Pregled posta

Nine years ago, Alona Tal—star of the ambitious new The CW thriller series Cult (which premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. EST)—was ready for a change. A working actress in her native country of Israel since the age of 6, the then-21-year-old veteran wanted to take her career to the next level. That level, as is the case for any aspiring TV or film performer, existed in Los Angeles. The only problem: Commuting from her home of Herzlia, Israel, to the City of Angels required a 17-hour flight.

She decided to uproot her entire life to America, a drastic change of lifestyle that would've been all the more daunting if Alona hadn't experienced a similar alteration three years prior. When she was 18, Alona began her mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Force. For a performing arts high school student, it was a serious departure from her previous ways of life. Stage plays and fictional characters were replaced by automatic weapons and superiors with titles like General and Lieutenant. But she wasn't scared. "It's a cultural norm, so you know it's coming," says Alona, 29. "You have 18 years to prepare yourself. Here in the States, you graduate, go on summer break, and then start college. In Israel, you finish high school and go into the force. It detached me from the umbilical cord a little bit."