Interview with Emily Proctor

From a Malaysian Paper:
"It was her two-year recurring stint in award-winning drama The West Wing as the spunky fast-talking Republican lawyer Ainsley Hayes that really made her stand out.
As a result, the opportunity to star in a TV show came soon after. Although she was having a great time on The West Wing, the lure of being a regular cast member in CSI: Miami was hard to resist. She consulted with her friend, former West Wing cast mate Jorja Fox (who plays Sara Sidle in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), before accepting the part. “Jorja and I have been friends for years since we did a movie together (called Forever Fabulous),” she reveals in a charming Southern accent. “She was the first call I made when I was thinking about doing CSI. I call her Horha. And I said: ‘Horha, am I going to do CSI? She said: ‘I think you will like it.’ “And I asked her: ‘Would you like it if it weren’t the No.1 show?’ She said: ‘I would.’ Then I called her halfway through the first season, and I said: ‘I don’t know if I like it.’ And she said I had to wait a while. She was right.
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"She started doing volunteer work during her early days as an actor.

“I wasn’t working very much as an actor and I felt like I really needed a volunteer job just for balance,” she explains. A friend suggested she help prepare food for a soup kitchen and she has been working with the homeless community since.

“For the longest time, a lot of the homeless community didn’t realise that I wasn’t homeless,” she recalls. “So when I got on a TV show, they were like: ‘Oh my God! This is amazing. You were just here eating lunch. And you are on The West Wing now!’ I miss doing the work greatly.” "