I auditioned in Chicago for Juilliard and didn't get in. I was basically living in a back room of my parents' house, paying rent and not doing anything with my life. I'd like to say it was patriotic to join the Marines, but it was also that I was doing nothing honorable with my life and spending too much time at McDonald's.
Adam Driver
At Juilliard, suddenly I was reading these great plays that could articulate the ways I was feeling in the Marine Corps, and that felt very therapeutic, by putting words to feelings, in a big way.
You have to be forward-moving and able to balance a lot of things at the same time. I attribute a lot of that to the Marine Corps and Juilliard both.
Juilliard definitely emphasizes the theater. They don't train - at all really - for film acting. It's mostly process-oriented, pretty much for the stage.
By the time I got into Juilliard, I was working at a Target distribution warehouse. It didn't make anything, it just shipped things, and my job was just to stand there and look at the security codes on the back of trucks and see if they would lock, and check them in.
Coming out of Juilliard, I honestly was expecting and willing to be breaking my neck, hustling, and being unemployed for a decade, two decades. I was gritting my teeth, but I was so down to do that.
Alex Sharp
I'm saving money like there's no tomorrow because, when I was at Juilliard, I had so little. They gave me a full scholarship because I didn't come from a wealthy family or anything.
At a young age, I wanted to be a prima ballerina and had these grand ideas that I would go study at Juilliard. It's something I laugh about now.
Andra Day
At Juilliard, I couldn't afford to have fun. I went to school and stayed home.
Anthony Mackie
Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to be a celebrity? I made that decision when I went to Juilliard. I wanted to be an actor. So, if I get the opportunity to be an actor and do some cool, fun and interesting projects, I'm going to do that.
I just wanted to go to New York and be on Broadway, but then I was accepted by Juilliard, where they trained me in classical voice. It was great in the end, but at the time, I thought, 'What am I doing here? This is not my path.' But it was absolutely my path and where I was meant to be.
Audra McDonald
I would love to play, perhaps not exactly Mimi in 'Rent,' but someone like her. Perhaps not on Broadway, but I think I feel like a musical is in my future. I sing, although I'm not Whitney Houston up in here. I'm a little bit shy about my singing, but I did it in school at Juilliard.
Betty Gabriel
Juilliard was four years, and I called it 'med school with guaranteed unemployment at the end.' And it ends: you're getting ready to go out and be an actor, and... nothing.
Bradley Whitford
Juilliard. It was a brutal and beautiful experience.
Brian J. Smith
Coming out of Juilliard, I had a big head, and a lot of people wouldn't want to be an assistant. But I am so fortunate, and I've learned a ton.
Bryan Cogman
I learned from master teachers at the University of Evansville, at Juilliard, at Shakespeare festivals all over the country, eventually landing at Shakespeare in the Park in N.Y.C. That show transferred, so I got to make my Broadway debut doing 'The Tempest' with Patrick Stewart.
Carrie Preston
Juilliard is wonderful in that they don't pick just one way of working. They give you a palette. There is method acting. There is a lot of attention to Shakespeare and verse.
Christian Camargo
I knew I wanted to be an artist early on, but I decided to seriously pursue the profession when I auditioned for Juilliard.
Corey Hawkins
I'm the guy coming from Juilliard.
Juilliard's mission statement is learn about the classics so you can use that as a springboard to anything that comes your way.
Daniel Breaker
I went to Juilliard, for God's sakes. I know a little something about combat.
When I graduated from high school, I had artistic and academic scholarships, and I was trying to figure out what to do. I decided to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Juilliard and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Australia.
Honestly, I am always shocked when I see myself in the mirror because I feel exactly the same as I did when I was 18 getting off the plane to go to Juilliard in New York.
I really wanted to do plays since I was a little girl. I wanted to go to Juilliard and to learn, but then I really fell in love with doing film and television along the way.
Eventually, I realized that I would not have a life until I buckled down. Once I did, I auditioned for Juilliard - and that changed everything.
For the first six or eight months at Juilliard I felt paralysed. I didn't know what I was doing.
I found L.A. much less responsive to the name Juilliard than New York was. In New York, that name actually means something. People will look up from their desks when you walk in. In L.A. it's, 'Oh yeah, that's a music school. What do you play?'
Naivete is the real reason I applied to Juilliard. I wanted to study drama and not musical theater because I have a hard time dancing. I only applied there.
I fell in love with it after going there on holiday when I was 16: we went on one of those red bus tours, and it goes past Juilliard, and I was like, 'I want to go there'.
I went to school at Juilliard, and most of our training there is the classics, and as much as I thrive in contemporary, weird, experimental work, I really am excited about finding a pioneer woman or something from a different era that I could really sink my teeth into.
I just feel lucky to have had my training at Juilliard. Even though it is a 'classical' training programme, they also prepare you for all mediums. They don't teach specific techniques or subscribe to a specific school of thought about acting.
They didn't really encourage my goofy, comedic side at Juilliard.
I knew if I had gone to school - if I had gone to Juilliard and danced for four years - I would have spent every day wondering what would have happened if I had gone to Los Angeles instead.
I'm at the National Theatre School, which is like the Juilliard of Canada.
I went to school. I went to Juilliard. You spend 13 hours a day on voice and speech. Now I realize why.
I feel like I owe Juilliard everything... coming from Kentucky at age 17, having a school like that giving me a chance. And if you can't afford it, you can get a scholarship.
I went to public school, and I didn't do well in school. And it wasn't until, actually, I got into school at Juilliard - it was the first time in my life that I thought, 'Oh, maybe I'm not stupid,' because I was so inspired and passionate about what I was learning, and it was the first time in my life I had felt that.
I was on a couple of scholarships. I had a job in the school administrative office. I had a job as a hat-check boy in a restaurant. I had another job as an assistant to a casting director. It took a lot to get myself enough money to put myself through Juilliard.
I went to Juilliard as a clarinet major, and somewhere between the beginning and the end, I stopped playing it. I asked myself who was I reaching... I just fell out of love with it.
The plan was to go Juilliard, graduate, and then go across the street and play in the New York Philharmonic - that was the plan, anyway.
I left school my senior year to do a play at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. Then while I was doing a play, I auditioned for Juilliard. I got in over the summer, and they told me, 'You have to graduate high school to come here. You don't need the SATs, but you do need to graduate high school.' I finished over the summer through correspondence.
Not even my excellent training at Juilliard prepared me for my first movie role, where I played a transsexual who falls in love with a military guy in 'Soldier's Girl.'
I did a lot of engineering things, like taking apart my brother's model car when I was 10. I also played the piano for about 10 years. I auditioned for Juilliard but didn't get in.
I really like Los Angeles - I had a good life out there. But the reason I choose to live in New York is because when I'm between engagements, as they say, something creative always comes up for me, like 'Julian Po,' or helping teach at NYU, or helping stage a show at Juilliard.
I almost never go to the theatre without seeing someone I've taught or known at Juilliard.
I've had this unbelievable amount of good fortune and I'm just so thankful for it. But at the same time I feel exceptionally guilty. I have so many friends who are talented graduates of Juilliard and are exceptional actors and I'm the lucky one that somehow got such a fortunate break.
I thought I should go to New York because it was the place to go to study. I went and tried to get an application from the Juilliard School but they wouldn't even give me one because I didn't have my high school graduation.
I rejected being a lot of things that I grew up in, and yet I didn't. I got all my tactics from where I grew up... I can talk about all the people in those environments more than I can talk about the teachers at Juilliard or anyone else.
There were not many black students at Juilliard, unfortunately. So when you get there, you become very good friends, in particular, with the other black students.
When I wanted to become a serious actor, this girl told me, 'You should go to Juilliard.' And I said, 'Okay.'
