I think I'm a character actress at heart, and I think my work is character work for the most part. I'm not the lead of any films - which is not to say that I wouldn't ever want to be; it is just to say that hasn't been my path.
I see a ton of theatre whenever I'm not working to stay inspired. I love feeling like I'm a part of the theatre community and following the work of actors and writers I admire. I'm a big reader, too.
My advice to young people who want to act is just to do it as much as you can! Find friends who also want to do it and have readings of great plays in your apartment. You don't have to wait for someone else to tell you that you can do it. You can be getting better on your own all the time.
I'll shout out to James L. Brooks. 'Terms of Endearment' always makes me cry. Also, 'Stepmom' always makes me cry. I guess, you know, mothers dying. It's a safe bet that I'm going to cry.
Theater is so precious about each word - not that it's a bad thing, but you definitely never stray from the script.
When you're an insecure teenager, you build walls and defenses and masks, and those are incredibly satisfying to perform and chip away at. I mean, when I was an insecure teenager, you'd have had no idea what I was insecure about because I hid it so well. Only confident people are comfortable wearing their vulnerabilities on their sleeve.
When people take themselves really seriously, I find it silly and amusing.
People who come to 'The Country House' are like, 'You're on 'The Good Wife' now.' But I've been on since the second season! I feel that the interest in the children in that series is almost tangential.
I did 'Spanglish' and went back home, and the next thing I did was my high school play. My agents at the time were like, 'Uh. What?'
I needed the time to go to college and spend years with people who aren't in the business and become a person on my own in order to be the person that I am and the performer that I am. I wouldn't give that up to be in blockbusters or have more money.
Both my parents said they never got so many emails from friends and colleagues - with all the theater work that I've done - than when I was on 'The Good Wife.'
I'm much better at things if I believe in them, and a lot of those little teenage starlet roles, they have problems, too, and a lot of movies just ignore that.
I got so much out of 'The To-Do List.' This is a joke that I say about myself sometimes, in terms of my film career: I feel like I'm always playing the kid in serious adult movies. So, for me, it was so wonderful to suddenly be working with other people my age who were doing this on film.
We see these cute, perfect bombshells that make me feel like I'm not good enough, I'm not pretty enough. I don't think I could pull off playing a person like that, and do I want to? I don't know.
Acting is a lot of waiting to be picked, and I like to do a lot of things at once. I think I will have to find things that are totally mine. I have so much comfort that school and my academic life are totally mine. I hope that there's not a lot of idleness in my future.
I was born in North Carolina but moved to a suburb just outside of Philadelphia when I was 5, so mostly grew up there. I decided I wanted to become an actor when I was 8 years old. I literally heard a friend on the playground bragging about how he was taking acting classes and thought, 'Oh! That's what I'm supposed to be doing!'
Developmental readings are actually the best part of being an actor for me. I once spent a month doing so many developmental readings at the Roundabout that we all joked that I was an 'artist in residence' there. But to me, it's such a special time to be involved with a new play.
I was obsessed with 'Jesus Christ Superstar,' and I used to reenact it in my room when no one was home.
