Nearly 20 years after playing the new girl, Kate Spencer, in 2006’s high school comedy John Tucker Must Die, Brittany Snow is once again starring as a “fish out of water” in her new Netflix drama The Hunting Wives.
“It’s a full circle moment,” Snow, 39, tells PEOPLE. “I feel like Kate, back in the day, was the most similar to me at that time. In the same way, Sophie is someone I really saw myself in.”
Like Sophie — a woman who moves from the East Coast to East Texas and becomes transfixed with socialite Margo Banks (Malin Akerman) — Snow has long been open about her anxiety and depression.
“I related to Sophie in that she doesn’t shy away from talking about it,” says Snow, who first revealed her struggles with mental health and eating disorders at 21 in a 2007 PEOPLE essay. “It’s nice that people are so open these days, and I’m glad I was a part of that trajectory in any way.”
Kent Smith/Netflix
Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman in ‘The Hunting Wives’
At 23, Snow took two years off from public life to focus on her mental health before filming Pitch Perfect in 2011.
“During that time I had to learn how to handle my anxiety and my nerves,” she says. “I’m sort of a nervous person by nature, and acting is not always conducive for that, in terms of walking into an audition. I didn’t think I was ever going to work again because I felt like I had to restart my career. But that time off was hugely important for me to find out who I was. It was a restart, in a way, that gave me a clear path forward.”
Snow got her start in the business modeling at the age of 3.
By 12, she booked her first TV gig playing troubled teen Susan “Daisy” Lemay on the CBS soap Guiding Light, and she remained in the role from 1998-2001.
After Guiding Light, Snow starred in the NBC drama American Dreams from 2002-2005.
“I never had a backup plan,” she says of her acting career.
CBS
Brittany Snow on ‘Guiding Light’ in 1999
Starting with The Pacifier in 2005, Snow carved out a successful film career for herself with box office hits like John Tucker Must Die and Hairspray (2007). Still, “I don’t think I’ve made it,” she says.
“It’s always a struggle,” she says. “I’m always wondering what my next job is going to be or if going to ‘make it,’ in a way. I think that’s the same for every actor — unless you’re Tom Cruise or something.”
The biggest compliment Snow says she’s gotten is fans telling her they feel like they know her.
“I’ve been around since people were kids, so they grew up with me as I was growing up,” she says. “I know with the people who influenced me the most, growing up, and the actresses that I looked up to, I do feel like I know them. And when I meet them, they mean more to me than anything because they showed me what it was like to be a woman.”
Courtesy Everett Collection
Brittany Snow and Penn Badgley in ‘John Tucker Must Die’ in 2006
One of her idols growing up was Claire Danes, who she got to work with in the upcoming Netflix thriller The Beast in Me.
“Working with Claire was probably one of the most fan-girl encounters that I’ve had in a long time, because I grew up with My So-Called Life,” she says. “I grew up with Romeo + Juliet, Little Women. I wanted to be Claire Danes. So, getting to work opposite of her and becoming friends with her was such an honor for me. She’s always been someone I greatly admire, not only for her acting, but also for how she keeps her private life sacred.”
These days Snow keeps a tight support circle that includes her fellow Pitch Perfect alums, her dog Charlie and her family.
Though she’s been “grieving” her dad John, 86, since his Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis about six years ago, she says he’s still her “biggest cheerleader.”
“Alzheimer’s is just a terrible, terrible disease,” she says. “Not being able to tell him about certain things is really hard, but he’s still there in a way. I do tell him everything that I can, and I can still hold his hand. I’m just holding onto those moments as tightly as possible because I know that his soul knows and is happy for me.”
Brittany Snow/Instagram
Brittany Snow and her father John
No matter where her career takes her, Snow — who will also star in the Hulu Murdaugh Murders limited series later this year — is proud of the person she’s become and is still becoming.
“I think my idea of success when I was younger was this sort of one-track mind of needing to be Julia Roberts because as a 10-year-old girl, everyone wants to be Julia Roberts,” she says. “I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that there’s so many different forms of success. Success, to me, is the fact that I’m still doing this, and I love it even more now. I remind myself all the time that I didn’t give up.”
Read the original article on People
