Why Delilah From A Million Little Things Looks So Familiar
Does Delilah Dixon from the ABC hit show A Million Things look familiar? That's because the actress that portrays her, Stephanie Szostak, has been in multiple blockbuster films over the years. According to IMDb, Szostak has been in The Devil Wears Prada, starring movie legend Meryl Streep, and she was featured in Iron Man 3 with Robert Downey, Jr.
In The Devil Wears Prada, Szostak plays the chic French editor Jacqueline Follet. She explained to Backstage that she was shocked when she got the role. "I had never done a studio movie, and I got the call and I was like, Oh, my god, I'm opposite Meryl Streep," she said. "I was in the waiting room so nervous and thought I didn't do anything great, but then I got a callback with the director." Seems as though her nerves paid off.
Stephanie Szostak didn't always dream of acting
However, Szostak didn't always have her heart set on Hollywood. According to her ABC biography, she left France after high school to attend college in Virginia. Interestingly, she was a top athlete there, competing in varsity golf at the College of William and Mary. She explained to Backstage that there are similarities with sports and acting. "As actors, our instrument is our body," she said. "We have to warm up, like a dancer — a dancer would never start dancing without warming up. There's the confidence aspect of it, and how your mind can affect your performance. I played golf in college, so you're by yourself and there's a lot of room for thoughts to creep in and psych yourself out. It's the same as acting, in a way. Concentration is really important, and [so is] being in the right place in your mind."
After graduating, she started working at Chanel in New York and was asked to model for one of their in-house brochures. She said at that moment, she decided to take a risk and started pursuing modeling at age 26. A few years later, she took her first acting class and knew she had found her ultimate passion. Szostak told Elle, "I think I became me in New York City. It is here that I found my love for acting in my first class taught by the incredible Sondra Lee." Soon after her decision to move into acting, she landed roles in hit television shows The Sopranos, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and The Blacklist.
Why acting is Stephanie Szostak's passion
Showing her acting range, Szostak has also been in Bravo's Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, the TV Land series Younger and the feature film We Bought a Zoo, which stars award-winning actors Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. According to IMDb, Szostak plays the deceased wife of Matt Damon's character Benjamin Mee who buys a zoo that needs a lot of help. Bringing the zoo back to life becomes a project for his family and children, who heal together in the process.
Whether it's a serious or a comedic role, Szostak told MyDomaine she enjoys all aspects of exploring a character. "To me, acting doesn't feel like a job; it's really a passion and something I love and that I keep learning and growing from," she said. "Every experience is new, so every job is new — that's the beauty of it, in a way. You keep doing the same thing, but there's no sameness in each job."
Stephanie Szostak's role on A Million Little Things
Her current role in A Million Little Things has her growing as an actress in a new way. According to IMDb, the show features friends from Boston who have bonded through unexpected circumstances. Some of the friends have become successful, while others are struggling. Ultimately they all feel stuck in life in some way. However, after one of them dies unexpectedly, it spurs them to really start living.
They also start realizing how important friendships are and that they could be the one thing that helps save them from themselves. In the series, Szostak portrays a mother and a wife who is dealing with the grief of losing her husband. In an interview with Backstage, she explained that her character Delilah is in such distress that it makes it hard for her to face reality. "She's in this grief and dealing with all of these conflicting emotions and trying to ease the pain of her children and not knowing what tomorrow is going to be like, and it's hard sometimes to be objective," she explained.
This is the first time she's working as a lead in a network series, and she said she loves it and hopes to keep doing it for years to come. "It's such a lovely, lovely cast, as well as producer and creator," she shared.