How did you react when you got the part?
I was SOOOOOO excited and couldn’t believe how lucky I was to get such a hard to get part! I was nervous too because I knew it meant a big change for my family and I needed to get to work!
Does your stutter affect you in your role at all?
It hasn’t so far! When I am first learning my lines, I do stutter often. But once they are deeply memorized, I don’t stutter at all when I say them on stage! I did stutter some on stage during my last community theater production, but not with School of Rock.
Do you remember when you first began to stutter? Does it run in your family?
I don’t really remember a time when I didn’t stutter, I think it started around age 4. It came and went then, but it wasn’t long before it became pretty much a constant thing. Stuttering doesn’t run in our family – I am the only one that we know of.
Have you sought treatment? Did it help?
Yes, I spent about a year doing Skype stuttering therapy at school and at home twice a week, and I also went to my therapist’s home monthly for individual and group sessions. It was helpful, but I found the slow-stretchy speech techniques strange sounding, so I didn’t like to use them much. What DOES work for me is just remembering to breathe before and while I’m speaking! I stopped therapy on my own last year because I wasn’t making much progress and I decided I don’t really mind that much that I stutter.
What are SOME OF the biggest challenges stuttering has presented to you?
Sometimes I feel like people who don’t understand stuttering or don’t know that’s what I am doing might think something else is wrong with me or they get impatient waiting for me to finish what I am saying. Sometimes I wish I didn’t stutter, but it’s mostly for how others see and hear me, not for how I do. I worry that later it might affect me in job interviews, but I can choose to use my tools when I feel like I will need to stutter less.
Based upon your experiences, what would you like to tell other children who stutter?
I would tell them not to let stuttering get in the way of trying things if they really want to do them! I thought my stutter would prevent me from getting an acting role, but I kept trying and hoped the casting people would give me a chance and see me for who I am. There are a lot of actors and other famous people who stutter but not when they are performing, so I think the casting people probably know this. I feel like when I don’t worry as much about how people will react to my stuttering, I am more relaxed. It is part of who I am, and I can control it when I want to, but usually it doesn’t bother me. I just tell people it is like hair color or skin color, it is how my brain works and that’s that!
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