She was determined to get her foot in the door.
“I did a lot of community theater,” Padalecki tells EW.
“I went to middle school with Marla Sokoloff, who was just getting cast inFull House.
Everett Collection
But just being at Tisch wasn’t enough.
So she kept working.
It wasn’t long before Padalecki landed her big break as Kris Furillo on the 2005 ABC Family seriesWildfire.
Katie Yu/The CW
“I kind of looked at it as a master’s degree,” says Padalecki.
“Because I was sort of thrown in there pretty quickly on my own.
I had never been on TV, and suddenly I was number one on a call sheet.
“Wildfireran for four seasons, wrapping in 2008, which is also when Padalecki joined the CW’sSupernatural.
“But I felt like I needed to either nurture my relationship or do the grind.
How do you feel about playing my wife?'
The story didn’t matter.
Then the nerves set in.
How easily could she return to the world she left behind?
But even that didn’t totally eliminate the nerves surrounding creating a new character from scratch.
“I felt insecure about it,” Padalecki says of playing Emily onWalker.
But that all disappeared the moment she looked the part.
I love this so much.'”
“I was so surprised with how much I’d missed it.”
“I would really love to keep working.
I really enjoy it; I love being on camera,” she says.
But that’s not all she’s doing.
If anything, she’s now finding new ways to push herself even harder.
“I know I have a problem,” she says with a laugh.
