'American Horror Story' 2015 Cast: Pepper Actress Reveals Her Journey To Hollywood & How She 'Got Lucky'
American Horror Story standout Naomi Grossman recently gave a speech about her journey to Hollywood and how she carved out a path for herself.
Grossman, who played Pepper in American Horror Story: Asylum and AHS: Freak Show, spoke at Northwestern University on Wednesday where she detailed how she made it to where she is today.
The actress suggested the the road to success was not necessarily an easy one.
"For the most part, unless you're Zooey Deschanel, actors first starting out in Hollywood right out of college are usually demoted to those 'nurse number four to the left' type of roles," Grossman explained, according to The Daily Northwestern. "There's nothing wrong with these kinds of roles, but they're typically for wallflowers. They're there to support the star and I'm not like that."
She wound up creating her own show called "Girl in Argentine Landscape" and put much of her content on YouTube, garnering millions of views. This ultimately led to her auditioning for American Horror Story and landing the part of Pepper.
"I got lucky," Grossman admitted. "But what is luck? Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. My 'If you build it, they will come' attitude really ended up paying off in the end."
She cautioned those attending the speech to not set a deadline or a specific time limit on your goals.
"The minute you impose a time limit, you're giving yourself an out," she stressed. "You're implying that this might not happen for you so you prepare yourself with a plan B, which means you don't actually love plan A enough."
It is possible that Grossman could return for the next season of American Horror Story, titled Hotel, but if not she has certainly left her mark as a fan favorite with Pepper. In fact, the popular Funko Pop company is making figurines of Pepper to be sold this summer.
American Horror Story: Hotel is expected to premiere in October on FX.
