Mireille Enos

Currently: Playing Honey, the brandy-gargling mousy wife who endures an unforgettable evening in the home of sparring couple George and Martha, in Edward Albee's masterpiece Who's Afraid if Virginia Woolf?

Hometown: Houston, Texas

'Swonderful: Enos' first name is pronounced "Meer-ray," but she's heard a lot of variations. "The first time, it will be Mary Lou or Mary Elle," Enos laughs. "People figure it out eventually." Her French name comes from where else? her French mom. "It's a derivation of the word wonderful," she explains. "But a lot of people call me Mimi."

Ticket to Ride: The fourth of five children, Enos was inspired to be an actor by watching her older brother perform in high school. "For as far back as I can remember, this is the only thing I can really imagine doing," she says. Eight years ago, after graduating from a performing arts high school in Houston and Brigham Young University in Utah, Enos was invited by a friend to do a two-month project at the Classic Stage Company in New York City. She bought a one-way bus ticket. "I figured if I hated it, I'd just get a bus ticket back and that would be the that," Enos recalls. "And you know, the rest is history. I never left!"

Get By With a Little Help: Enos has long been pals with co-star David Harbour, who plays her husband Nick in the show. They both served as understudies in The Time of the Cuckoo at Lincoln Center and appeared in The Invention of Love on Broadway. Enos admits that they also "dated lightly" many years ago but settled on friendship. Harbour was offered Virginia Woolf first, and at the time, the producers were discussing having Anna Paquin in the role of Honey. Then something changed. "David called me and said, 'Get on this! It's not Anna Paquin. Get on it!'" Enos did just that and discovered that Harbour had been singing her praises to director Anthony Page. "David was definitely instrumental in getting me this part," says Enos. "He's such a wonderful friend."

Never Mix, Never Worry: Honey gulps down five glasses of brandy in the first act alone. "What was most difficult was finding the progression of her drunkenness," Enos notes. "Because I actually just keep getting drunker and drunker through the act. She began learning the Alexander Technique to prepare herself for the physical looseness that comes with playing a lush. "Alexander Technique deals with your body and relaxation and being open to sensations," she says. "Doing that kind of specific physical work was so helpful in figuring out the drunkenness of Honey." Did she do a little barhopping for "research"? Absolutely not. Ironically, Enos never drinks in real life.

Eek: Honey is described as mousy, but Enos makes some bold choices in playing her. "It was really important to me that Honey didn't just disappear--that she wasn't only a mouse," Enos reveals. "It is in the text. I mean, Edward Albee has her on a couch screaming, 'Violence, violence,' so there's obviously something else going on with this girl besides just being mousy."

Observing George and Martha: Enos is thrilled to share the stage with Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner. She is especially impressed with their perseverance. "When you attack any project, there's going to be something mysterious about that role, and usually it's something surprising--something that's hard in a way you didn't realize it was going to be hard," she notes. "For Bill I think it was the language, and for Kathleen I think it was the vulnerability of the third act. Finding Martha's softness. Both of them have been so amazingly tenacious. They saw what the big hurdle was, and they just never stopped working. Not for a moment."

Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?: Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee can be an intimidating presence. Enos found herself a little intimidated and very honored that Albee was in the rehearsal room. She was also a little speechless by how well he knows his own play. "He would tell us the words we had gotten wrong in rehearsal," Enos laughs. "He would, like, quote them back to us. It was so funny… and a little scary!"