E!: After Princess Diaries, your resume starts to slow down, with you essentially just taking on guest roles. What happened? Why did you step away from Hollywood?
EVD: At that time, we didn’t have Netflix and all these expanded options with thousands and thousands of roles. I would literally go for a length of time without any roles that I fit the bill for. I mean, you’re either in the very top half a percent doing very well or, well…it’s just very competitive.
Since I was a kid, I wanted to have a large family. And, in Los Angeles, that requires a consistent, realistic income. So, the fickle nature of employment as an actor just wasn’t consistent enough for me. Luckily, simultaneously when things started to slow down in acting in my early 20s, another opportunity presented itself for me with a company that I started working with at age 25. And I’ve been with that company ever since. It’s a sales position with a company working in finance. I’ve grown into a management position and it’s worked out really well.
E!: Do you miss acting though? Do you ever look at Anne Hathaway now and think, I wish that was me?
EVD: Absolutely. There is definitely a tinge of that, but, at the same time, it’s met with other benefits such as being able to lead a life in public. I mean, when you have that level of notoriety your life just takes on a whole new course. So, on the one hand, yeah, it would be great if my career followed a similar path as someone like Anne Hathaway and I was put into that caliber. But, at the same time, I’m fortunate in that my alternative career worked out really well.
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