At the age of four, she first appeared on the stage in the Puccini opera Madam Butterfly, watched by her grandmother, the administrator of the Vilnius opera theatre. After her opera debut, she at first seemed to have little interest in the dramatic arts, dance, singing, or music. For her childhood and youth, it seemed she might pursue a career in sports; she figure-skated and played basketball, popular in Lithuania. She graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre under Jonas Vaitkus in 1985 and joined the Kaunas State Drama Theatre.