It took me forever to leave Chicago. I went to Columbia College because I wasn't ready to leave! My professors had to kick me in the pants to move to Los Angeles.
I don't have any great love for Chicago. What the hell, a childhood around Douglas Park isn't very memorable. I remember the street fights and how you were afraid to cross the bridge 'cause the Irish kid on the other side would beat your head in. I left Chicago a long time ago.
I wanted to get on with my life when I was 16. I knew I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to get out of Detroit.
It's not easy to leave your hometown and your family and your support system and come out to Los Angeles to - to pursue a dream where the odds are not in your favor.
Actually, I wanted to become a journalist, but no matter who I imagined myself to be in the future, somehow I was sure: I would leave my hometown. I felt it was my destiny.
I love my hometown, but 'Leave Fast' is the way I felt when I was 17, 18 - it's that fear that I'd never be able to do something else.
I was from a small town, and nobody really expects you to leave, especially before you graduate. That doesn't happen.
I kind of moved out of the town I grew up in as quick as I could. I left right after high school.
You know the first objective is to get out of your hometown, second objective, get it together in the capital. The awful thing about left the school, is that you'd feel you'd be important. It would matter what you did.
I really understand where Alice is coming from - I've been in exactly the same place coming from a small town and knowing that I need to do other things, that I have to leave.
I grew up in Seattle, but I always knew I wanted to leave.
I moved to L.A. right out of high school, but not to act. I think I chose it because it was on the same time zone as Seattle, where I'm from.
