Lindsay Lohan is older, wiser and far more grounded than ever before.
But that doesn't mean she's any less confident than she's been in the past, and while sitting down with the Today show this morning, in between showing off her newfound (or maybe that's returning?) maturity and professionalism, she also managed to slip in a bit of an oh-really moment.
Namely, that in five years' time, she expects to see herself coming down from the high of Oscar weekend. Hey, if you can't dream big in Hollywood, where can you?
Noting that it's been six years since they last sat down together, Matt Lauer asked where she saw herself at the ripe old age of 30.
"Hopefully, I'll have just come from the Oscars this past weekend," she said. "I just want to kind of work to the point where I can just go on a vacation with my family and then have the premieres and be happy for that. I love that feeling, and being able to share what I love to do with people who go see the film, I want that."
And a little gold man probably wouldn't hurt, either.
She's already laying the groundwork for a professional comeback, and spoke about her upcoming role as Elizabeth Taylor.
"I'm really honored and I will not let anyone down, especially myself…People, you know, I could see where it could be scary for people to invest in me, and I don't want people to have that reason anymore. So having this opportunity with this film, I'm going to enjoy doing it and do it the best I can.
"I like being on set, I like making films. I like doing this kind of stuff and having positive things to talk about and I kind of lost sight of that."
Meanwhile, hard as this past year (plus) has been for Linds, she credits her hardships with putting her in her current better place.
"I've learned how to live my life in a way that I'm happy and I'm doing the things I want to do," she said. "It's this last whirlwind of experiences I've gone through, this past year and a half, I've taken a step back and said, I'm not doing what I love to do, and I need to find that balance again."
Starting with this weekend, presumably, and what will be a no doubt much-watched hosting stint on Saturday Night Live.
"That's crazy," she said of reports that this marks, at age 25, a comeback of sorts. "I'd rather it be now and not have to go through it later. I regret the choices that I've made, but I'm grateful for where I am today because of them. I don't need to see any more negative stuff. I don't need to put myself in those places anymore."
Unless, of course, they're done in the name of entertainment.
"I think if I'm going to do a sketch about x or y, I think this is the place to do it," Lohan said, when asked if she would be mocking her real-life problems on the show. "I think SNL is the place where you actually are OK to do it.
"I spoke with my attorney, I didn't want to be disrespectful to my judge or anything, because she's been really wonderful to me and helped me a lot, so I've asked if certain things would be inappropriate or off-limits, because I wanted to be in the clear. I'm so close.
"I want to poke fun at myself."
Meanwhile, Lindsay says the biggest transformation she's undergone in the past year is her comfort level with herself.
"It gets very lonely in this industry because you're constantly with people and then you're alone. I just allowed a lot of people to be around me at all times and I don't think they were necessarily there for the right reasons, and I wasn't concerned with that. I was being ignorant to the fact that maybe I shouldn't go out all the time, maybe I should rest, maybe I should grow up and take care of myself."
And that's without a partner.
"I don't want that, not right now. I want to focus on me and I want to focus on work. And that's another thing actually that in the past I didn't do—I was more involved in my relationship if I was in one than myself and it became very codependent in a bad way…I've learned to love myself.
"I really want to focus on my work right now, I really do. And that's the first time I think ever in my life that I've said that, so that's a big deal for me—it is—to not feel the need to have someone else around to keep me company. And I'm OK with that right now."