I have really fond memories of Texas. By the time I was eight, we started to go back to Chile very regularly, and many family members came to visit us because we couldn't go visit them.

I was so obsessed with film and actors that I wasn't a very good student. I was always in trouble, but my father would always take us to the movies.

My sister and I were born in Chile and raised in the States, and my little brothers were born in the States and raised in Chile after my parents moved back in 1995.

I just went to your typical public schools, and my dad would take us to the movies every week, or he'd buy scalped tickets to San Antonio Spurs games. I remember I was four or five years old and my parents, who were very young, took us to see The Police in Austin, and Iggy Pop opened.

I've learned what Tip O'Neill meant when he said all politics is local. We need more people in Congress who have this experience, who have this boots-on-the-ground experience.

What I like about graduation speeches is that they're an opportunity for someone to make sense of their life and to impart that wisdom to someone else. It's like a sanctioned self-help moment.

It's extremely difficult and very challenging to be a woman in film and television. Just showing up in this business forces you to know yourself. But I learned how to deal with rejection and get tough when I was working as a model - it taught me how to put myself out there. In a way, my time modelling was a preparation for life.

I can hold space for people who think I'm a nut job. It's cool. But I know from my own experience what I experienced. I know what I learned. I know what I saw. I know what I heard.