Like most female actresses, I am always aspiring to succeed and become a popular star, and my positive energy never dies out. And it wasn’t until entering my twenties that I began to identify my real dream as an actress. I realized that acting is not all about receiving people’s applause or cheer. It is about delivering the right character to the audience and feeling satisfied in who you become on stage. Therefore, I try to focus more on the abstract qualities of acting, and I hope to become a better actress throughout time.

Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.

I didn’t want to be an actress, because I had been around that lifestyle my whole life. So, I just thought I wanted to be more serious or some stupid thing. I think what changed it was I was 22 or so and I had this exercise. I was up on stage performing, and when you're doing it well, it is the most exhilarating thing in the world. It just feels like the most alive you can be or something, and I decided I am going to try and do that.

As an actress, it’s a dream come true role. You run the gamut of human emotions with each incarnation of the story. She’s an authentic character and I have so much fun playing her.

I figured early on [acting] was what I wanted to do for a job. And I certainly hoped it would work out, and that I would be playing lots of different parts. But I don't think I anticipated being an ant!

I was trained as an actress, but as much as I love that work when I can get it, it is not my acting work for which I’m generally known. It is not my chosen career path that ultimately defines me, but rather an unfamiliar, unexpected path that has presented itself. To quote another group from my youth, “what a long, strange trip it’s been,” and I won’t have it any other way. Life continues to surprise and delight me, even when I think I know what I want from it. I knew I wanted to be a mother, for example, but, and I’m sure your parents can relate to this, I had no idea how much fun I would have nor how much I would learn about life and myself from my child and stepchildren.

I’ve got different emotions. That is a good thing about being an actress. It is a profession that you can express the emotional changes you undergo when you get old, get married or bear a child. Acting is after all a study of humans.

Luck, fate, destiny, karma. No matter how well one might be able to sing or dance or how beautiful one is, I think something else comes into play. I am a person who didn't want to become an actress at all. But the fact that I ended up being an actress indicates to me that there is something of destiny involved. So I don't think it is something that you can study to become.

Being an actress has always been my biggest dream. I was interested in theater from primary and secondary school. After that, I graduated from the Actor Studio Department of the Müjdat Gezen Art Center. I took private lessons from many esteemed names and soon started my career in a daily television series in İzmir.

When I was younger and started acting, I wasn't good at sports and didn't have any other special talents. Acting was my after-school activity. I never planned on growing up and becoming an actor. I always wanted to go to school and become a veterinarian so I think when I got older and suddenly realized that it was my passion, it was just a natural moment. I never felt pushed. My family has always supported me completely and kept me grounded. I never got lost in child Hollywood actor weirdness.

I thought 'I can't be an actor, I can't'. Then this film came up and it was like someone saying to me, 'You can, don't give up'.

I never thought I'd be an action star, but now they're going to make little Xena action figures for kids. I still want to be a fine actress one day; it's just a matter of putting in the time and passion.

The irony, like I said, is that I didn't pursue acting when I was a little kid. But as I got older, in my late teens and early 20s, I really took it seriously. That’s what I wanted to do, what I wanted my profession to be. But when I started pursuing it, there were just not a lot of opportunities for me. It was extremely difficult for an Asian actor at that time. In Hollywood, very, very few child actors make smooth and successful transitions into adult acting. It's very difficult for many, but I think it's a hundred times—a thousand times—more difficult when you are an Asian actor. I found myself at a crossroads at a very early age. Do I want to continue down a path where I just didn't see many opportunities for myself? Or do I want to go down a path, an unknown path, where I really don't know what I want to do? And I struggled for a long, long time. And at the same time, I was just hoping that phone would ring with an amazing offer to be in a movie like Indiana Jones or The Goonies, or a great role for an Asian actor, and it never came. I was so dispirited and disheartened.

I will not say I have always wanted to be an actor, but I have always loved to be on television as a broadcaster. But somehow, acting found me and here I am today.