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I've always had a day job and never been just acting.
Allison Tolman -
Whenever I've done a sketch in which I'm asked to play a mom, my brain goes to Minnesota. It makes the character seem matronly, warm, the kind of person that takes care of you and brings you Campbell's soup when you're sick. It's a great shortcut.
Allison Tolman
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The thing about theater that always and still kind of makes me edgy is that you work and work and work and work, and then you're just in performance mode, and then you have to just be on; the work is done, and then you just have to do it over and over again, so you're just constantly at that performance level.
Allison Tolman -
I never pursued voice hard enough. I've done musicals here and there, but I was never dedicated to really being one of these fantastic, operatic kind of singers that you have to be in some of these musicals.
Allison Tolman -
I did a 20-minute selection of scenes from the play 'Spring Awakening' in college, well before the musical came around, so when the musical was becoming a hot thing, and I was reading interviews with Duncan Sheik about how he came to do the music, I think it's interesting.
Allison Tolman -
I've met a lot of really friendly people who are incredibly happy for me, which is really flattering and humbling.
Allison Tolman -
I don't think you realize how often on television people are not like anyone we know or have known.
Allison Tolman -
I did a lot of commercial and theater work when I got out of school and was living in Dallas, and I moved to Chicago to go through the Second City Conservatory Program.
Allison Tolman
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I read the 'Fargo' hashtag and what people tweeted at me and every article and every comment on every article. I really just ate it up. But I wasn't prepared for hearing what everybody thought of me.
Allison Tolman -
I do find that when I see women who flesh out the television or film world and make it look more like the world I actually live in, I gravitate towards those characters.
Allison Tolman -
I tend to play nurses and waitresses and policewomen.
Allison Tolman -
I worked for three years in a small IT firm in Chicago. I managed our client base, so I translated into human speak for our technicians. But our company was sold, and the atmosphere and the culture really changed, so I quit without having anything else lined up.
Allison Tolman -
I was working, like, 14-hour days on 'Fargo,' and now if I schedule more than two things in a day, I'm like, 'Whoa, you guys. That's two train rides, and I have to plan for an hour-and-a-half lunch with my cat.'
Allison Tolman -
When you go in to do a screen test, you negotiate your contract and sign all your paperwork before you even get on a plane.
Allison Tolman
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I grill, like, every day.
Allison Tolman -
As a newcomer, you know, you don't come out the gate as a singer and try to compare with Judy Garland.
Allison Tolman -
I liked in television that you do some work, then you perform, then you stop and you have a break because they have to set up lights, and then you do some more work. I really liked the pace of it; it really agreed with me.
Allison Tolman -
I'm hoping I can evade a type and go for roles based on what I consider plausible and what I consider good.
Allison Tolman -
At Clements, I was an officer in Thespian Troupe No. 3689.
Allison Tolman -
'The Secret Garden' was the first musical that I fell in love with when I was a kid. My mom took me to see it, and it was the first one that I owned the soundtrack to and listened to over and over again.
Allison Tolman
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Most of the time you spend filming a show is time you spend without the cameras on, when you're not acting.
Allison Tolman -
I started getting Twitter followers after I started doing press for 'Fargo.' One of my best friends from college is a librarian, and she started tracking after each interview how many Twitter followers I got. She and her librarian friends were like, 'We're going to make a graph.' And I was like, 'Alright, nerds.'
Allison Tolman -
I moved to Chicago and I did theater, and then I started writing and I stop acting and I did sketch. You know, I did all of the things that, if you were serious about doing television, don't do.
Allison Tolman -
I'm aware me getting a role out of Chicago as a complete unknown is an insane anomaly, so I knew I'd have to get out here to L.A. as soon as the door opened.
Allison Tolman