Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson sat down with CBS's Sunday Morning for its regular series of profiles on celebrities and politicians.
Highlighting Clarkson's quick rise in Hollywood to stardom after a slow beginning in the 1980s, the story delves not only into her career, but also her roots in New Orleans. CBS was with her when she went back to O. Perry Walker here in New Orleans, where her thirst for theater began.
"I never projected she would go as far as she did," said her drama teacher, Ethyl Istre. "She really wanted to act. It wasn't that she wanted to be star necessarily, but she wanted to act."
Her mother, City Council Vice President Jackie Clarkson, said from an early age she had a desire to be a famous actress. "She came home one day after she was on stage the first time in ninth grade and she said, 'I know what I want to be. I want to be a star,'" Jackie Clarkson said.
Perhaps most revealing in the profile is where Patricia gets her inspiration from: She often models her characters "on the strong-willed, Southern women she grew up around in New Orleans, across the river from the French Quarter."
