“I was getting rejection after rejection.

I wasn’t even getting auditions,” the actress recalled.

Why am I beating myself up?'

Melissa McCarthy on red carpet

Acting never would have left my life.

“When you spend 20 years working your butt off, you know yourself better.

I think the best thing I could have done was struggle until I was 30.

Melissa McCarthy holding award

Twenty years of desperately trying to get a single job gets deep in your DNA.”

Lauren Graham and Melissa McCarthy