Esquire Presents Me in My Place with Gillian Zinser

I found myself running in a lot of circles. I was willing to pick up anything from pencils to cameras to scripts to paintbrushes and make anything with them.

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But as soon as I graduated, I went to Kenya to photograph these slums of Kibera. And I met someone who convinced me to move to L.A. the minute I got back. So I went from the slums of Kibera to 90210. That wasn't exactly the path I imagined.

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I didn't come out here to be a part of a soap opera. I'm very, very appreciative of this job, but I think it was more of a learning platform. And from here I'd like to get back to the reason I wanted to be a part of storytelling to begin with.

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Oliver Stone asked me to do a role in his film, Savages, and I have a tiny debut, but it was fun to be a part of his world for it. And I look back on all these experiences that I've had that maybe didn't make so much sense at the time, and now I understand them as everything that I needed to give me the tools and experience to be able to now tell the stories that I want to be a part of.

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I spent the winter down in Costa Rica learning how to surf. I'm partial to warm water — to not having to wear a wet suit — and I ride a long board, so it's a very different sport than what you see my character do on the show.

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No, I'm a water temperature snob. And the water here is insanely cold. It's far colder than you would imagine.

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It's a succulent collection back there. I mostly just like cactus because I don't know how to care for plants — or water them, really. I'm a bad gardener.

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T-shirts. Old t-shirts.

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And my mom's old sundresses from the 60s, definitely.

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I think everyone's home is a pretty good reflection of what goes on inside their heads.

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