise, now 52, two years ago this month — reflected on her early performing days and how life is now with her daughter in New York City.

“Even early on, when I was a young actor and all of a sudden people knew who I was, my dad told me, ‘Don’t let that change how you live your life.’ I’ve always sort of approached it that way. You have to continue to do the things you want to do and not let outside forces dictate,” Holmes, 35, told the magazine.

“I think I’ve gotten more comfortable with acting over time,” the former Dawson’s Creek actor tells the magazine. “Early on, I could never get out of my head. I’d be thinking, ‘I have to get the job.’ And even when I had the job, I was afraid that I was going to get fired, or I just had the mentality of, ‘I need to be good enough.'”

She went on to say that as she’s gotten older, her mindset has changed.

“The more projects you do, the older you get, the more life experience you get, you start to understand storytelling better,” she remarked. “So you’re a little bit more confident going in. You’re not afraid of getting fired: You just want to contribute.”

Katie “brushed off” suggestions that she has failed in her acting career as a result of her high-profile marriage to and divorce from Tom Cruise.

“It’s the life of an actor. We don’t really have a lot of choice in the matter. You have dry spells, and then you have times when there is a lot of opportunity,” she shared in an interview with Dujour magazine

“It’s been an interesting journey. Even when I was young, I was like, ‘I hope I’m taking all of this in,'” she continued.

Katie also acknowledges that she took a hiatus from performing when her daughter Suri Cruise was born in 2006.

“I totally admire women who go back to work six weeks after giving birth,” she reveals, “but when she was little, I was not ready. I was a very nervous mother—like, sleeping next to her crib—and I was in that mode for a long time.”

Katie confessed that being famous may be difficult at times. But she tries her hardest to have a happy attitude at all times.

“I just try to live in a way that makes me happy,” Katie explained. “There’s definitely an awareness of the fact that people have camera phones, and that your privacy is sometimes invaded, but that’s something that I think everyone has had to adjust to.”

Next up for Holmes is a part in “Woman in Gold” in which she will play Ryan Reynolds’ wife.

She stated she leaped at the chance since it revolved around “a happy married couple” which she described as “rare to see.”