Sami Gayle Reveals How She Juggled College, ‘Blue Bloods’ & ‘Candy Jar’ — Her Insane Schedule

Can you imagine being a full-time student, while also filming a movie in one state and a TV show in another? Well, Sami Gayle did it — and it ended up being one of her best semesters ever!

Sami Gayle was enrolled as a full-time student at Columbia University, while also filming Blue Bloods in New York and her new Netflix film Candy Jar in Atlanta. The actress described her insane schedule and how she got through it all on the HollywoodLife podcast! “I didn’t sleep!” she joked. “It was the best time of my life, though. We shot Wednesday to Sunday schedule. I did this for about seven weeks. On Sunday night, we’d finish shooting, I don’t know maybe at three or four in the morning. I’d get on a plane at 6 a.m., I would come to New York, shoot Blue Bloods in the morning, then I would go to school,” Sami explained. “I boarded my classes that semester from 1 to 8 so that I could attend as many as possible on the Monday, Tuesday. I wrote my papers on planes!” OMG — there aren’t enough hours in the day! Listen to the full podcast interview here! 

Of course, the actress didn’t just pass her final semester of school, she thrived. “It taught taught me something actually related to Candy Jar, because I am one of those Type-A people who will sit in the library all day long, slaving over a paper. I learned to remember what’s important in life, and that doesn’t just mean getting an A+ on everything you do,” she shared. “It means concentrating on other aspects of your life that fulfill you creatively, emotionally, etc. That’s what I did that semester. It turns out, if you do that, it pays off in the other fields as well because I did pretty well!”

Even with her crazy schedule, Sami revealed she always made sure she got eight hours of sleep, even if that meant falling asleep in odd places. “I would sleep anywhere, whenever I could, and I made sure I got eight hours,” she said. “Even on a Sunday, when I was traveling, it was divided throughout the day, I always had eight hours of sleep. You can’t function without it!” While Blue Bloods just wrapped with its season eight finale, you can catch Sami playing Lona Skinner on Netflix’s Candy Jar! In it, she plays an intense and brilliant debate student with dreams of going to Harvard, who must learn to play well with others in order to succeed. The lessons are infinite and it’s as entertaining as anything!