No one tells us when we turn 40, we still have to deal with that. How did you feel about hitting that milestone this year?
I’ve been anticipating 40 since I turned 37, I’ll tell you that! But it is what it is. I hate to say this because I wish that it wasn’t ingrained in me but, for whatever reason, I am scared of aging. I think that a lot of that comes from my job and this idea of a youthful woman being more desirable and, therefore, being cast more often. I think the climate is changing, for sure, because there are more women in higher roles in my industry now—and they’re not of that mindset. That’s obviously very helpful.
At the end of the day, we’re just people. Actors are just people, and we age! There’s nothing we can do about it. But it’s been a big concern for me. Now that I’ve turned 40, I don’t know what happened…I sort of woke up and I was in this place of understanding, and I realized how far I’ve come in my life and how grateful I am for everything. I was not as scared of aging as I was the day before.
I am definitely doing a lot more now though to try to keep up with my skin, my fine lines and everything else—nothing crazy, but I want to keep my skin looking healthy and whatnot. I use the NuFace at home and I use it a lot while I’m working. I also have one of those LED lamps. I try to use that more frequently now. I’m basically just trying to take better care of my skin. I’m also very interested in lasers. I guess I’m looking forward to the point where I am not as concerned about aging, and I just kind of embrace it. I’m getting there; I don’t I have any other choice!
Either way, you are busier than ever with your success, and you have two young children. How do you balance it?
I wish somebody would tell me. It’s nearly impossible. It is really and truly nearly impossible. I wish we would talk about it more—in this day, women are working more than ever and having a family and “it all” is really difficult. I think when you work as much as I do, things inevitably get neglected—like my free time or spending enough time with my husband. I can either do all of that, and spend all my time with my family as much as I possibly can, but then I didn’t study for work the next day. I try to keep that balance, but there’s only so many hours in a day. It gets overwhelming. I think the trick is not to beat yourself up over all of the little things and just try to improve on what you can, right?
That’s all you can do. What are you excited for next…or are you still just enjoying the success of this year?
It’s weird because This is Us ended and then Virgin River did better than we could have imagined and it’s continuing to grow this audience…the only way I really experience “success” is, all of a sudden, more press and more people recognize me. I haven’t quite adjusted to that yet. All of that is still pretty new, and I find myself sometimes not wanting to go out because I feel kind of awkward about it.
I’m trying to enjoy work and, best of all, I’m working! I think this season has started out well and we’re getting into a few episodes soon that are pretty heavy. They’re really intense and I think that they’re some of the best episodes we’ve ever done. I never say that either! I think that there’s a high sense of drama that starts to come up this season that it’s going to leave people on the edge of their seats. At least, I hope. I’m excited to get into that.
How can I complain? I’m on a show that’s doing well. I’m successful. I’ve been an actor since I was 15 and I’ve been working since I was 15—that doesn’t always happen. You could be trying and trying for years and years, and a lot of people end up quitting because they aren’t lucky enough to get onto something that does well. I’m really grateful, and I’m happy to be here.
At least we’re not shooting Croatia or something. Not that Croatia isn’t lovely. I’m sure it’s lovely, but it’s really far away! Vancouver is in North America, at least—so I don’t have to go too far from my house to go to work. It’s still a flight, but it’s close enough to my family!
