I knew I wanted to be an actor, and I didn't necessarily need or want to be famous or a celebrity actor. But I wanted to be somewhere where there would be no ceiling on what I could accomplish, and I felt like if I stayed in St. Louis I might have a really great regional theater career or something, but that I wasn't going to be able to get much further than that. And it felt like New York and L.A. were the two places where you could end up being a TV star or you could end up doing regional theater, which would have been fine as well.
I think I enjoy regressing. There's a part of living like that that's really fun. It's like there's no consequences: If you want to drink, you drink; if you're hungover the next day and you're late to work, who cares? There's something very appealing about having no accountability in life, but it's just not a way that I had the energy to live forever.
Sometimes acting is really cool because it forces you to exercise certain muscles in your personality that you wouldn't normally be called upon in life.