As soon as I left school at 16, I worked in a factory making aircraft components.
I could have started playing professional at 16, 17 quite easily. For my position, I was far better than a lot of people around me. All the people in front of me had was experience but, talent-wise, I easily could get in.
I was hired as a computer programmer for a national laboratory at age 15.
I actually didn't finish NYU. I would have, but I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door before I graduated.
I started gigging when I was about 16, and I was way too young to be in the clubs.
There was a modeling agency in my little town where I got my start, but the opportunity came to work in Japan when I was fourteen. My mom went with me until I was seventeen. Her only stipulation was that I had to keep my schoolwork up. My mom was great. She is still my best friend.
What you want to do is not go to work. You're not missing a thing. The worst thing I did was start work young.
I started modelling quite late, at 20. In this industry, girls start when they're barely even 14 or 15.
I started working at a really young age, so I didn't even go to traditional high school.
I never went to college. I started working when I was 17.
I don't have a college degree. I started working at 19 on a tiny newspaper. I've covered everything from weddings to crime to criminal weddings.
I started working right away as a kid, so I didn't have a chance to go to improv school or anything like that; I was already a working actor.
My mother and father definitely encouraged me. People used to tell my mom that I should be in commercials, and then everything kicked off from there, and my first gig was some print work.
Your ability will get you the job, but you also need to have age on your side. So if you started your career at 21, you have an advantage over others in your batch who started at, say, 24.
I was so lucky because I started working very young. And my father was very wealthy and I didn't need to work. I did my films.
Some people think that I must be ancient because I've been in the business for so long, others still think of me as a waif and assume that I'm too young for certain roles. Starting out at such an early age seems to have worked against me.
I'm actually one of the few kids in my grade, especially girls, who didn't end up going to college, just because I already knew what I wanted to do. I had already been actively working in music before I graduated.
I had a normal childhood where I was able to cultivate my own creativity, and I don't think I would have been ready for this crazy business at 8 years old.
