Daniela Ruah: I really thrive being onstage.

A family is created throughout the process, and it's always difficult when you lose someone.

Daniela Ruah

difficult loses process

We speak loud. And we speak with our hands, but we're not aggressive like warwise. A Portuguese is not going to punch you for no reason.

Daniela Ruah

portuguese speak reason

My main goal, when I started acting, was to show as much versatility as possible because I like playing diverse roles.

Daniela Ruah

roles acting goal

I'm starting my own family and there is no other feeling like it.

Daniela Ruah

starting my-own feelings

Having a gun in your hand is very empowering.

Daniela Ruah

empowering gun hands

No actor in the world started off at the top.

Daniela Ruah

actors world

Portugal is not doing well economically. People are upset and angry. You can feel it on the street. You can tell in the way they drive. We're talking about one of the richest histories. We had an unbelievable empire, and so many maritime discoveries, and how is it that we are now reduced to this? But I still love the country.

Daniela Ruah

upset country people

We're very aggressive speakers. I remember when I was with one of my roommates in New York - and she's Portuguese, too - and we were in an Apple store talking about a computer in Portuguese. Some guy comes up to us and goes, "Hey, hey! Peace, peace! Stop arguing." It's not arguing. This is really just how we talk.

Daniela Ruah

guy arguing remember

The producers like to keep people guessing and keep them on the edge of their seats.

Daniela Ruah

guessing producers people

Im not from the States, so Thanksgiving, for me, was never a huge tradition.

Daniela Ruah

tradition huge states

I was always such a skinny kid, so I kind of grew up with an "I hate skinny" mentality.

Daniela Ruah

skinny hate kids

I've met real female NCIS agents who were smaller than I am. They were very petite.

Daniela Ruah

agents female real

After River was born, I remember being in the bedroom by myself, overwhelmed because he wasn't latching well, and I yelled, 'Dave, I need help! Can you get in here?' Suddenly my husband, my mom, and my in-laws were all in the doorway. I just melted into tears. It really does take a village.

Daniela Ruah

river myself you village

I like being pregnant - feeling the baby moving, acknowledging the miracle that we're capable of producing a whole other being from scratch. I feel more like a woman than ever before. There's just an all-around sensation of power.

Daniela Ruah

woman feel feeling power

Nature is a beautiful thing - it does what it needs to do when it needs to do it.

Daniela Ruah

does nature beautiful needs

There's no better training than working on a soap opera because of the amount of hours, the amount of pages you do a day are unbelievable. It's the best training I had in terms of discipline.

Daniela Ruah

best day you discipline

I started my career in Portugal, and the longest I've ever played a character was for about a year, which is how long our TV shows last.

Daniela Ruah

career year character long

Early on, my parents noticed an aptitude for being a show-off. I loved attention. I was always saying, 'Watch me do this, watch me do that,' which I now realize with my own kids is a phase that most kids go through.

Daniela Ruah

loved parents me my-own

That's the beauty of the acting world. You can play so many different characters who know and do so many things that you have no idea about as yourself. So I'm a big fan of workshops and classes and learning new things because you can always apply it. It's your little supply bag of creativity. Keep filling it up.

Daniela Ruah

yourself you learning beauty

When you go to an audition, don't hang on to it because no matter how well you feel it went or how badly, you just never know what the outcome is going to be.

Daniela Ruah

feel never you matter