I spent a lot of time in college studying theater of the absurd and Beckett and Genet, and then I spent a lot of time after that at 'Gossip Girl' auditions, thinking, 'Wow, I really wasted my money.'
I have learned so much personally from wrestling, and it has really bled into my daily life.
I grew up in a lot of stage managers' booths, memorizing the lines. I'm sure I was the most annoying child in existence.
I often feel like a character actress trapped inside the mean, aging Barbie's body.
I would do musicals in high school where there was dancing, and I would sing my verse, and then they would choreograph it so when I would take an eight-count to back up to the back of the stage while the other dancers covered me up because my body was totally... I was always in newborn-deer mode.
Everyone has a dormant wrestling character in them that is pretty easy to tap into.
When we did 'Endgame,' we were all hunched over and making the craziest sounds. Then I graduated and went right into auditioning for 'Gossip Girl' and things like that, where, as an actress, you're required to act from the neck up and, from the neck down. It's a presentation of your birthday-suit self.
Growing up, I was a self-loathing Igor who carried the queen's books. My job was to be the sarcastic sherpa, quietly providing the farce and adoration, then becoming part of the wall when cued.
Wrestling really is kind of the highest form of theater.
With theater, the time commitment and the demands on your body, your personal life, and your wallet are crazy. It's four months of feeling like you're running a marathon and getting paid in hugs.
'GLOW' was the first time that, from head to toe, I was asked to use my body in a functional, powerful way as an actor - and that felt amazing.
I fill my business emails with smiley faces and question marks so that I don't sound too severe.
I'm on a billboard in Times Square, but my bathroom is still dirty, and I have toothpaste on my face.
I won't name names, but sometimes a TV set can be a shame-and-fear obstacle course for an actress.
