That theme repeated itself in the comments of actress Claire Danes as she accepted the festival's Nova Award on Thursday night, The Maui News reported.

"I do like challenging myself with new environments and roles, " said Danes, 28, sitting in the new DUO restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort Maui prior to the award tribute.

"If something scares me, I dare myself to do it. I want to be adventurous and that tends to take me into new territory.

Last Sunday, the Golden Globe-winning New York resident had appeared on the nationally televised Tony Awards for Broadway shows. Now here she was on Maui, accompanied by her co-star in the upcoming "Evening," Hugh Dancy.

"I'm decompressing as quickly as possible," joked the actress, who still had water in her ear from being in the ocean earlier that morning.

"I'm definitely in transition but it's the kind of transition I want to make, from New York to Maui."

Danes was seen recently as "Shopgirl," co-starring with the novella's writer, Steve Martin, and Jason Schwartzman.

"They're both wonderfully gifted, a little different in their styles," she observed.

Her eclectic career ranges from "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio, through blockbusters like "The Mod Squad" and "Terminator 3" to the classic "Les Miserables," the art-housy "Stage Beauty," the edgy "Brokedown Palace," the critically lauded "The Hours" and the warm, fuzzy comedy of "The Family Stone."

There was a foray into Japanese anime in "Princess Mononoke," a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for coming of age on television in "My So-Called Life" and the proverbial many more interesting choices on her resume.

The Nova Award recognized, among other things, "her astonishingly original and seamless performances, and the way she consistently infuses each character that she embodies with insight, humanity and wisdom." She also does modern dance and has performed onstage in Manhattan's PS122 performance space.

"I started doing modern dance when I was 4," she said. "It was my entry into acting."

Comparing the two, she says dancing is "impossible to express in words, but it's very communicative and freeing and visceral.

"Acting and dancing are very compatible. One definitely influences the other. It's just a coincidence that I love both so deeply."

Whether she's the center of attention, as in "Shopgirl," or a member of an "embarrassingly spectacular" ensemble, including Vanessa Redgrave (Danes plays a younger version of her character), Meryl Streep, Glenn Close,Toni Colette and Natasha Richardson in the soon-to-released "Evening," Danes said the two essential collaborators on any project are the writer and director.

"They establish the coherence. If there is an environment that is defined, it's comfortable (for the cast members) to establish relationships."

At the other end of the spectrum was providing the voice for an animated character in "Princess Mononoke."

"It was such a beautiful movie and such an extraordinary filmmaker." The challenge came because "the drawings were set to another performance, a Japanese actor, and there's a different rhythm."

Danes began her acting career as a child. After turning down the first role that came her way in a soap opera, "My So-Called Life" came along.

"I was taken out of high school to find myself in a styrofoam version of it," she joked during the awards presentation later that evening.

But the role struck a deep chord with teen girls living out their own so-called lives in reality.

"It was just serendipity that I was cast in that. I'm obviously very grateful," she said.

Although her career is still budding, Danes has already passed many milestones.

"I think of my career in terms of a big divide," she said. "When I went to college (she spent two years at Yale) I stopped acting for about three years. I thought deeply about who I was, who I wanted to be as an adult. I was much more discriminating after that.

"I could still make a blockbuster, but I would do it more consciously than I did when I was a kid, which is natural because kids don't really know what their values are.

"But I grew up. So now I'm trying to apply it."