Back then though, you had a few months of training, and then you were just thrown into it.
I think I always knew I was going to somehow be on a stage. I was quite an extrovert, as a child. And I did a lot of music, when I was younger, so I thought I was going to go into music, but I fell into acting, in a really weird way.
In my family, I would never dare to think of being Paris Hilton! And to me, that doesn't look like a happy existence - it's just not who I am.
For most of the movies that I've done, we've shot in a contemporary house, in contemporary clothes, speaking in a contemporary way. So, I really enjoy that. It really helps.
Of course, we're so lucky to be in a time where that's not our reality anymore. I just thought it was very interesting to go back to that time now, and to look at all of these issues that are still relevant today, but just in such a different way, and to see how we approach them and try to overcome them. Yeah, we've come a long way with medicine and women's health in the Western world, but in a lot of parts of the rest of the world, that's still a huge issue.
Thank god, I can't sing because that would be a lot of pressure. But yeah, it's nice doing something different and that's something I really feel like is my own passion. It's also connected. Everything is connected in the entertainment business, so I have the support of my parents because they've been through it all before and they can give me advice.
I couldn't imagine working in a hospital where there's just death, everywhere. But for a lot of women, it was their only option. They couldn't get other jobs.
I always wanted to go to Sundance.
I don't get handed money - and I never will. I have to work!
There were times when I wondered if I was doing the right thing, studying when I could have been going to auditions.
The origin of nursing started out with prostitutes, who would go care for people in jail. That was back when nobody wanted to go to the hospital because it was basically a place that you went to die. It started progressing with the visiting nurses in the South. The women started wearing these outfits to make it look like they were more sophisticated and so that they could be more respected. They started recruiting women from good education backgrounds because they wanted to make it a more respected profession.
Because I'm Irish, I've always done an accent. Not doing an accent is off-putting because I sound like me. I love doing an accent. Doing the accent from West Virginia was great, and we had to get specific with it.
I think it's really important that people can look at this show and be offended by it. Hopefully, then people will understand that this is still very much a problem we need to solve in other parts of the world. At least we have antibiotics.
Oh, it's the first big thing I've really done. My first job out of college was working with Steven Soderbergh. I was telling my acting teachers, "I did it, you guys!"
I don't have family members calling me and saying, "Is this rumor about you in the newspaper true?," because they know it's all bullshit. I already have that support system, and it's actually been really helpful. My parents have been in the entertainment business for so long that they really know what not to do.
My tutor was a film director on the side, and she introduced me to film. She then put me in one of her short films, and it came out of that. That's when I fell in love with the process of making a film. After that, I was about 15 and I was like, "This is what I've gotta do." So, I started taking acting lessons, and then I applied to college to do acting. I got an agent, and it all just happened.
Especially for people who are unknown, it's easier to get a TV show because you don't have to put a certain amount of people in movie theaters for a box office weekend. It's really difficult to get a great lead role in some big film, if nobody knows you.
It's funny because when I first met with Carmen, she said, "Have you ever thought about doing TV?" And I was like, "No, not really, but I'd audition for TV." And she said, "That's where the roles are for women now. That's where you can go and get a really great part."
That's the thing about acting - you can't fake it.
I get called 'Memphis Eve,' but my first name is Eve. I know Memphis is in there somewhere, but on my passport I'm 'Eve Sunny Day Hewson.
No one knows who I am and no-one cares. I could jump in front of a camera man and he'd just tell me to get out of the way.
