10 Things You Didn’t Know About Krysten Ritter

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9. International Model

A modeling agent discovered her at a local mall in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, when she was 15, and when she was 18 she moved to New York City and her modelling career took off. She was in magazines and catalogues and walked the runway in Milan, New York, Paris, and Tokyo.

A photo posted by Krysten Ritter (@therealkrystenritter) on Jul 11, 2013 at 2:11pm PDT

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8. Rough Adolescence

During her adolescence, she was bullied relentlessly at school. According to her, her classmates “would make fun of [her] for being really skinny, [and] gangly, and just the way [she] looked.”

A photo posted by Krysten Ritter (@therealkrystenritter) on Jan 22, 2015 at 7:27am PST

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7. Outcast

She always felt like an outcast, even in her own family. “I wasn’t really included… I just fell between the cracks. I was completely on my own,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. It wasn’t until she started modeling that she felt like she fit in. “It was awesome. Immediately, I felt like I fit in. Meeting the other models, who were also kind of weird looking, and tall, and skinny, I was like, ‘Wow, I feel more like myself here.’”

A photo posted by Krysten Ritter (@therealkrystenritter) on Jan 22, 2015 at 7:28am PST

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6. Dream Job

When Krysten was 15, her mother got pregnant, but it was quickly determined that the baby had a heart murmur. Krysten – who accompanied her mother to many of her appointments – decided around this time that she wanted to be a pediatric cardiologist so that she could help babies suffering from similar problems and would have a purpose in life.

A photo posted by Krysten Ritter (@therealkrystenritter) on Sep 26, 2015 at 2:46pm PDT

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5. Musically Inclined

When she isn’t acting, she sings and plays guitar in a band called Ex Vivian.

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4. Model Turned Actress

She started going to acting auditions when she switched from Elite Model Management to Wilhelmina Models, which has an acting division. The first acting job she landed was in a commercial for Dr. Pepper.

A photo posted by Krysten Ritter (@therealkrystenritter) on Feb 13, 2014 at 9:46pm PST

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3. Best Friend/Sidekick

After landing parts in big studio romantic comedies like 27 Dresses, What Happens in Vegas, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and She’s Outta My League, people began comparing her to Judy Greer, another actress who had played the best friend/sidekick in a number of films.

©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett Collection

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2. Serious Competition

When she auditioned for the role of Jane in Breaking Bad, she was up against other high caliber actresses like Juliette Lewis and Fairuza Balk.

Lewis Jacobs / © AMC / courtesy everett collection

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1. Panic Attack

She had a panic attack while filming the scene in Breaking Bad when Jesse frantically tries to revive her character, Jane. “They made this cast to go around my chest to protect my heart, obviously, but they fit it to my stand-in, who is smaller than I am. So, this thing wouldn’t close all the way because they had to drill it on and they had to drill it off. It’s a whole thing, so it wouldn’t close all the way. And so, it’s pinching me every time he pushes my chest. And I can’t get a full breath of air. So, I’m like [gasps for air] trying to get air,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “And you have this amazing actor on top of you like, pounding on your chest, hysterical, like, crying — he’s got tears dripping on my face. It was too much. I’m like, ‘Okay, this is acting. Okay, don’t cry. Okay, just hold it together.’ And then, I started to think like, ‘Oh my God, if I were dead, somebody would be like, really upset, probably. Like, this is what it would be. This is weird.’ And then, not being able to get a full breath of air, I had a panic attack! We had to stop for a while, for like, five minutes. Like, I had to get it off. I think it was also my birthday. It was too much. I couldn’t wait to get out of it. That was when I went, ‘Just get this character away from me. I can’t.’”

Lewis Jacobs / © AMC / courtesy everett collection