I was fifteen. My best friend at the time and I were Christmas shopping and I saw the cutest little bears. I thought, 'I adore that! But why am I liking this bear so much?' I remember putting it down and saying we had to finish Christmas shopping. She got it for me. I still sleep with it.

 

 

For the longest time I wanted to be a magician. When I was little and my parents divorced, on Tuesdays [my father] would come get my brother and I for dinner. One of the places I always wanted to go to had magicians that went around to the tables. I just loved it.

 

 

 

I shaved their (Barbie dolls) heads, put them in dye and put pins in them. I was sick.

 

 

 

I'd climb trees and play in the dirt. I was a big dork. Stringy, curly, knotted, snarled-up hair, I always had dirt on my face.

 

 

 

I never was that girl who hung pictures of [famous] guys in her locker. My friend had Michael Jackson -- when he had just the one nose job -- but I never really did. Is that terrible?

 

 

 

I remember seeing Neil Diamond in concert when I was eight and a half. I sat in the front row of his concert and I waved at him. He said, 'Oh, this little girl is waving at me. Hi!' I was like, 'Hi!' He gave me his guitar pick afterwards and I was so thrilled.

 

 

 

Braun once passed out fliers for a French film festival on Chicago's bustling Michigan Avenue while dressed as a can-can girl. "For once in my life," she cracks, "I was happy my breasts are small."

 

 

 

I went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London for a summer session in Shakespeare. It was an incredible experience.

 

 

 

My junior year in high school, I auditioned for this show that everyone got in to, no matter what. You could be a tree or a stump, but it was okay because you got to go to the parties (laughs)! So I was like, 'Who cares? I'll just be in the chorus.' But the next year, I thought, 'I really want to audition.' I did, and I got the lead.

 

 

 

I got really, really close to getting the part of Andie on 'Dawson's Creek'. For a long time, they couldn't find anyone to put up against me. Meredith Monroe -- who got the part -- and I knew each other in Chicago and out here in [L.A.]. We'd call each other for certain parts. 'Did you go out on such-and-such?' It was the weirdest thing, because for Andie, neither of us called the other.

 

 

 

I didn’t think that it [acting] was a responsible field or career to go into so I was a psychology major.

 

 

 

I started babysitting when I was 12. I’ve always had a real connection with children.

 

 

 

The only time I ever remember being really punished...I don't remember what I did, but Rudolph's Shiny New Year was on and I was not allowed to watch it," she recalls with a laugh. "My mom and my brother sat there and watched it, and I kept trying to creep on in. She was like, 'Get back in bed [laughs]...' I wasn't a bad kid. I think I had talked back badly or had a smart mouth. But it was all I wanted to watch!

 

 

 

I've never stood in line for a costume because my mom always made them and actually Jennifer Tilly said the same thing we must have come from the same stock cuz my mom REFUSED to buy the costumes. And you know I too always wanted the plastic ones with the mask and all of that but she refused. But she made some of the best costumes. I mean Grenada was incredible. I was a scare crow one year and she made all of it and the stitches on my face...

 

 

 

I grew up in Evanston, which is just the first; it’s like the city suburb of Chicago.

 

 

 

I went away to school in Wisconsin at Madison. I was a Psych major but I was taking as many classes as I could in acting or drama. I would go and see plays and I was so sad every time I went. I’d stare up at the stage and I just wanted to be there. I wanted to be apart of that world. There was seriously some deep deep pull anytime I went. I was just full of tears, not necessarily because of the performance [laughs] but because I wanted to be apart of it.

 

 

 

My goal was to make my living as an actor and I always had other jobs. I always worked, waiting tables or doing odd jobs here and there. I always had a job to pay the bills because I knew that you can’t count on this.

 

 

I worked at the four seasons here in Los Angeles for 5 years. I was in the banquet department.