When I started, I had a really hard time getting work. It was the mid- to late-nineties. There was the WB. My age was perfect for it, but I just never came across as a youngster. I had to grow into my age in order to start working, and by the time I did, it was when things started to get good.
My parents divorced when I was very, very young, but they maintained an incredibly amicable relationship. They were great partners, they were great parents, and they were great friends throughout my whole life until I was about 25, at which point they realized that they could relinquish; they could call it and move on.
I've been trying to get into comedy for years. I had a meeting with one of the networks a couple years ago, a general meeting, and when they asked what I was looking for and I told them I'd prefer to do comedy, it was as if I had two heads.
I'm not a big lingerie girl. I see it, and I love it, and I appreciate it, and sometimes I even buy it, and then it never gets worn. It just seems like kind of a wasted middle step. Either you're dressed or you're not. What is this in-between stuff?
I won't name any names, but I've done a couple of shows where once the pilot got picked up, the creators openly said, 'I have no idea where we're going.'
I think television scripts have become really intriguing and well-done. And writers have stopped drawing any actual line between film and television they used to never cross.
I know it might seem a little superficial, but every actor has their thing. Some people focus on the walk, but for me, it's all about the nails and the voice. Those are the two most important things.
There is something about my aura or essence, or whatever, that draws the ex-wife characters to me. I don't seek them out, but people tend to think of me for that particular archetype, or whatever you want to call it, and I don't mind it. I think there is a strength to it.
There's something sort of intrinsic in being a Southerner that doesn't go away. You can't get rid of it, but it's not something that's terribly obvious.
The fact is that viewers are fickle and it's rare that such a large group of people can be categorized in any type of way. There's enough content to go around, and if we stop focusing on numbers and start focusing on the quality of the project, then I think everybody - viewers and artists alike - is going to be a lot happier.
Outside of 'Justified,' I do like to keep it to comedy. When I'm not there, I try to seek out stuff that sort of more along the lighter fare. I have more fun on those sets than I do on drama sets just because when it's heavy, it's heavy, and it's hard to get away from it.
