SARAH STEELE

I needed the time to go to college and spend years with people who aren't in the business and become a person on my own in order to be the person that I am and the performer that I am. I wouldn't give that up to be in blockbusters or have more money.

I think I'm a character actress at heart, and I think my work is character work for the most part. I'm not the lead of any films - which is not to say that I wouldn't ever want to be; it is just to say that hasn't been my path.

When people take themselves really seriously, I find it silly and amusing.

I got so much out of 'The To-Do List.' This is a joke that I say about myself sometimes, in terms of my film career: I feel like I'm always playing the kid in serious adult movies. So, for me, it was so wonderful to suddenly be working with other people my age who were doing this on film.

I was born in North Carolina but moved to a suburb just outside of Philadelphia when I was 5, so mostly grew up there. I decided I wanted to become an actor when I was 8 years old. I literally heard a friend on the playground bragging about how he was taking acting classes and thought, 'Oh! That's what I'm supposed to be doing!'

I see a ton of theatre whenever I'm not working to stay inspired. I love feeling like I'm a part of the theatre community and following the work of actors and writers I admire. I'm a big reader, too.

I did 'Spanglish' and went back home, and the next thing I did was my high school play. My agents at the time were like, 'Uh. What?'

I'm much better at things if I believe in them, and a lot of those little teenage starlet roles, they have problems, too, and a lot of movies just ignore that.

People who come to 'The Country House' are like, 'You're on 'The Good Wife' now.' But I've been on since the second season! I feel that the interest in the children in that series is almost tangential.

Both my parents said they never got so many emails from friends and colleagues - with all the theater work that I've done - than when I was on 'The Good Wife.'

I was obsessed with 'Jesus Christ Superstar,' and I used to reenact it in my room when no one was home.

We see these cute, perfect bombshells that make me feel like I'm not good enough, I'm not pretty enough. I don't think I could pull off playing a person like that, and do I want to? I don't know.

Acting is a lot of waiting to be picked, and I like to do a lot of things at once. I think I will have to find things that are totally mine. I have so much comfort that school and my academic life are totally mine. I hope that there's not a lot of idleness in my future.

Developmental readings are actually the best part of being an actor for me. I once spent a month doing so many developmental readings at the Roundabout that we all joked that I was an 'artist in residence' there. But to me, it's such a special time to be involved with a new play.

I'll shout out to James L. Brooks. 'Terms of Endearment' always makes me cry. Also, 'Stepmom' always makes me cry. I guess, you know, mothers dying. It's a safe bet that I'm going to cry.

When you're an insecure teenager, you build walls and defenses and masks, and those are incredibly satisfying to perform and chip away at. I mean, when I was an insecure teenager, you'd have had no idea what I was insecure about because I hid it so well. Only confident people are comfortable wearing their vulnerabilities on their sleeve.

I didn't have a bad experience on 'Gossip Girl,' by any means, but it was during a time in my life where I was looking at acting in not a very serious way. Which is no insult to 'Gossip Girl,' but that was a time in my life when I really didn't know if I wanted to act when I got out of school. It was like, 'OK, I got this part. I'll go do this.'

My advice to young people who want to act is just to do it as much as you can! Find friends who also want to do it and have readings of great plays in your apartment. You don't have to wait for someone else to tell you that you can do it. You can be getting better on your own all the time.

Theater is so precious about each word - not that it's a bad thing, but you definitely never stray from the script.

When I was a little younger, I really did love musical theatre in the same hopeless dorky way that she does. I was obsessed with Jesus Christ Superstar and I used to reenact it in my room when no one was home.

They're not allowed to talk about it at school and they maybe feel uncomfortable talking about it with their parents. But instead of them not knowing about it, now we have these gadgets and we can learn about it and not tell our parents and get ourselves into potentially dangerous situations.

I'm taking a pretty light load. I'm doing well. Gideon and Jason are both in school too, so we find time between shows to get work done, and during the day. I really like Columbia. Unlike high school, I don't feel any pressure to get straight-As. I just like learning.

One thing is funny because my grandparents are going to come see the show and my mom was concerned that they wouldn't understand, because so much of it is Internet-based. Our generation specifically really relates to it, because we were the first people to discover the Internet and most of us can maybe navigate the Internet better than our parents can. All this information you could ever possibly know is right at our fingertips, not to mention the fact you can meet anyone!

What makes me happy about the show, and what I hope people take away from it is: "Just be yourself." I know that's supremely corny, but I really think that just being honest with yourself and being honest with everyone around you is the best way to live.

I think that Diwata does not fit that mold. She's loud, she's a huge personality, she's imposing. I don't know if I'm the same thing in that sense, but what gives me the joy in playing her is the total rejection of needing to fit in. It's so inspiring.