When I was straight, I had the courage and energy to become an actress. I owe my career to my will to stop using.

Alley frames sobriety as the decisive turning point that made her professional life possible. “Straight” signals being free of drugs/alcohol and, by extension, mentally and physically capable of sustained effort. The quote links recovery to agency: she credits not luck or talent alone, but the deliberate choice to stop using, which restored “courage and energy” needed to pursue acting. It also functions as a testimonial narrative common in recovery discourse—casting abstinence as the enabling condition for ambition, discipline, and self-belief. The emphasis on will underscores personal responsibility, while implicitly acknowledging how addiction can narrow one’s options and erode confidence.