On working in the arts

As a woman, it can be challenging to get ahead in this industry while still maintaining your integrity and protecting yourself. It’s like, on one hand, I want to work and put myself out there, but on the other hand, if I have to audition for one more character whose description only includes their physical attributes, I’m going to scream. But after being in this business for a while, I feel like I have a much clearer sense of what kind of work I want to do and I have become okay with holding out for the right projects.
Things are slowly changing in the industry, which gives me a lot of hope. This past spring, I worked on a pilot that had an entirely female producing team. I remember walking into the audition and blurting out, “Whoa, all women!” because it was so rare—I had been to dozens of auditions that pilot season, and the rooms were mostly filled with men. It was such a pleasure to be part of that and it inspired me in my personal work—I went on to create my own project with my friends that had an entirely female cast and crew (except for one amazing sound guy).
For me, the purpose of this is not to be exclusive of men—I admire and respect the talents of so many males in this industry—but rather to give females who want to explore roles that are traditionally given to men (producer, director, cinematographer, etc.) a chance to experiment and perhaps even to fail. I think it’s just where we happen to be at this moment in time. I hope in 20 years we won’t have to boast that crews were all female, because things will have evened themselves out.

On her role in Quarry (Cinemax)

Quarry was an incredible experience and I credit it as a turning point in my career. The show takes place in Memphis 1972, after the Vietnam War. During rehearsals, we talked a lot about how the South was a bit behind the rest of the country in terms of fashion, social, and political trends, and so my character being a single woman in her late twenties really stuck out. Most women her age in the South would have been married with children. Sandy is quite independent, and is kind of a moving target that can’t be pinned down. I read a lot of Cosmopolitan articles from the time period, and the emerging ideas of sexual liberation that arose during and after the War influenced a lot of the choices that I made. Sandy is a character who embodies these ideas—she’s comfortable in her own skin, knows what she wants, and isn’t afraid to break it off with a man who isn’t satisfying her.