The thing I always thought of myself as was an actress. I never thought: I want to be. It was always: I am.

I had three influential teachers. The first was Uta Hagen. The second two, Bobby Lewis and my late husband, Charles Kakatsakis, were both from the Actors Studio.

To make money in New York, you have to add gigs when starting out, so while I was acting quite a bit, I would do modeling.

Filming is physically and emotionally hard, especially acting in something like this, where we go into the honest feelings of these people. But it's also very exciting because there's an adrenaline that's pumping (through you) when you're doing these scenes.

It's in my nature to feel, 'I could be this! This could be mine!'

I loved New York. I made enough money and studied acting with Kenneth McMillan, which was my first formal training.

New York, oh my God, in my early 20s. I felt, this is home, this is really where I belong.