Years ago, when I started having this little bit of success as an actor, I got a job on 'VH1's Best Week Ever.' I went back to my mall in New Jersey, which is what I do when I go visit my parents, and I was at a Wetzel's Pretzels. The manager was like, 'I love the show! It's awesome!' and gave me a free pretzel. I was so excited!
When I was out of work when I first moved to L.A., one of the first things my husband and I did was buy season's passes to Disney, and whenever I was bummed out about work, we would go to Space Mountain, and it was like a physical injection of anti-depressants.
When I first went to acting school, they made me lose my accent, which is very upsetting for me. The first day of Shakespeare class, I remember the professor was like, 'Oh, boy. Oh no, no, no, no. No, no, no,' and sent me to a voice and speech class to get rid of the accent immediately.
TV was my life, growing up. I ran home from school to watch television, and even did my homework with the TV on - my mom had a rule that as long as my grades didn't fall, I was allowed to. So it was my dream to work in television.
There are so many male antiheroes but not nearly as many female antiheroes.There's a lot of pressure on female characters to be likable. That puts a lot of pressure on women to be likable.
The thing that stand-up does for you is that it toughens you up a bit as far as the business goes. It's hard. If a joke doesn't get a laugh, that's instant rejection. And that's mostly what this business is most of the time: a lot of rejection.
The beautiful thing about writing with the person that you love is that when they come up with an idea that is great, it's this dual happiness because that's the partner and that's such a good idea, and I'm proud of you, and then also I'm really excited for the project.
My mom has a very high-pitched voice, and there are some similarities between her and the voice I use on 'Big Bang,' although my mom has the Jersey accent, so I took that out. But the tone of the voice is very similar to my mother's.
In the guest star situation on a show, it has a feel of a foreign exchange student - you're worrying the night before where you're going to sit for lunch. 'The Big Bang Theory' was like that. I was supposed to only do one episode. What was different was the cast and production staff was so welcoming, even though I was only scheduled for a week.
I'm not full on 'Jersey Shore' Jersey, but in my heart, my bangs are so feathered with tons of hairspray. My husband says that whenever I get tired, it comes out.
I remember watching 'Three's Company' with my parents, and it was time for bed, so I started to make my voice lower like Don Knotts and imitating him. They started laughing, and I didn't have to go to bed, so that informed a lot.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to perform. I went to an arts camp called Brookdale Arts Camp, in New Jersey, from the time I was 6, and then I was a counselor there through high school.
