JS: Let’s start with an easy one. Do you, Stacey Oristano, think you could break a board with your fist?

SO: I think I could break my fist with a board…

JS: You’re tall. My guess, w/out shoes, you’re 5′ 9 3/4″. Legit. How tall are you really? Could you find a tape measure and measure yourself?

SO: Nice call! I’m 5′ 10″ … It’s a blessing, and a curse!

JS: If you were a professional athlete, what sport would you be playing and for what team?

SO: God’s Team! THE DALLAS COWBOYS!

JS: When you’re off on a gig, and feeling a little stressed, where do you like to let your aggression fly?

SO: You know this cause I took you with me one time… BATTING CAGES! I love it!

via Quick Questions With Friday Night Lights’ Stacey Oristano | Manolith.

The first thing you should know about Stacey Oristano, the young actress with the small, but significant role of Mindy Collette (married name: Mindy Riggins) on NBC’s Friday Night Lights (which, if you’re not watching, you’re dead to me) is that she has a great laugh.  It’s engaging and sweet, and sporadically pops up during our conversation about her childhood in Arlington, Texas, what it’s like to work with Taylor Kitsch, and her love of reality TV.  During our brief phone conversation, I learned the following things about my favorite current TV show:

1) Friday Night Lights is not making this stuff up:

Now, I went to high school in an urban metropolitan area in the middle of Middle America.  Yet, my high school was so small we didn’t even bother with a football team.  The teenagers on Friday Night Lights, while fully realized and three dimensional (the other day I caught myself saying a silent prayer that Julie and Matt can one day find their way back to each other) are, nonetheless, foreign souls to me due to their football obsession and desperation to grow up and get out of dodge.  Is this what it’s really like for the residents of small towns in Texas?

Apparently, yes.  Although Stacey cannot relate to some of the crazier aspects of Mindy (the stripper job comes to mind), as someone who grew up in Texas herself, Stacey personally testified that the importance of football to a small town in Texas is very, very real.  She also could relate to the needs of people like Matt or Lyla to leave Dillon.  Stacey herself left Arlington, Texas, following high school to attend college in London, where she studied acting at the Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama.

via Interview: The Four Things I Learned from of Friday Night Lights actress Stacey Oristano : Poptimal.com: Pop-Culture Reviews From People Like You.

Stacey, who plays Mindy, turns 30 today.  Happy 30th Birthday, Stacey!