Quote

I got started as an actor when I was 12.

I did some commercials and a couple of B movies, then a few pilots that didn't go anywhere. Eventually I did the pilot for Beverly Hills, 90210. The rest is history.

There was so long from when we did the pilot and then when the show was eventually picked up by Comedy Central - and, in fact, we had to shoot the pilot twice.

When I first did a U.S. pilot season, there were very few British actors schlepping around town trying to get into television. That was 1999.

I was not a child star. I was more like a young auditioner.

At 15 I auditioned for 42nd Street in Australia. Dein Perry was in that show. I actually got the job but I couldn't do it because I was only 15. Legally I needed to have another 15-year-old to cover consecutive nights.

Before 'Scandal,' I was actually cast in two other pilots. Both went to series, but I was fired and recast. For both, it was because they wanted me to sound more 'girlfriend,' more like 'hood,' more 'urban.'

By the time I was 10 or 11, I knew I wanted to make films.

I was very vocal about what I wanted to do at a very young age. I wanted to be inside of the television set. I didn't know being on TV was being an actor.