Well, that's always a hard one because I think a lot of people can get the acting bug when they are a little kid. I want to be a fireman, I want to be a policeman, I want to be a movie star. Realistically I didn't start thinking about it until I was in college.

I just sort of looked at it and said these people have a really good gig. They get to travel, they have an interesting job and they actually get paid for pretending on a daily basis.

To be completely honest with you, I couldn't think of another job that was going to interest me on a day in and day out basis. I went to the head of the theater department at my college when I was a junior and told him I'd like to be an actor. He said he didn't think it would work out for me, that I didn't have what it takes. Of course, that was a great inspiration to go out and do it.

East Carolina. I loved that school. If I had never gone there, I probably would have not gone on to be an actor. So I say thank God I didn't study enough in high school to get into the school of my choice.

I think it was this last movie, "Breast Men". It's a very insightful question because this is the first job where I felt like I can stand up in front of a room full of people and say I am an actor.

This job is like a lot of other jobs. You spend your first five years plugging away and learning as much as you can. Jobs that maybe don't fill you creatively but do teach you a lot about what you enjoy, what you may be good at and what you're not good at doing.

With this last movie, "Breast Men", it's the first time that I can look back and say you know, I've gotten somewhere and I have a place in my mind that I want to move forward to. I have a toehold. I'm still looking for another toehold and a hand spot but I do feel like at this point I am moving forward.

I think it was definitely "Breast Men". I felt like that a little bit with "Jerry Maguire" and "Leaving Las Vegas".

I'm in the very beginning in the restaurant scene with Nicholas Cage, Stephen Weber, Richard Lewis and a girl named Kim Adams. It's a very short scene.

Yeah, and incredibly risky. This business does change you to the extent...

I mean until I had moved out here and got in this business, I don't think I ever left the house without a pair of panty hose on. I was very conservative and looked at life in terms of things I should and should not do and what was acceptable behavior and what wasn't.

The beauty about acting is it is a journey through life where you can push the envelope. You get to test the boundaries of humanity and maybe play a character that you would have originally said "Oh, gosh, that's not a lifestyle that I find very admirable" and then you get to play that character. You see all different people face all types of choices throughout their life. There's something really rich about being a participant in that, even though it may make you enemies of people that don't know you.

Yeah, and it's lovely. It's so completely rewarding. It's such a different life than I thought I would have. I'm sure for Elisabeth Shue it was interesting and creatively fulfilling to play that type of character.

I think she's probably a really neat girl.

Technically, first I was paid to be an extra. My first line was in a TV show called "Great Scott" and I said "A carton of eggs." I think I made whatever SAG scale was at that point. I think it was $550 or $575 a day.

Oh, I cashed it! Listen, I'd been making $45 for eight hours a day. I cashed it! I've cashed them all. But I do have all the stubs. Definitely.

It's always amazing to me, and disturbing at the same time, that we get paid for things like that, but it's rewarding when you do. It also is a very interesting concept that you get paid to write about being human and I get paid to express being human.

Oh, sure. I used to more than I do now. I think that's one of the greatest assets that you can have in life is for people to think that you could be stupid because they don't expect much of you so everything you do is a surprise. Also, I find that when people don't think you're as smart as the rest of them they tell you all sorts of incriminating things.

No. I don't think I've been at that point where people have written about me, per say. I did have a woman in New York who wrote for a paper, Newsday, who wrote some lovely things about me in "Breast Men" and that was so completely unexpected and nice.

I have had critics write things about projects that I have been involved with that I think were unfounded and not positive. That upset me because they wrote about people who had been in the film. I don't think criticism is necessarily a bad thing. Criticism makes you better at what you do. I don't have a problem if somebody points out something that is well founded. But if somebody points out a flaw that is not relevant to the story it bothers me.

"Breast Men" is a very specific movie. You either like the subject matter or not. That's fine and everyone is welcome to critique whether or not they like the subject. But when people pick apart certain things in the movie that are well done because they don't like the subject, that's what I don't like.

Chris Cooper is one of the most amazing people and actors out there. I cannot say enough nice things about him. He's amazing. He is such a nice person.

They did a CGI (computer generated image). What they did was take another girl's body and put my head on it. That was interesting.

Oh, gosh, what do you think?

Actually, no. The first one was me.

They did make a set of breasts for me that I wore under my clothes after Laura had been augmented, which I kept and do wear. If I'm having a bad hair day or I don't feel like putting on my makeup, I find that some people are very welcoming of you if you are more well-rounded - that's a nice way to put it.

What you think will bother you sometimes is not even remotely what ends up bothering you. Nudity is something that I never thought I'd do. The only reason I have any reservation in talking about this is because of my family.

I personally like what it has to say in the character of Laura. We arrived at a point in the story where someone who doesn't really need this operation was getting it. It's definitely a movie that grows on you, pun intended.

That's a scene where I really have to thank Larry O'Neal the Director and John Stockwell the Writer. Between the two of them I felt like my work was already done for me. If you look at it in terms of "this is a woman who's tried her whole life to have a perfect marriage and here she sits alone. She is not married, never had any children, lives in a small apartment and is sick." The tragedy of that is one of regret and spoiled hope. You just feel for that person.

Thank you! The funny thing is I'm not a big crier when it comes to me and my life. I do think it's almost like the plea of this woman, and I really liked Laura. Sometimes you read a character and see what they're trying to do with their life. What she wanted out of life was very obvious to me. The statement "I just want them out. I just wish I could start over". It's tragic because she can't.

They had a different title that I really liked which was "Silicone Wars". I thought it was a great title. "Breast Men" can be a misleading title because one thinks that they're in for a light-hearted comedic movie. Which, I don't think "Breast Men" is. It has elements of comedy which life does, but it also has drama and sadness.

I had actually gone in for the role of Ann, which was Chris Cooper's wife. The casting director said I was right for Laura and asked me to come back and read. So I did.

We had quite a battle because HBO understandably wanted someone who had more of a name, more of a public following in that role. I think it was about four or five weeks after I read before I got the offer to do the role. I cannot say enough about the people involved in terms of fighting for the person who they thought was best for the job. Whether I was or I wasn't, I appreciate that they had the character to stand by who they thought was right for the part.

Not as disturbing as you would think. It's almost comforting because it's like a look into the future. You see it and you can say, "okay, I can live with that." That's not bad. Those are some well-earned lines.

I think I was in makeup about 4 hours. They make latex pieces that adhere to your face. They create small lines with a fine paint brush and it takes a long time. David had to do more than I did. It is a very claustrophobic feeling. He did it very well. I think it would be difficult to sit in a chair that long every day.

He's a great director. One of the nice things he did was just set the camera rolling and asked questions. I got into my actor zone where you become unaware of the camera.

I like to watch people who I feel aren't aware of being watched. My favorite actors are that way. To me that is what's interesting about movies or television; being the silent observer of human behavior and traveling that journey with them.

I had been sitting for awhile and I guess I just got comfortable. They always say in acting, and it is true, that you should forget about the words. You should think about the feeling that is behind the words. When you do that, your body will take over.

I will go back and watch things and think "I wish I wouldn't have done that". Your body has a memory of being in certain situations and it starts doing things like looking down or playing with your hair or not being able to meet someone in the eye. A lot of times I'm very happy when that occurs. There are other times where I think "gosh I have really given myself away". Everyone has their little tricks with how they deal in situations when you don't want someone to know you're angry or upset. In acting, sometimes I'm giving myself away a little too much.

I think we were in there for about an hour.

It was one shot. There were many questions asked and they took pieces of people and pieced them together.

I did. He's a lot of fun to work with. I got to work with Judge Reinhold in the movie as well plus a guy who people might not know yet, Eddie Bowz, also a very talented actor.

The movie is a comedy called "A Family Plan". It has not been released yet. I don't know at what stage those negotiations are, if it will get released or go straight to video. I know it's been released in Europe.

Yes. Since last year I've been the lead in three movies. Hopefully it will continue. It would be nice if it would. A lot of people have called, just out of the woodwork, who've seen "Breast Men". Most of them do tend to comment about the last scene. I guess because emotionally it is the strongest scene for my character.

Thank you. His dream became his nightmare. The hardest thing to do would be to go back and revisit a person from your past and be the bearer of bad news.

The director and others commented that I smile a lot in the scene. They thought it unusual and asked why. I said "It's really not unusual if you think about it" because never in a million years would you want to be in that situation having to come to someone with that kind of news. It would be honestly the last thing you would want to say to that person. There would be a million other things that would come before. To try and ease that news I think is what human beings do.

It's about a girl whose uncle has a camp that she has gone to her whole life. She had her first love with a counselor at the camp played by Eddie Bowz. Her fiance, played by Judge Reinhold, is opportunistic and wants to turn the camp into a resort for adults. She goes back to the camp. Leslie Nielsen masterminds a plan to get her back together with her first love and to adopt two of the children that are there without parents.

That's basically what it's about. The antics that go on in a camp, and then of course you have Leslie Nielsen and his wonderful humor, which he is so good at doing. I should say I was bad in that part.

I think I didn't really have a handle on it. It was my first film in terms of being the lead. It's like doing an interview. You can say something and when it's on paper it comes across totally different. You can play an intention and when it comes across on film it looks totally different. My character was fighting so hard that I think she comes across a bit harsh. I did not understand that until I did "Breast Men"; how certain things look.

It was after. It's a New York independent film.

Mike Roderick and Tim Wheeler are in it. It's directed by a man named Shannon Goldman who also wrote it. Then the story was developed by a girl named Marissa Bonadetto.

Marissa also consulted with Larry O'Neal on "Breast Men". I think she's a real talent.

It's very harsh.

I'm the lead female.

The movie is set in the future in New York City where certain sections of New York have really gone astray. I emphasize really. It's sort of about the underworld and the paths people take.

I think a film festival is about the only place it can play. It's very interesting in terms of character.

Well, I think one goes to the movies for different reasons. Escapism is a large reason why people go and "Leaving Las Vegas" is not normally a place where one would want to escape. It's a different traveling altogether.

I wonder if I will regret doing it 10 years from now. I don't think that it's a happy film, but not every film needs to be.

It's a business of "waiting until it's your turn". I think a lot of people forget that and give up before it's their turn. In this business you really think that you should be next long before you are.

I feel like my turn really didn't come until "Breast Men". I had been working, but not on the type of roles I wanted. I wasn't doing the kind of work that I thought was good. Every time I saw myself I thought "oh, my gosh."

Oh, five years. When you think about it, five years is not a long time, but it feels like forever. Now I look back and I think "well that wasn't so bad." If it never happens again I am lucky I got to have one shot to play a character that I really loved and to work with people who I respect and admire. For me the dream has already come true.

I'm not an incredibly modest person and nudity does not bother me in theory. I really wanted to do the part. They said there is going to be this one scene and asked how I felt about it. I said "let's discuss it".

There is a part in the waiting room scene; a line when I say "It is good to see you again". That line was an ad lib, I was stalling. In my head I was thinking "I can't do this. There is no way I can do this." I wanted to yell cut, stop, I'm leaving. It really was a "put your money where your mouth is" type of moment. When that scene was over I was very glad.

Six years.

I've gotten a lot of support from my entire family. When I told my dad that I wanted to move to Los Angeles to be an actor, he said, "Okay. Great. I'll give you two years. You live wherever you want, study wherever you want and I'll foot the bill. It'll be your graduate school."

That made my career much easier - to not have to worry about having several extra jobs in order to support what I was doing. I had the luxury of studying, absorbing, and it was miraculous. It made such a difference. I tell him that all the time.

It would have taken longer. I've had that kind of support from all my family. Everyone just jumped in and supported me when times were hard. They said "You're good. Keep moving forward, Keep trying.

They were very supportive. They still are. They are also are very good about keeping me honest.

When I went home at Christmas, "Breast Men" was playing on tv and I said "Let's watch. I wouldn't mind watching it." Dad said "No, we've all seen it. Take out the garbage."

It is a fight as an actor because there are roles I would like to do but I get a protective mechanism for my parents.

I think they would. I'm better about it. Heck, I did "Breast Men". When I did "Platypus Man", I was horrified because there was a scene with me where nothing was going on, but I was lying in the bed with a man. I was mortified. I thought "oh, my poor family." I laugh about that now.

I'll probably look back on this and think "I remember when I was an actor." I'll probably be a teacher by then. I don't look at that as a bad thing. I would look at that as a completely good thing twenty years from now. To be teaching somewhere. I think it would be great.

Teaching acting would be really fun. You have to have dreams.

We had to end the interview at this point. She and I both knew that we could spend another hour discussing why she wants to teach instead of act.