I went to college in Boston, then moved to New York before coming back to Los Angeles. On the East Coast, when you tell people youâre from here, sometimes they say, âIâm sorry.â Iâm offended by that. The city has so many wonderful things to offer, but I think people come here, see strip malls, and it doesnât appeal to them. I can see why, but when I leave L.A., itâs not like the strip malls are whatâs calling me back. Sometimes I ask people if they have been to L.A. and a lot of times they havenât, but they have a perspective that itâs lacking in history, beauty, and culture. But the treasures are hidden here. You have your own treasures, of course, then something comes up you didnât know about. A couple of years ago I discovered the Hollyhock House in Hollywood. I had driven past the area a thousand times, and I had no idea you could visit a Frank Lloyd Wright house. There are so many gems like that, especially downtown. I love the Bradbury Buildingâmy father [cinematographer Caleb Deschanel] took me there as a child.
I grew up near Santa Monica and the Palisades, but we traveled with my dad for his work, so we always had an outside perspective and appreciated what Los Angeles has to offer. I remember going to Santa Monica Pier as a child, and weâd play Skee-Ball and ride the bumper cars. I went to preschool near Abbot Kinney in Venice and remember Main Street, and it was completely different, not as clean as it is now. There was a grittiness that I remember fondly. I liked the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys because it had all this footage of Venice and Santa Monica. Itâs a little before my timeâI was born in the â70s and grew up in the â80sâbut the Vans shoes, shaggy hair, and the guys who surfed and skateboarded trickled over into the â80s. That grittiness is in a few corners still, and Iâll see it and say to my husband [actor David Hornsby], âOh, that reminds me of old Santa Monica.â
It wasnât that long ago, but so much has changed. In the â90s, when I was in high school, I had friends in Topanga Canyon and Malibu who hitchhiked. My uncle did that in the â60s, but you donât think of people doing that in the â90s, which is kind of crazy. I didnât because I was too much of a goody two-shoes, but I do remember taking the bus along PCH to go to high school until I learned to drive.
Los Angeles will always be my home. I donât know if I could feel that way about another place. And my family is here. My sister and my husband both work on the same [Fox] lot as I do, which is incredible. Itâs nice to be in one place and have a job that keeps me in L.A. Iâve had lots of actor friends move here from New York, and I tell them it takes a year to feel settled. You have to work harder and make more effort, but itâs worth it.
