Daniela Ruah

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I'm not from the States, so Thanksgiving, for me, was never a huge tradition.

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

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.

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

A Portuguese is not going to punch you for no reason.

It's a birthmark called nevus of Ota. It covers the whole white of my eye and darkens it. The square of the eye, the white part, is completely dark on my right eye, not just the iris.

I know a lot of procedurals have huge viewership, yet they're never nominated for awards.

I do have a huge fascination for science, and I love to hear what my dad has to say. He used to take me into minor surgeries when I was a kid and let me watch, so I definitely have a passion for it, but it's not as big a passion as I have for acting and creating characters.

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.