To paraphrase an iconic T-shirt, actors ???? NY. Not only does living in the city expose actors to all different kinds of people (fodder for future characters, perhaps?), the stakes just feel different—because, as Sinatra sang, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
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“The only other character that has been on ‘Law & Order: SVU’ as long as I have is New York City itself. And what a glorious acting partner, cast mate, and timeless superstar this city has been. New York has so much to teach about resilience, belief in possibility, and surviving.”
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“One of the things that’s great about New York is that it is not a one-industry town. It has education, academia, the service industry, arts, publishing, theater, politics, fashion, finance, as well as moviemaking.”
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“I had saved a lot of money working at Mrs. Fields’ chocolate chip cookies, ushering at the Golden Gate Theatre, and doing odd jobs so I could live in New York for a few months. If [the money] ran out, I would have to give up and go home [to San Francisco]. It turned out OK. I got my Equity card and started working.”
New York Has 5 Boroughs—Where Should You Live if You’re an Actor?
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“When you see how productions are done in New York City, when you see how actors are in New York City, the level that is expected from an actor in New York City, it raises the bar and raises the training, because you want to be one of those actors. [I grew up] that way, where you wanted to be considered a true professional—and to be a real professional in New York is saying a lot.”
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“[The] small-town feel still exists. That really personifies New York. Outside the glitz and glamour—the Rockettes, the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, or the Apollo [Theater], all those iconic wonderful things…. It’s the people of the boroughs, where you say hello to people that walk down your block, where you can go next door and say, ‘Can I have a cup of sugar?’ ”
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“I’m bicoastal, and so when I come back to my place in New York, it reminds me of everything I’ve gone through: the hardships that it took me to get here, the going on auditions, the barely actually being able to pay for that rent-stabilized apartment…. It just feels good to be able to pay the rent.”