From Neuroscience to ‘Gangland’: Lindsay Weisberg on Why Rejection Is Her Ultimate Fuel

We had the pleasure of talking with Lindsay Weisberg. Lindsay’s turn toward acting began with a stack of chemistry textbooks in the trash.

She had expected to need them. Weisberg was headed to Dartmouth, planning to study pre-med, and when her father threw the books away, she became disproportionately upset. In the middle of what she now calls a “hissy fit,” something about her own reaction stopped her. “This is odd,” she remembers thinking. “This is too much of a reaction to chemistry textbooks.”

The realization did not immediately produce an acting career. Weisberg took a year off, spent part of it race training as a skier, and discovered that competitive skiing no longer felt like the answer either. She tried an acting class instead. By the time she arrived at Dartmouth, the experiment had become serious enough that she eventually transferred to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts to study acting.

It would be tempting to tell the rest as a clean story of discovering one’s true calling. Weisberg’s version is less tidy. Her career has been shaped by a habit of questioning the thing in front of her, including her own ambitions. The former competitive downhill skier who once intended to become a doctor eventually earned a master’s degree in neuroscience from Columbia University even as she continued working as an actress. The disciplines seem unrelated until she explains what she has carried from one to the other: skepticism, curiosity, preparation and the willingness to keep showing up when the answer is not obvious.

That last quality took time to acquire.

Early in her acting career, Weisberg walked into a casting director’s office carrying more than her audition. “You’re very talented, but you just brought in your whole day with you,” the casting director told her. Weisberg understood what she meant. She had not yet developed the resilience required for an industry built around uncertainty and rejection. She had left drama school expecting to work, especially after watching some classmates move quickly onto major sets.

Years later, she wrote to the casting director to thank her.

Weisberg has since developed her own language for rejection. “I call no’s fuel,” she says. After losing out on a Broadway opportunity, she began to see rejection less as a verdict than as data. Now, when something does not work out, her response is closer to: “Huh, that’s interesting. What’s next?”

It is an unusually scientific way to describe an actor’s life, and perhaps a revealing one. Weisberg does not separate discipline from creativity as neatly as people sometimes do. Neuroscience comes up when she is calculating sleep before an overnight shoot or thinking about circadian rhythm, but its deeper influence is methodological. “When you’re a scientist, you have to have skepticism and be curious,” she says. “I bring a lot of curiosity to what I do.”

That curiosity has accompanied an expanding screen career. Weisberg has appeared in television projects including Chicago P.D., Will Trent, and Miss Governor, and played Cat in Prime Video’s Special Ops: Rent-a-Cop. She also appeared in Daniel Blake Schwartz’s Cotton Fever, which premiered at Tribeca & won the Founders Award for Best US Narrative. Earlier in her career, after graduating from NYU, she received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play and later earned an MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California.

But one of the experiences she returns to most readily is Gangland, where she played Katie, a police officer surrounded largely by male colleagues. The role asked her to inhabit a kind of toughness she does not entirely claim for herself. “She’s tougher than me. Much tougher,” Weisberg says, although she sees a shared moral code between herself and the character.

The set tested that distinction in practical ways. During one freezing overnight shoot, Weisberg found herself surrounded by tired cast and crew members while using an exercise band between takes to stay awake and keep her body moving. One of the leads looked at her and asked, “What are you doing?” She knew how ridiculous she looked. Yet the memory matters to her less because of the exercise band than because of what it represented. She was holding her own. She felt that she belonged.

That sense of belonging is different from believing she has arrived. Asked to identify her big break, Weisberg resists the premise. She has films, television work and more projects ahead, but she still describes the breakthrough as something in the future. “I think my big break is still coming, to be honest,” she says.

There is some of the athlete in that answer, the person for whom the finish line has a habit of moving. But there is also the scientist who distrusts absolute conclusions. Weisberg’s career has repeatedly changed direction because she was willing to treat discomfort, rejection and even her own certainty as information. The chemistry books, the Broadway no, the casting director’s warning and the freezing night on Gangland all point toward the same instinct: pay attention, stay curious, and keep testing the answer. For Weisberg, that may be the more useful definition of progress than any single break.

Lindsay will appear in the highly anticipated “All The Sinners Bleed” top of next year.

Yitzi: Lindsay Weisberg, it’s so nice to meet you. Before we dive in deep and talk about your great work, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Lindsay, can you share with us the story of your childhood, how you grew up, and particularly the seeds of all the amazing creativity that has come since then?

Lindsay: Sure. I would say I actually didn’t grow up in a very creative environment. It was more about academics and being an athlete. I realized that was not my path when my dad had thrown away all my chemistry textbooks because I was going to go be a doctor. It made me so upset because I was going to use those for college. I was going to be pre-med at Dartmouth. In the middle of having this hissy fit, I realized, “This is odd. This is too much of a reaction to chemistry textbooks.”

I actually took a year off. I’m a skier, and I was race training for part of that year. During that year, I also realized that I didn’t want to be doing that anymore. That’s when I decided I wanted to try something new. I took an acting class, and that kind of started things going. Then, when I got to Dartmouth, I decided to transfer to NYU for acting. Onwards from there. That started it all.

Yitzi: That’s great. Can you share with us the next chapter? Tell us about your first breaks, how you first entered the entertainment industry, how you first got started?

Lindsay: I don’t know how you would describe a first break. I guess it’s all about putting in the work for different projects. You never know where something’s going to end up. I have a big TV show that’s coming out now and several films that just came out, but I think my big break is still coming, to be honest. I don’t even know how I would define that. I don’t know if that’s the athlete in me, but I don’t even know how I would define it.

Yitzi: Amazing. I’m sure this is difficult to single out, but you have some great work. Can you share with our readers two stories that stand out in your mind from your professional career?

Lindsay: Sure. I was on my first day on the set of a show I worked on that I really enjoyed, and I was terribly ill. I’d picked something up overseas. It was just the most loving set. It was a very big set, and everyone seemed to know I was sick. I couldn’t believe how amazing everyone was. Literally, from ADs to other actors to makeup, everyone was helping me. It was just the most amazing experience I’ve ever come across because I was so nervous. I had no idea I was going to be that ill. That really stood out. I was so fortunate to be in such great hands and to be with such amazing performers and creatives. Of all the times to be sick!

I guess working on Gangland was also an amazing experience because I was the only female cop in this group of male cops. To have to be a strong woman when there’s a lot of male energy around you, and to be able to inhabit that and feel confident in that world, was a really important experience. Especially one night when we were shooting, it was freezing and people weren’t in very good moods because of the wind and temperatures. Being able to hold my own opposite big names and feel very comfortable and at home doing it was important.

Lindsay: I got to be on set with an exercise band that night. Because I’m rather strong, I was using an exercise band while we were shooting overnight. One of the leads said to me, “What are you doing?” I looked like a lunatic. I was strengthening my muscles, but I walked around with this exercise band, so I just looked like this crazy workout woman. It was also to keep me awake. But just having that sense of feeling like I belonged there and having the confidence was important.

Yitzi: That’s great. There’s a saying that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a funny mistake that you made when you were first starting out and the lesson that you took away from it?

Lindsay: I walked into this casting director’s office, and she said, “You’re very talented, but you just brought in your whole day with you.” I was like, “Oh.” It was very kind of her to tell me that because this was before I went back to get a degree in neuroscience. I didn’t really have the resilience at the time for the industry, and you really need that. No one told me about having resilience. I expected to leave drama school and be working, like some of my colleagues who were working on big sets.

I really took that in because it’s the name of the game. Hearing no is something you have to be able to grow from and work with, be humbled by, and not let it affect you so much. I was really appreciative of her telling me that. I wrote to her many years later, actually, thanking her.

Yitzi: Speaking of no’s, there’s a saying that no is not rejection, but redirection. Do you have a story like that where you got a no to an opportunity, but that led to an even better opportunity?

Lindsay: I call no’s fuel. That’s how I think of them. I was up for a Broadway show, and I did not get it. Looking back, my point of view at the time was not very strong. This was again before I went back for neuroscience. Now I see it as information. When I get a no, I just take it as information, like, “Huh, that’s interesting. What’s next?” Then I’m on to the next. It really invigorates me sometimes. It’s fuel.

Yitzi: That’s great. What’s been the most challenging project or role you’ve taken on so far, and why?

Lindsay: I think Gangland was maybe the most challenging and most rewarding so far. Playing the female cop in that world, with a very male-dominated set, which I really liked, actually. I didn’t know I would like that so much. That was the most challenging. Every set and every experience is another world that you have to understand. It’s a whole other creature, and you have to figure out your way around it and where you fit in it.

Because of that very male-dominated energy, I had to figure that out, and I really liked that. I think there were only two women on the crew, and I had scenes that were mostly men.

Yitzi: Amazing. Let’s talk about Gangland. Tell us why the film has become so beloved and so popular.

Lindsay: Gangland is a film that can be watched now on Apple TV. It’s a really wonderful story. There are so many different stories going on, and I’m not going to do it any service talking about it because it shows stories of people who have not had their stories shown before. It’s a Native American community and this gang community that has been wiped out because of horror and abuse, and what has happened to the generations after it. It’s just a beautiful story, and the relationships are beautiful.

Yitzi: What do you hope the message is that people take from the motifs of the film?

Lindsay: I think it’s seeing somebody else’s story and seeing that they’re no different from you. It’s seeing someone else who lives a different life and recognizing that their story is very worthwhile, meaningful, and important. Just because they don’t live in the exact community that you live in or look like you, they’re still a human being, no different from you. I think that’s really important. The traumas we all share, or this collective pain we all have, affect all of us in one way or another, even if you’re not a part of it.

Yitzi: That’s great. How do you compare and contrast your personal character, Lindsay, with Katie, the character you play? How are you similar, and how are you different?

Lindsay: She’d kick my butt in a fight. A physical one, and likely also in a debate.

I have a very strong moral code, and so does she. I think that’s important to who she is. She also knows how to pick her battles, so that is similar. But I’d say the toughness is different. I didn’t grow up being a cop. I haven’t seen the things that she’s seen.

Yitzi: This is our signature question. Lindsay, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success now, and you must have learned a lot from your experiences. Going back all the way to the beginning when you first started acting, can you share five things that you’ve learned over the years, sometimes the hard way, that someone starting out today can really benefit from?

Lindsay: I would say, pay attention to who you ask questions of, and don’t listen to just anyone. Research who you listen to and what information you take in. If anyone says something is an absolute no, that you can’t do it that way, I would run from them. Question everything and anything. If something makes you fearful or worried about failure, I think you need to lean into that because that’s information that it’s something important for you to pursue. Bring joy to what you’re doing, because if there’s no joy in what you’re doing, then there’s no point. You have to find the joy in it and be humbled.

Yitzi: Do you ever find that you have to draw on your experience and your training in neuroscience for your work in acting?

Lindsay: The only time I’ve consciously drawn on my experience is when I’m thinking about an overnight shoot and my circadian rhythm, and the amount of sleep I need to get to feel good. That’s when I’m like, “Let me think about it from a nerdy perspective.”

But other than that, I bring enormous discipline, I think, to what I do. Whether I was a neuroscientist researching the crap out of stuff or just showing up and showing up on time, that’s part of it as well. And being curious, because when you’re a scientist, you have to have skepticism and be curious. I bring a lot of curiosity to what I do.

Yitzi: On a personal level, can you share some of the self-care routines that you do to help your body, mind, and heart thrive?

Lindsay: I’ve been a meditator for over 20 years. I have a spiritual teacher who’s been my spiritual teacher for 20 years. I’m very athletic, and I spend as much time as I can in nature, hiking or skiing, and I’m always in the gym. Those would be the main parts of my life that are essential. There are many more, but those would be the main parts of my life that are essential.

Yitzi: Amazing. This is our final aspirational question. Lindsay Weisberg, because of your amazing work and the platform that you’ve built, it would not be an exaggeration to say that you’re a person of great influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? Because you never know how far your idea could spread.

Lindsay: Being intentional with your actions and meaning what you say. It’s very simple. That’s how I live my life. Knowing what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Knowing what you’re saying and why you’re saying it. Not just acting out of a need to speak words, but knowing that you’re saying things that are going to land on a human being and have an effect. Bringing mindfulness to your actions and your words.

Yitzi: That’s great. Beautiful. Lindsay, how can our readers watch Gangland?

Lindsay: Gangland is on Apple TV. You can rent it there.

Yitzi: Amazing. How can our readers continue to follow your work or support your work in any possible way?

Lindsay: I use Instagram as my main platform for that. It’s @lindsayweisberg.

Yitzi: Amazing. Lindsay, it’s been a delight to meet you. I wish you continued success and good health, and I’d love to do this again next year.

Lindsay: Yes. Thank you so much. Have a great day.