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New York is a great place to be as an unrepresented actor because there are so many 'open auditions' that you can show up for without being submitted by an agent.

I grew up in the middle of dairy country in Wisconsin, about as far from any major metropolitan area as you can get. I always assumed I was going to be an actor. I don't know why. I didn't have any reason to think that. In fact, when I finally did try it, when I was in college, I was really bad at it and didn't enjoy it.

I think knowing where you can generally fit is important, but the fun thing about being an actor is sometimes stretching beyond that stereotype and stretching beyond the box that people put you in.

If you're a young person who wants to become an actor, it's really important to walk into a casting room with a sense of yourself and some life experience. You can really delight a room and have them already choose you before you've even said a word!

I think it's the same to be an actress anywhere because the profession is about attitudes towards events - it is a process to try to understand life. I think this is the case for actors across the world.

It's just the acting side of things. It's not like music, where you can go out there and be independent. It's a bit more difficult to get out there on your own and be an actor. It takes time.

As an actor, you tend to live in a really small world, which is not very healthy. It is enriching to go to new places, meet different people know and learn about things which you didn't know about.

In Chicago, actors start up companies and get together and produce things, and there's a really rich, vibrant non-Equity theater scene out there.

I did a lot of community theatre and met a manager that worked out of Philadelphia, and she started sending me up to New York for auditions, and I got the part in a play at Manhattan Theatre Club when I was 15.