I've read that you also give a lot of credit to your background in dance. Yes, my mother was a dance teacher, and I've danced since I was three. Dance instills a discipline that most kids don't have. As kids, we were part of a ton of extracurricular activities, and because we had the consistency of classes after school all the time, we developed that discipline, and that really helped me get to where I am today. I never gave up. I always say that dancers learn to dance on broken ankles, and we do. It's the no-pain, no-gain mentality.

So I imagine that your friends and family in North Carolina were thrilled when you landed your first Emmy nomination. Everyone back home was so proud. In a small town, people have a hard time understanding or believing that you're going to leave and go to California to do this grandiose thing. People from smaller towns tend to think that the moon and the sun rise and set there. And I always had this "I want to see what else is out there" kind of mentality. I was always open-minded and was a go-getter and ambitious. So when I didn't give up, and when I actually succeeded, it gave everyone else this pride - the same pride that I had because I'd refused to fail. Being nominated not only proved some people wrong, it also made a lot of people feel good about where they came from. It made them proud to think that they had a part in it. Which they did.

What was the best thing about growing up in North Carolina? The best thing was probably the beach. I grew up on the river - it was the real Dawson's Creek - and we'd always take the boat through the inlets, all the way to the ocean and to Morehead City and to Atlantic Beach. North Carolina has some of the most beautiful beaches in America - white sand, seashells, clear blue water. My favorite place is called Shackleford Banks. It's a little island, and everyone takes their boats there and anchors just off the shore of the island. There are wild horses that live there. They were left there during the days of the settlers, and they've bred over the years, so there are hundreds of them.