My guilty pleasure is I like to watch a lot of HGTV. I really like watching design shows about houses, like extreme homes. Like buying a bridge and turning it into a house or something like that. I really am interested in home design or something like that... architecture.Collection: Architecture
I try to come at fitness and nutrition from a perspective of gentleness and what will make me feel good afterwards. I try to stay out of the mindset of needing to fix myself. I do whatever seems fun to me.Collection: Fitness
I had a teacher in college who drastically changed the course of my life by telling me that he believed in me as an actor. I never received that support before, and it inspired to me to such a degree that I never looked back. He taught me that it's okay to be crappy; it's okay to fight; it's okay to go to any length.Collection: Teacher
So often, we're expected to maintain some sort of standard - that won't get you where you need to go. One of the most daring things I've done is drop out of graduate school. I had no job, but something inside me was saying, 'Go! Be in the world!' I had to listen to myself, and it worked out. I still think, 'Who was that girl?'
I started doing yoga in college, so that has just become a staple of a self-care routine for my mind and my body. My body craves it at this point, so I do it two to three times a week, sometimes more. I practice Vinyasa style yoga and sometimes mix it up.
As an actor, what I'm finding is that I really like the extremes. I think that's really fun to play with.
I didn't spend a lot of time with prison guards, but my father was an assistant district attorney for a long time so I was always hearing stories about prisoners and prison guards.
Honestly, all the sweets and bad stuff on set don't really call to me because I'm working so much. I've trained myself to stay away from sugar.
I wanted to wear a uniform when I was in high school, but I couldn't. I was like, 'It would be so much easier!'
I don't do detoxes or cleanses - they don't really work for me. I have a really moderate, simple routine. I like to do yoga, Pilates, dance, and things like that.
I actually like pole dancing! It gives you so much confidence. I never thought I'd do it, but now I'm really into it.
I know what feels good to eat and what doesn't. I try to err on the side of choices I know will leave me feeling more energized and ready to go, because it's always better to feel healthy.
In school, I was playing old men and women, babies, Russian people, and all sorts of weird parts - a lot of comedy - and that's sort of like home to me.
I don't like it when people don't hold the door. I don't know, that really bugs me... I guess I like manners.
If it's a good day, I get 'The New York Times' on my iPad, and if I have a little time in the morning, I like to look at that while I'm eating.
I am very interested in Ayurvedic medicine and hope to explore it more someday. I only have a very superficial understanding of the whole thing right now. But learning what my body type is has shifted my whole self-care regime a bit, and I feel better because of it.
I try not to eat too many raw vegetables. I only have one raw meal a day. At night I eat warm, cooked foods. I like to drink lots of tea, but no coffee. Not drinking coffee has changed my game for the better.
Life is so much easier when I allow myself to be myself and go with the flow. Whatever that looks like on a given day. If I can get quiet enough to truly check-in with myself, I usually end up on the right track.
Massages are my favorite. Sometimes just getting myself outside for a walk if I'm really busy can be an indulgence. I love taking naps. I love to stay up too late with close friends. I believe in everything in moderation. I take what I like and leave what I don't.
I definitely felt by the time I got to grad school - which was a great experience - I was like, 'What's the difference between the teachers and the students? Why are the teachers teachers if they want to be acting?' It didn't make sense to me anymore. It's not like you learn how to set a broken bone and you get the stamp of approval.
I have learned to take the part of me that is very fearful and work on that. There is space for that in my life. I have learned to give myself a bit more freedom between 'action' and 'cut.' I come by all that fear honestly, like most humans have. I can't bring it with me to work, so in that way, the work feels quite liberating.
On a film set, for me, there's so much more time to process what's going on than there is on a television set. There's more wiggle room to try things and fail and try again and get to the heart of what's going on in the scene, which is really fun for me. It's what I like to do.
For me as an actor, daring is to tell the truth - to be yourself, no matter how the world interacts with that.
I'm a tall woman. At work, that means a lot of my co-stars have to stand next to me on apple crates. But apparently, my height bodes well in the fashion world.
There's nothing that's in an actor's control. I've learned at this point you do things and you let them go. There's no way to control the outcome. The only thing I have any sort of reign over is my own experience.
I tried to hostess... but they fired me after four days because I couldn't figure out how seating plans worked.
I love children. I just don't know if I'm ready to have kids. I feel like I have more time. Kids are cute, you know? They need a lot of help - that's the thing.
It takes a lot of bravery to be authentic and honest and to take that social mask off in order to connect with another human being. So much of what makes us who we are is smoothed away online. And what truly connects us is the wrinkles, not the smoothness.Collection: Wrinkles
Life is so much easier when I allow myself to be myself and go with the flow.Collection: Flow
So often, we're expected to maintain some sort of standard - that won't get you where you need to go.Collection: Needs
There is something so sad about going online and seeing almost everyone shouting ‘Notice me, notice me!’ Which is such a human desire—to be acknowledged. But me responding to that with some sort of ‘You’re noticed, you’re seen’ only perpetuates the loneliness. Because I’m not seeing you; I’m not noticing you. And whoever you are, you so deserve to be noticed and valued. I feel lucky to have not grown up with the Internet because it forced me to get out, struggle and be so messy.Collection: Loneliness
I don't feel bound by my face or my body. I don't feel like that's the biggest gift I have to offer the world. I feel like there are more parts of me to offer than that.Collection: World
I dont like it when people dont hold the door. I dont know, that really bugs me... I guess I like manners.Collection: Doors
I had an unorthodox high-school experience; I shifted around to different schools. When I got to college and met Larry Sacharow, who ran the theatre department [at Fordham University in NYC], he was the first person to say ‘I believe in you.’ At that point, I just needed someone to say ‘I see you, I get you, let’s go.’ It’s an amazing thing to borrow someone else’s confidence in you; it can change your life.Collection: Believe
Well, a lot of things surprised me. There were things that I had never thought about, in my life. I never thought about how loud prison was. I've never thought about how your ears never really get a break from all this noise. That was actually replicated on our set pretty well.Collection: Ears
It felt really nice to not have anybody talking about numbers, and no one is talking about ratings. From my experience, it felt like there was one person running the ship and it felt like there was space for Jenji to be at the helm. That's not what I've experienced in television before. It felt more akin to an interesting movie, where there were producers who were really excited by the work and wanted to make space for the director's vision to be sort of shared with an audience. It felt more cohesive.Collection: Running
Honestly all the sweets and bad stuff on set don't really call to me because I'm working so much. I've trained myself to stay away from sugar.Collection: Sweet