Why I love acting.

For me, acting was almost accidental. I wasn’t raised to be an actor—I didn’t watch TV until I was 11, and my family’s idea of culture was Beethoven and Willie Nelson. Then I did a play in high school. I didn’t even like the part—I was cast as the good girl when I desperately wanted to be the bad one! But still, something got under my skin. The experience, and the attention it brought, stuck with me.

In college, I knew I wanted to move to New York and act, even though it wasn’t what my family expected. It was terrifying to choose this uncertain life instead of the more traditional path of stability and status. But now, years later, I wouldn’t trade it.

Acting has given me a lens through which I see the world. It allows me to look at humanity more deeply, and to share that perspective with others. That, at the heart of it, is why I love acting.