Your soul either feels lifted by something that you read, or it feels squashed by it.

I'm thinking about anything and everything. I'm making stuff up in my head, I'm using sense memory. Sometimes when it doesn't come and you've got no choice because you're getting paid to do it, you grasp at straws. It's always easy now with my kids. I just create some "what-ifs" in my head, something horrible that would devastate me as a mother.

You know what's more difficult to do organically? Laughing. It's actually one of the hardest things to do on camera.

Do I observe holy days and holidays? Yeah, the ritual is very important to me. It's part of being Ukrainian Catholic. So every holy day we're baking pierogis and not eating meat.

The writers could always do an about-face and change everything

I'm pretty squeaky clean. No big tragedies in my childhood or adolescence or adulthood. I've had a very easygoing, simple life.

I don't have a caustic sense of humor. What I find funny, that humor comes from a much gentler place.