There’s a college professor out there who deserves a very big thank you because that professor was instrumental toCarrie Coon’s journey to Hollywood. Coon has already given us loads to celebrate including a Tony Award nominated performance inWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, phenomenal films likeGone GirlandThe Post, and also some standout TV series, one of the most unforgettable of the bunch beingThe Leftovers. But, back in college, Coon wasn’t set on pursuing a career in acting. In fact, her career path could have taken her in eight other directions.
“I think so many actors know at a very young age that’s what they want to do and a lot of them even have experience when they’re young, and I had none. I had gone to college to play soccer in my home state at a Division III school, I changed majors eight times, I ended up as an English lit and Spanish lit double major with a minor in psychology just because those are the credits that I had.”
The school did have a theater program, but it was a small one so Coon only did five or six plays while she was there. That left her in a place where she was prioritizing another subject for graduate school - until a professor suggested that she consider taking a different path:
“When I was graduating, I was gonna study linguistics and I was getting ready to shop out my thesis for graduate programs. I would still be in school right now if I had done that! And I had a professor who said, ‘You should audition for graduate school for acting,’ and it was not something that had occurred to me.”
Whoever that professor is, job well done for spotting an immense natural talent because as you’ll see in this episode of Collider Ladies Night, Coon has already accomplished so much and has amassed quite the fanbase right here at Collider, and beyond. You can watch the full conversation in the video at the top of this article or using the podcast embed below to hear all about Coon’s transition from stage to screen, what it was like making her feature debut in aDavid Finchermovie, what to expect from the upcomingJulian Fellow’s series,The Gilded Age, and of course, what it was like making her latest release,The Nest, alongsideJude Lawand directorSean Durkin.
The Nesthits select theaters on September 18th and then makes its way to VOD on November 17th.
