Be yourself. You're okay. And it really doesn't matter what other people think.
It takes a lot of bravery to be authentic and honest and to take that social mask off in order to connect with another human being. So much of what makes us who we are is smoothed away online. And what truly connects us is the wrinkles, not the smoothness.
Life is so much easier when I allow myself to be myself and go with the flow.
So often, we're expected to maintain some sort of standard - that won't get you where you need to go.
There is something so sad about going online and seeing almost everyone shouting ‘Notice me, notice me!’ Which is such a human desire—to be acknowledged. But me responding to that with some sort of ‘You’re noticed, you’re seen’ only perpetuates the loneliness. Because I’m not seeing you; I’m not noticing you. And whoever you are, you so deserve to be noticed and valued. I feel lucky to have not grown up with the Internet because it forced me to get out, struggle and be so messy.
As an actor, what I'm finding is that I really like the extremes. I think that's really fun to play with.
I don't feel bound by my face or my body. I don't feel like that's the biggest gift I have to offer the world. I feel like there are more parts of me to offer than that.
I dont like it when people dont hold the door. I dont know, that really bugs me... I guess I like manners.
I had an unorthodox high-school experience; I shifted around to different schools. When I got to college and met Larry Sacharow, who ran the theatre department [at Fordham University in NYC], he was the first person to say ‘I believe in you.’ At that point, I just needed someone to say ‘I see you, I get you, let’s go.’ It’s an amazing thing to borrow someone else’s confidence in you; it can change your life.
Well, a lot of things surprised me. There were things that I had never thought about, in my life. I never thought about how loud prison was. I've never thought about how your ears never really get a break from all this noise. That was actually replicated on our set pretty well.
If it's a good day, I get 'The New York Times' on my iPad, and if I have a little time in the morning, I like to look at that while I'm eating.
It felt really nice to not have anybody talking about numbers, and no one is talking about ratings. From my experience, it felt like there was one person running the ship and it felt like there was space for Jenji to be at the helm. That's not what I've experienced in television before. It felt more akin to an interesting movie, where there were producers who were really excited by the work and wanted to make space for the director's vision to be sort of shared with an audience. It felt more cohesive.
Honestly all the sweets and bad stuff on set don't really call to me because I'm working so much. I've trained myself to stay away from sugar.
I'd love to do theater. I've done so many plays in my life. I still think of that as my main thing.
For me as an actor, daring is to tell the truth - to be yourself, no matter how the world interacts with that.
I'm not very cool. I have a really hard time meeting people and stuff.
I had a hard time on TV, the last time on television, so I wasn't sure that I wanted to do that again. But, I really am a big fan of Jenji and I knew this is her next thing, so I read it. And once I read the script, I was really, really impressed that there was a woman who was the centerpiece of her own story, and that she was in the center of her own narrative.
I tried to hostess... but they fired me after four days because I couldn't figure out how seating plans worked.
I don't know my armpit from my elbow in Los Angeles.
Whatever it is that I am working on is what I become obsessed with.
I try not to eat too many raw vegetables. I only have one raw meal a day. At night I eat warm, cooked foods. I like to drink lots of tea, but no coffee. Not drinking coffee has changed my game for the better.
"The Notebook" is one of my favorite love stories.
I started doing yoga in college, so that has just become a staple of a self-care routine for my mind and my body. My body craves it at this point, so I do it two to three times a week, sometimes more. I practice Vinyasa style yoga and sometimes mix it up.
I try to come at fitness and nutrition from a perspective of gentleness and what will make me feel good afterwards. I try to stay out of the mindset of needing to fix myself. I do whatever seems fun to me.
And I never thought about how the lights don't go out, so you never really rest, in that way. I never really thought about the intensity of being watched, all the time. Those are some things that I didn't know about prison.
