Tessa Thompson

I was so young.

Yeah.

Yes.

I mean, the truth is, early in your career as an actor, if you're someone like me that doesn't have any...

And folks in Hollywood and my family, I was like cold calling agents.

I was like sending my little resume.

I put together like a little collage and a handwritten note, and I would send it out to agents around town.

I mean, it was like very scrappy in those early days.

But I remember that cold case audition came after I'd had like a lot of commercial auditions, which I never had any luck at.

You never got luck.

Oh, I'd be holding a pizza box.

And I just found the whole process really challenging.

I was not very good at it.

It convinced me that I was probably not a very good actor because I couldn't do any of the things that they wanted me to do at these commercial castings.

And also, typically, you'd be like one of like 85 people that look vaguely like you just in like slightly different outfits.

Yeah.

And I was like, I don't know if I'm going to make it this way.

But I remember when Cold Case came through, I thought, oh, my goodness, this is so fascinating because it aligned with so many of the things I already loved.

And one of which was research.

I was like, oh, I get to do so much research into the time.