When I was 15, I was scouted at the mall by Elite Model Management. I started to go to New York on the bus in high school, which was about four hours door-to-door from my hometown, until I moved to New York and lived in models' apartments all over.

We all know what it feels like to be an outcast or a loner or to fall between the cracks. To be the target of gossip or people talking about you, or girls are ganging up on you. One minute, they're your best friend; the next, they call you on three-way.

I think that the more comfortable and the more you rehearse - granted, I don't like to take the air out of a tire; there is a fine line - but I think the freer you are with your dialogue, for example, the more open you are to a good idea walking up to you.

Thematically, I like playing with the ideas of stuff that you try to bury, and you think will go away, but instead you carry it with you until it becomes crippling. And sometimes you have to look back and deal with some stuff in order to truly move forward.

I’ve always lived out of a suitcase. I was in a new city every three months. When I was a model, I traveled the world, and as an actor you’re traveling from movie set to movie set. So I’ve never been in one place long enough for anything super-bad to happen.

I've always lived out of a suitcase. I was in a new city every three months. When I was a model, I traveled the world, and as an actor you're traveling from movie set to movie set. So I've never been in one place long enough for anything super-bad to happen.

I'm not always the first person to run out and see something I'm in. I don't know; for me, that's not why I did it. I did it because I wanted to act. I don't really think about the end result. I don't feel like I have to see it - for me, it already happened.

To be honest, I didn't love the high-fashion world because models aren't always treated that well. I was a scrappy kid from a farm, and that world felt a little snobby. But I was grateful for it, and my photo shoots now are really fast because I know my poses.

The more messy women that we put on screen, that we put in books, the more women can feel represented and seen, then they can access their own stuff, feel it's okay, and then have the strength to speak out about things like we're talking about. About rising up.

There are a lot of times when Jessica Jones is alone in her house, and there's no dialogue. She's rough around the edges, so getting to spend that time with her and see her be vulnerable and process the weight of her world is what makes the character so likable.

When I'm breaking in a character like Jessica Jones, I have this amazing opportunity to create her backstory. It's all of the work that happens before I'm ever on camera... Writing 'Bonfire' was like doing all of that fun stuff; it was like 300 pages of prep work.

I'm a creative person. I love to write, I love to act, I love to perform, I love to create things with my hands, so I do all of these things that are kind of like hobbies in a way. They're things that I love, so it's not like a work-life balance; it's just a work-life marriage.

It was just a little weird coming into the seventh season (of 'Gilmore Girls'), where everyone is already set in their ways and their dynamics, and you sort of feel like you're coming into a party late. So I was just, like, 'Ugh! How do I make friends?' It's like high school dynamics!

On the farm, I had chores. I had a calf. We had a herd of cattle in the pasture. We'd go and get me a calf at a cow auction with Amish people, which I would raise. I gave it a bottle every day, in this cute little coop, like a giant dog coop almost. I've always been a big animal person.

After 'Jessica Jones' came out, I started hearing firsthand from a lot of women who were so inspired by the character, who felt represented, who felt like watching Jessica on screen helped them in their own lives. Women are devouring content like that because everybody is complicated; not everybody is one thing.

'Bonfire' was kicking around for a very long time. It was an idea I wanted to explore for a television show. Then I was given this weird gift of time when 'Jessica Jones' finished season one. I got really organized and just kind of banged it out, but it took a long time. It took two years to even have a first draft.

I knew I could always work harder and be better and show I'm more prepared. I had a whole science to, like, how you have to arrive 17 minutes early to something. If you're 20 minutes early, that means you're too eager, but 17 minutes gives you time to, like, settle, sign in, use the ladies' room, have some water, and get comfortable.

What I'm doing is making sure that I have a balance, and that allows me, I think, to be a better actor and to more easily and quickly access all of the emotions on the scale. I make sure that I read a book on the weekend or read something or do my knitting or do the things that I need to do for myself, like 'Game of Thrones.' Get that balance.

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