Christine Baranski

And I finished.

And her name was Elizabeth Smith, and she was very intimidating as well.

But she was going to make the decision, and John Hausman said, Well, Elizabeth?

And all I remember is her nodding.

And then John Hausman said, well, congratulations, you've been accepted at Juilliard.

And my mother was waiting for me downstairs in what was then Avery Fisher Hall, which, no, it was actually called Philharmonic Hall, where the New York Philharmonic played.

She waited on a bench.

And I remember that moment being so special, telling my mother...

it still makes me cry that I got into Juilliard and we went and had two Southern Comfort Manhattans at the Algonquin Hotel because the Algonquin Hotel was where Mame it's referenced in Mame and then of course it's the famous Algonquin it's the only time I got drunk with my mother we waddled home we waddled back to our cheap room in Times Square and then that night would you believe what we saw

Private Lives with Tammy Grimes and Brian Bedford.

Wonderful.

So that's how my early life is.

It's just magic.

That day defined your life.

It certainly did, because if they hadn't been willing to give me a second chance, the trajectory of my career, if I would have had a career at all, I don't know, because those four years at Juilliard, I had not only great training, but the man who was probably my most important acting teacher, Michael Kahn,

gave me my first job out of school.

In fact, I didn't collect my diploma because I was already a working actress because Stratford started rehearsing early.

Stratford, Connecticut.

Connecticut.

And I was hired to be an understudy, a lady-in-waiting in Romeo and Juliet, and I understudied Elizabeth Ashley in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.