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I Think I Am An Actress And I'm Artistic And I Love Spontaneity And All Of That, But I Just Decided Really Early On That If I Didn't Also Try To Ground Myself I Would Probably End Up Like This Character Of Laura In A Little Help , Or Like So Many Young People In Hollywood, Sort Of Go Off The Rails. So I'm Pretty Attached To My Routines And My Grounded Ways.

-Jenna Fischer

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I Think I Am

Jenna Fischer

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I Think I Am An Actress And I'm Artistic And I Love Spontaneity And All Of That, But I Just Decided Really Early On That If I Didn't Also Try To Ground Myself I Would Probably End Up Like This Character Of Laura In A Little Help , Or Like So Many Young People In Hollywood, Sort Of Go Off The Rails. So I'm Pretty Attached To My Routines And My Grounded Ways.

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I Had A Teacher Who Said Something Great. That Was, 'go Out And Collect Your Nos. Once You Get Fifty Nos Then You Can Start Wondering When You Can Get A Yes.' He Said, 'it Is Not Your Job To Get The Job; Its Your Job To Do A Consistent Body Of Work. So, Every Time You Go In There, Just Go In There And Be Consistent, And Eventually It Will Get Noticed And Someone Will Hire You.'

With "the Office," They Said, "we Don't Want Anyone We Recognize, So Give Us Unknown Actors," And I Think That Was The Break That I Needed. Because I Went In And I Got The Role.

I Studied Theater In College, And I Really Wanted To Be An Actress And Play A Lot Of Different Roles. Then I Made Landing On A Television Comedy My Main Focus. But When You Become An Actress, You Want To Play A Variety Of Things.

I Went To A Little Liberal-arts College In Missouri Called Truman State University.

When I'm Writing My Blog, I Think Of Myself At 13 Years Old, Back In St. Louis, Daydreaming About Hollywood.

I Didn't Want To Go To College. I Wanted To Move To Los Angeles Right Out Of High School.

I Think I Enjoy Regressing. There's A Part Of Living Like That That's Really Fun. It's Like There's No Consequences: If You Want To Drink, You Drink; If You're Hungover The Next Day And You're Late To Work, Who Cares? There's Something Very Appealing About Having No Accountability In Life, But It's Just Not A Way That I Had The Energy To Live Forever.

I Spent My Whole Adolescence, When You Just Want To Be Accepted, Looking Much Younger Than Everyone Else.

I've Been Really Lucky. I Didn't Have Any Morning Sickness And I've Been Off Work For Most Of My Pregnancy, So I've Been Able To Do Things Like Work Out With A Trainer And Do Prenatal Yoga And All These Things That Have Kept My Body Very Agile And Pain-free.

I Get Really Excited About Jewelry.

Sometimes Doing A Movie For A Short Period Of Time Is Better Than Committing Eight Months To A Television Show.

Even In College I Tended To Get Cast In The Comedies More. It Was What I Liked Doing.

I Say It Was Like This Accidental Research That I Did For Eight Years. I Had No Idea I Was Researching The Role Of My Career. But Yeah, And There Was This One Casting Director Named Allison Jones, And For Five Years She Would Call Me In Every Year For A Different Tv Show And She Just Really Was A Big Supporter Of Mine.

You Never Go Into A Marriage Expecting To Get Divorced. You Go Into A Marriage Expecting It's Going To Last Forever, And You Have A Lot Of Ways You Dream About The Future. You Have All These Expectations, And Then You Have To Adjust Those Expectations, And It Can Be A Very Unnerving, Confusing Time.

I Don't Know If This Is True Of Everyone, But I Have This Relationship With My Parents Where, Despite However Mature Or Articulate Or Grown-up I Think I've Become, As Soon As I Go Home, I Turn Into This Petulant 13-year-old, Especially With The Tone Of My Voice.

It Makes It Really Hard To Just Go To A Dinner Party Because, In My Work Life, I'm Surrounded By The Funniest People, Ever. I'm Really Spoiled. I Laugh A Lot, In My Day.

Tilda Swinton Is A Great Example Of A Person Who Completely Disappears Into A Role.

I Was Definitely Raised This Way. My Folks Are Very Grounded, Normal People, And I Wasn't Raised In The Entertainment Industry. I Just Grew Up In St. Louis, Missouri, In A Very Normal Family. I Wasn't A Child Actor Or Anything Like That.

I Still Get Nervous When I Have A Lot Of Makeup On, A Big Hairdo, And A Dress.

I Think We All Spend, Sometimes, More Time At Our Jobs Than We Do At Home, And There Are People That We Wouldn't Necessarily Choose To Spend So Much Time With. So Those Irritations And Those, Just Those Situations I Think Are Really Relatable.

That Character In Solitary Man Is Probably Most Like Me In Real Life: A Solid Person Who Has A Good Head On Her Shoulders And Is Very Driven And Practical, And Not Afraid To Set Boundaries. That's Sort Of My Center. I Come From The Same Place As The Character In Solitary Man.

I Don't Have Real Big Aspirations To Be A Movie Star. I Would Love To Be On A Long-running Hit Tv Show. You End Up Playing A Defining Role.

I Think I Am An Actress And I'm Artistic And I Love Spontaneity And All Of That, But I Just Decided Really Early On That If I Didn't Also Try To Ground Myself I Would Probably End Up Like This Character Of Laura In A Little Help , Or Like So Many Young People In Hollywood, Sort Of Go Off The Rails. So I'm Pretty Attached To My Routines And My Grounded Ways.

There's A Part Of Me That Wishes I Had Gone To School And Gotten A Business Degree, Because I Almost Wonder If That Wouldn't Be More Helpful Than My Theater Degree, In Some Ways.

I Had This Crazy Job, Though, When I First Got To Los Angeles... I Answered This Ad In The Back Of The Newspaper To Be A Telephone Psychic, And I Did That For Two Days.

I'm A Believer In The Parent First, Friend Second Philosophy, And Trying To Find That Balance.

My Cat, Andy, Has Been My Best Buddy Since I Was 18, And He Doesn't Care If I'm On A Tv Show Or If I'm Red-carpet Ready. He Just Likes It When I'm There.

As The Lead Of A Movie, You Really Set The Tone Off-camera As Well, And That's A Really Big Responsibility.

Sometimes Acting Is Really Cool Because It Forces You To Exercise Certain Muscles In Your Personality That You Wouldn't Normally Be Called Upon In Life.

I Studied Theater In College, And I Really Wanted To Be An Actress And Play A Lot Of Different Roles. Then I Made Landing On A Television Comedy My Main Focus.

It's So Easy To Disappear Into Your Character Because There Isn't All This Fuss Around You, And We Keep A Closed Set, And Closed Off To All Crew Members, Even, Unless We're Cut. A Lot Of Times, You're Doing A Scene In A Movie And There Are Literally 35 People Standing Behind The Camera All Waiting To Do Their Job, But Here They Have To Be Off The Stage. On The Office, It Is Very Much Just The Actors, A Cameraman And A Boom Operator, Like A Real Documentary, Like We Really Are Being Documented.

Yeah, You Know I Don't Ever See Myself Doing A Super-gritty, Hard-core Drama.

The Farrelly Brothers Make Movies The Way You Imagine A Movie Set Would Be When You're A Kid - Fun All The Time.

Laura From The Mysteries Of Laura Is The Most Different From Me Personally That I've Ever Played. I'm A Very Thoughtful, Forward-thinking, Planner Kind Of Person. I Love Excel Spreadsheets And Five-year-plans, And I Love To Review Every Year How My New Year's Resolutions Went. I'm Like That, And That Is Not Laura At All.

I Also Love Horror Movies; I Like Me A Big Peter Berg Action Movie. I'm A Movie Lover In General.

I'm A Lover Of Lists And Five-year Plans And Excel Spreadsheets. Any Way That I Can Have Any Control Over The Direction My Life Is Going, I Gravitate Towards That.

I Got Divorced, After Having Been Married For Almost Eight Years. That Is A Very Life-altering Experience. There's A Period Of Time That You Go Through, Where You're Having To Adjust To Knowing Yourself And Knowing Who You Are From Being A Couple To Being An Individual Again.

Cause It's Really Hard, It's Hard To Be An Actor.

Finally, I Was Called For "the Office" And I Was Really Lucky, Because A Lot Of The Shows That I Went Out For I Would Work My Way Up From, Like, An Audition With The Casting Director To The Director To The Producers To The Studio, I'd Go Through Seven Auditions, And Then They'd Give The Role To A Famous Actress.

Well, I Knew I Wanted To Be An Actor, And I Didn't Necessarily Need Or Want To Be Famous Or A Celebrity Actor.

I'm Very Deliberate And I Love Excel Spreadsheets And I Love Five-year Plans And All That. So It Felt Really Fun To Play Someone So Incredibly Different From Myself.

I Don't Have Any Type Of Sketch-comedy Or Stand-up Background.

I'd Been Out In Los Angeles For About Eight Years, Knocking Around. I Actually, Instead Of Waiting Tables, Worked In Offices As A Temporary Assistant.

I Always Worry That People Are Going To Be Very Confused; Sometimes Timelines Get Confused With How Movies Get Made. So When I Say, "oh, I Made This Movie When I Was Going Through A Divorce," People Think, "oh No! She's Pregnant With A Child And Divorced?"

Growing Up, I Was A Very Shy, Wallflower Type. I Was Not A Nerd, But Not Popular. I Was Just Invisible, Like That Person You Probably Didn't Know You Were In School With.

I'm Not One To Air My Dirty Laundry For The Whole World.

I Loved The Domesticity Of My Life As A Struggling Actor. When I Wasn't Going To Auditions, I Could Do Things Like Cook Dishes From Scratch And Take Them To Parties Or Be Really Thoughtful About Birthdays And Anniversaries.

Be Willing To Work For Nothing In Things You Think Are Stupid. Make Work For Yourself. Make Your Own Luck. Don't Complain. Hopefully, The Work Will Find You If You Are Ready.

I Think That There Is A Tragic Misfit At The Core Of Me, And I've Just Done A Lot Of Work On Myself. I Love A Good Self-help Book; I've Read A Ton Of Them. I Love Self-help Seminars And Therapy And All That.

I'm A Very Thoughtful, Forward-thinking, Planner Kind Of Person. I Love Excel Spreadsheets And Five-year-plans, And I Love To Review Every Year How My New Year's Resolutions Went.

It Is Part Of Me; I Could Definitely Be That If I Wanted To, I Just Choose Not To. I Mean, I Am An Actress At My Core, And I Think We're All A Little Crazy.

I Know So Many Amazing Actors Who Don't Get Work... And Then There Are A Bunch Of Real Duds That Work All The Time. The Industry Is Just Not Fair In That Way.

I Think That There Is A Tragic Misfit At The Core Of Me, And I've Just Done A Lot Of Work On Myself. I Love A Good Self-help Book; I've Read A Ton Of Them. I Love Self-help Seminars And Therapy And All That. I Think That Probably, At My Core, If I Had Done No Work On Myself, I Would Probably Be Laura From The Mysteries Of Laura, But I Worked Hard To Be A More Stable Person Because That's What I Wanted Out Of My Life.

I Knew I Wanted To Be An Actor, And I Didn't Necessarily Need Or Want To Be Famous Or A Celebrity Actor. But I Wanted To Be Somewhere Where There Would Be No Ceiling On What I Could Accomplish, And I Felt Like If I Stayed In St. Louis I Might Have A Really Great Regional Theater Career Or Something, But That I Wasn't Going To Be Able To Get Much Further Than That. And It Felt Like New York And L.a. Were The Two Places Where You Could End Up Being A Tv Star Or You Could End Up Doing Regional Theater, Which Would Have Been Fine As Well.

I'm Not Prepared For A Zombie Apocalypse. I Need More Bottled Water, A Shotgun, And Stronger Abs. I Have Plenty Of Canner Food.

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