Christine Baranski

But you see, I'd been raised by these nuns who were also so tough that I was used to the rigors of that.

And after the first year at Juilliard, they awarded a scholarship to the hardest working, most economically needy student.

It was the Jack Landau Scholarship.

And I won it.

And it was $1,000.

Wow.

And of course, I was supposed to use it to live on the following year, but I took it, and I was at the passport office the next day, and I went to Europe for two months on $1,000 and went to all these great European cities.

It was a lot of money in those days, and travel was cheap.

I'm talking 1971.

That also was...

A hugely important trip in my life because it just opened up my world.

And my mother forbade me to go.

She said, you cannot go alone to your bay.

She was adamant that I not do it.

And I said, well, I'm going to do it.

And I'll never forget one.

And this is...

Before cell phones, before texting, even a long distance phone call would have cost a fortune.

So I didn't talk to my mother for eight weeks.

I was alone in Europe.