I went to Juilliard, for God's sakes. I know a little something about combat.
When I graduated from high school, I had artistic and academic scholarships, and I was trying to figure out what to do. I decided to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Juilliard and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Australia.
Honestly, I am always shocked when I see myself in the mirror because I feel exactly the same as I did when I was 18 getting off the plane to go to Juilliard in New York.
I really wanted to do plays since I was a little girl. I wanted to go to Juilliard and to learn, but then I really fell in love with doing film and television along the way.
Eventually, I realized that I would not have a life until I buckled down. Once I did, I auditioned for Juilliard - and that changed everything.
For the first six or eight months at Juilliard I felt paralysed. I didn't know what I was doing.
I found L.A. much less responsive to the name Juilliard than New York was. In New York, that name actually means something. People will look up from their desks when you walk in. In L.A. it's, 'Oh yeah, that's a music school. What do you play?'
Naivete is the real reason I applied to Juilliard. I wanted to study drama and not musical theater because I have a hard time dancing. I only applied there.
I fell in love with it after going there on holiday when I was 16: we went on one of those red bus tours, and it goes past Juilliard, and I was like, 'I want to go there'.
I went to school at Juilliard, and most of our training there is the classics, and as much as I thrive in contemporary, weird, experimental work, I really am excited about finding a pioneer woman or something from a different era that I could really sink my teeth into.
