I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I'd entered the competition instead - I'd probably have come nowhere and given up on the whole fiction game.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It would have shown people that I was prepared to do that kind of work, although I find myself in a position now where I don't really need to and I could pick and choose the kind of characters I'd like to do.
Deep inside, I was hoping I'd win: The competition was tough, but I learned from other's mistakes.
If you wanna compete, you've got to get into the original content game.
I think I would have been so much in awe of the movie set, the people and what everybody's job was, that I don't know if I would be able to concentrate on the character.
I'd got over playing a character. People accepted who I was, and if I was incompetent and useless, they felt quite endeared to me.
The whole competition thing disturbs me. Not that I wasn't a part of it when I first started.
I did not win and in fact I was called into the principal's office for a consultation with my parents. But that was the beginning of my literary career.
If in my twenties I'd gotten one of the two-dozen roles that I did screen tests for and almost got, I think I would have become bored with the awards circuit, the whole hype machine.
I'd auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and I didn't get a place and it was terrifying.
The story grew, got way bigger than the contest rules called for, and next thing I knew I had a book.