Knock wood, but I started acting professionally when I was 16, and I've always been able to support myself since then.

You know, you never say never because before I did 'ER,' I always said 'I'll never do a TV series,' so that's what I said.

Be what you are. Don't change yourself for anything. God made you that way for a reason.

It's difficult to keep that perspective, I think, as a parent: to know your boundaries as to what's good parenting or just projecting your own expectations on your kids. That's the hardest.

'ER' was so huge that whatever I did coming back to television, I'd have to feel as strongly about.

So I was hugely thrilled that my first scene ever on camera was with Hal Holbrook.

I love being a part of something that is grassroots, and you can see the actual changes, the effect of what people do.