Acting began as "just sort of a fun thing" - also a logical thing for a girl to think of, growing up in Los Angeles with a father who is a stage manager and a mother who is a screenwriter (soon to turn director). Early in her career, she scored a hit as Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room (2002), but it was the 2004 TV movie Speak that brought her a sense of vocation. It dealt with themes of alienation and rape.
"I felt I was really growing myself, and when the movie came out I could see it was really helping people. It gave me a feeling like letting weight off." She began to think of acting as "breathing" and as more than breathing, as honest, vital "exertion, like running."
She thought to herself, "Yeah, I'm going to do this for a while."
