I had an experience at a high-school play, The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee, which is how I got started. There was a woman who was in the audience, who ended up being a casting director at Paramount Pictures, and who told me she thought I had a chance to do this professionally.

The play is about a man who is going to commit suicide that day. It’s basically the last conversation he has before he asks this man on the bench with him, a total stranger, to murder him, and then coaxes him into it. Uncomfortable feelings galore! Especially ones probably beyond my understanding at 17 years old. But what I found at that point, at 17 years old, was that I did not feel embarrassed to display uncomfortable feelings.