Mackenzie Aladjem had to watched her house be torn down right in front of her. Of course, the Peyton family home only came with three walls and no ceilings, but the actress, who plays Fiona on Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," had called the set home for the last six seasons.

"The last week we would be like, 'Okay, this is the last time I'll be in my fake house,'" Aladjem, who plays Fiona Peyton, tells Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "I watched them take down my house. That was really strange to watch someone take down your house of six years."

The 13-year-old actress joined the show in season two, replacing Daisy Tahan as the younger daughter of Edie Falco's Jackie Peyton. She found a second family on "Nurse Jackie," learning valuable life lessons from Falco and Dominic Fumusa, who played her father Kevin, and gaining a best friend in Ruby Jerins, her on-screen big sister Grace.

"[Jerins is] an amazing actress. She became one of my bestest friends and it was really nice to have a really close friend in New York since I'm not from there," said Aladjem, who lives with her parents in Los Angeles. "We did a lot of craft service runs. We'd make up dances. We just did all these fun things. She was a great person to share all this with."

The subject matter of "Nurse Jackie" also left a lasting impression, even though she was kept away from the darker and more graphic scenes. From what she did witness, Aladjem learned a lot about the evils of drug abuse.

"It's taught me a lot of about why you shouldn't do it and why it can cause bad things," she says. "Jackie ends up in jail and she had to go to rehab a couple times. It's just not a good thing and I really learned that from doing the show."

Aladjem plans to watch the entire series from the beginning. So far, she's only been allowed to watch mainly the scenes that either she or Jerins appear in.

"I started watching the show when I was eight, like when I started, but I could only watch the scenes with Ruby in it. Because it was like, 'Oh my God, that's my best friend on TV,'" she laughs. "Toward the later seasons, I did start watching full episodes. When I was little, I didn't watch it."

During her time on the show, the young actress did notice the way her character grew in terms of how she handles things in her life, like her mother Jackie's missteps, which have now landed her in jail at the beginning of season seven. Aladjem also noticed a distinct change in Fiona's wardrobe.

"When I first started the show, I wore neon pink tights, leggings, cutesy dresses," she says. "That was really weird to walk into my dressing room [later on] and not see me in tights. I wore crazy headbands and towards the later seasons I wore my hair down and in braids."

While not starring on a hit TV series, Aladjem spends most of her time dancing with the Independent Dance Company, based out of L.A. They compete in local competitions and will head to Las Vegas this summer for their big annual meet.

"It's a lot of fun and good exercise," she says.

She started taking classes with the company at age nine and officially joined the company two years later. Her performance career began in the theater at age 7, playing Molly on the national Broadway tour of "Annie." The theater allowed her the opportunity to both dance and act.

Her love of both art forms also led her to a diverse group of friends. Homeschooled for much of her life, she has not missed out on the exciting social life of a typical middle school student with her dance friends enrolled in public and private institutions.

"It's really nice because all my friends are in public schools so now I'm friends with people who go to their schools. I go with my friends to football games and I went to homecoming in November, which was really cool," she says.

The more demanding schedule of dance usually finds the girls hanging out at each other's houses when they have free time, watching movies and ordering Chinese food. For her friends who also act, they have a less hectic and structured schedule, which gives them the energy and time to run around Universal Studios or Disneyland.

Both options are fun and exciting for a 13-year-old, but nothing will compare with Aladjem's first big Hollywood awards ceremony. She attended the 2013 SAG Awards and had the opportunity to meet one of her favorite actors in person.

"That was the best night of my life," she says. "It was so much fun. First of all, I met Hugh Jackman and I love Hugh Jackman. I found out that he loves the show. It was a really fun night."

Aladjem has no projects lined up for her post-"Nurse Jackie" career, but will continue to dance. Since more of her acting credits came on more adult programming, she would like to star next on a series that caters to kids her age.

"I really want to do something geared toward teens and kids. That would be such a change for me," she says, adding that she does enjoy the material on shows for adults as well.

"Nurse Jackie" will premiere on Sunday, April 12 at 9 p.m. on Showtime.