I have my three brothers, and then I have my adopted sister from El Salvador, who is actually the oldest. My brother and I were already born, and then my parents adopted my sister from El Salvador during the war and had two more kids.
I ended up doing four or five plays in college and being an English major with my thesis in language acquisition, which I was planning to study in graduate school.
Parents always stay older than you, but sibling sort of become adults together, and that complicates that relationship, I think.
My husband and I are huge bibliophiles. He's always reading 'The New York Times Book Review' and then ordering 20 books online.
I think there's a danger in how we can get addicted to the things that reaffirm to us who we are. For example, Facebook; people who make these Facebook posts about what's happening to them, just so people will chime in and give them positive reinforcement.
I'm a middle child, and I'm pretty diplomatic: the peace-maker.
I really have the good fortune that the actors who work with me on 'The Leftovers' are thoughtful, hard working, open people and generous people.
There's this thing in TV that I find hysterical where the writers and creators will ask us if you want to know what happens to your character or if you want to experience it episode by episode. In the theatre, we always know the ending; we always know where the character is going.
I've been seeing a lot of theatre in New York, and I am sort of terribly jealous of everyone on stage but also really appreciating it in a way that you can't when you're in the middle of it.
The women I know are smart, interesting people who aren't just there to service the men's stories, so I don't know why our art continues to do that.
Being a literature major, you know, I'm very familiar with the ways symbolism is used in our sort of mythic tales of society, so anyone who is consciously trying to pull that off I think is really interesting and clearly very smart.
I've never felt terribly attached to acting because I always feel like the world is really big and really interesting, and there are a lot of places that I can put my energy and be fulfilled.
I think if people stick with 'The Leftovers,' it's a very rewarding viewing experience. I wanted to be part of that - and what a great cast we got. I wanted to be one of those actors, in that show!
I don't believe that art is just for entertainment. I want to create art that is meaningful in some way.
Inevitably, when directors work with me on a set, they say, 'This isn't what I was expecting. I thought you were going to be very serious.' But I like to stay loose and have a good time and not take myself too seriously. I think, otherwise, you get in your own way.
We haven't evolved a hero story that's female. We're always trying to fit women's stories into this male structure, which is this rising action, this powerful conflict, and this falling action. And I think a female hero story is not that. It's something else.
I think there is no better training than being onstage because here's the thing: the theater requires you to act with your whole body. I think acting with your whole body gives you a root, and you can build from there.
Everyone thinks I'm on 'Mindhunter!'
I rely on poetry or literature to keep me centered before I go onstage because it reminds me to be present.
Part of being an actor is the rhythm of the life of being an actor, and that involves coming together with a group of people, making something together that is intense and requires a lot of intimacy, and then walking away from it with the possibility that you will never see any of those people again.
