I only ever wanted to be a model. This acting thing - three years of drama school - is an accident!
I took one acting class as an undergrad, and I loved it. I was in a very avant-garde play at UCLA about a closeted, married homosexual. I played his father.
What drew me to acting in the first place was disguise.
Storytelling is my currency. It's my only worth. The only thing of value I have in this life is my ability to tell a story, whether in print, orating, writing it down or having people acting it out.
In most professions, if you stay at the office an extra four hours every day, you're gonna impress the boss. You're gonna get that promotion; you're gonna get that raise. You're gonna at least have job security. But with acting, if you're really ambitious and you have a good work ethic and are really good at your job, it might not really matter.
I'd been in Hollywood for five years before I started writing 'The Guild.' I worked enough to pay all my bills. So I was very lucky in that respect. Most people don't make a living acting.
My favorite thing about acting is that I can play all kinds of different people. Frankly, I don't consider myself a very interesting person, so the characters I play are usually much more fun.
Acting allows me to explore new worlds, to discover characters by delving into their lives, and ultimately to become someone else entirely.
I have so many passions outside of my passion for acting.
For basically two years, I took acting classes and found my own stride in L.A.
Everything I've ever learned about acting - and I went to theater school - was about playing what the character wants and throwing yourself fully into going after what the character wants.
I play guitar and sing when I'm not busy with school and acting.
I was almost ready to call it quits - sick of doing a job and then being back on the unemployment line and trying to make ends meet. But I loved acting and didn't know what else to do.
I've always done method acting. I'm a method actor, and I've done that for years. I never did acting and decided to take it seriously because all the parts people want me to do were playing the pretty role. If I want to play someone pretty, I'll play myself.
When I'm acting, I'm in a different place, singing is the last thing on my mind, and when I'm on stage, there's no acting at all involved, not even presentation, it's just who I am.
Acting is an art form. If you are not creating something that's unusual and informative and at least has the possibility of being illuminating, then you are not into it as an art form.
It is inevitable that popularity will fade. That's why I must always be prepared. I don't want a meteoric rise in popularity. I want to be an actor who can quickly get back on my feet after a fall. If I want to have a long-term career in acting, I must be careful about the choices I make.
Whenever you see someone who's having a rough day, it's one thing to ask if they're okay, because most people would just walk by. That can be life-changing to that person who's going through whatever they're going through. I'm that kind of person, so that's been my training for acting: just caring about people.
All that celebrity stuff isn't me. It's just not acting.
As much as I love acting, I just want to be a healthy person.
Doing a musical is not just acting. It's total theater. When you have to justify the enormous projection of energy it takes to just go into song and dance, you realized why it's such a humbling experience every time you go into a show.
It's never me saying, 'When is my day over?' It's more, 'When do they legally have to get me off of the lot, based on when I have to be back the next day?' The first call is a big thing in the acting world and in the union world. There needs to be a 12 hour period, and I need it.
The first acting I ever did was an Italian commercial. Once I did that, I said, 'this acting thing is awesome.'
I started working on stage as a dancer when I was four; by 14 or 15, I knew I wanted to study the craft of acting.
A helpful thing for me has always been - this is from a great acting teacher Declan Donnellan - is this beautiful way of expressing how and why people do things that other people may not do. It's a simple sentence that says, 'I understand you; you don't understand me.'
If you want to play the good roles, spend more time in in college and in acting class than you do in the gym, and you'll have the career you want.
To be an actress and act crazy is really fun for me, to be able to be acting like you'd never be able to act in your real life and scream and freak out. It's an interesting test for an actor.
I started acting in second grade - my first role was in the Thanksgiving play. I was the Indian chasing the turkey. All the other mom's encouraged my mom to get me into acting after that. Also, when I saw 'The Sound of Music' at Music Circus, I knew I wanted to act.
Acting coaches in Hollywood were always telling me to use my hands and body more. But that was never me. I just breathe and sometimes it doesn't look as if I'm doing that.
I'm going to try to not let anyone put me in a box, and that certainly applies to the things I do outside of acting.
It was actually my older brother who wanted to start acting. He would point at the TV as a kid and tell my mom he wanted to do it, and he would act his favorite scenes from 'Home Alone.'
I don't think that when I'm acting I feel like I lose myself to it, but that sense of losing, that sense of discomfort, well, I guess maybe that comes a bit! It's about redefining what 'uncomfortable' means for you.
I did get to hang out with my dad for a little while. I went with him to summer stock. I watched him be a real king of the world. He'd ship out as a star in summer stock. He sometimes directed the shows. I learned a lot from him - not just about acting, but about everything, how to handle a woman.
I like acting; I like being lost in the creative process.
When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'
To me, getting to do music and videos, you work on a character. Being onstage is acting; you get to be larger than life and larger than yourself.
