Cabaret Standout Gayle Rankin on Her Girly-Girl Past, Badass Inspiration & Accordion Crisis

Age: 24

Hometown: Glasgow, Scotland

Current Role: A stunning Broadway debut as the Nazi-sympathizing, accordian-playing prostitute Fraulein Kost, who rents a room in the same boarding house as central characters Cliff Bradshaw and Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

Stage Cred: After graduating from Juilliard, Rankin quickly nabbed roles off-Broadway in The Illusion and Tribes. Her credits also include the Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Seagull at Lake Lucille and Law & Order: SVU.

"I was a really girly girl when I was younger. I only wore pink until I was at least 12. Think of me in culottes with a Bagpuss T-shirt and frizzy hair. Oh, and I was a fat child. It was bad news.”

"Calamity Jane inspired me to be a performer. I still want to be her. I mean who doesn’t want to be Calamity Jane? She’s such a badass."

"Naiveté is the real reason I applied to Juilliard. I wanted to study drama and not musical theater because I have a hard time dancing. I only applied there. I'm the only Scottish person to ever get in.”

"I didn’t think I was right for Cabaret. The breakdown said, ‘Mid-30s, blowsy German prostitute.’ I was like, ‘I don’t think so.’ Then I watched the movie. After 10 minutes, I realized I had to do this.“

"I learned to play the accordion for this role. Once I started on the wrong finger, and had an onstage existential crisis: ‘Why am I blonde? Why am I speaking with a German accent?’ I recovered, but I was seriously seeing dark spots.”

"My boyfriend lives next door to Scores. I watched the girls going in and out of the club as research [for Kost]. You know what’s f*cked up? They’re like actors. They carry so much crap and pound the pavement. There’s nothing sexy about it.“

"I'm a terrible driver. I learned last year when I did Tribes in L.A., and I crashed on Sunset Blvd. There I was in blue Lululemon sweatpants, crying, not knowing what to do. So maybe I’ll stay in New York."