POTTER WATCH: Rachel Potter Talks X FACTOR Exit; Broadway Career

In an interview with Zap2it.com today, Broadway vet Rachel Potter talked about her unexpected Exit from last night's The X Factor on FOX. The singer found herself going head to head with fellow contestant Khaya Cohen to literally sing for her survival in a "The Final Showdown" sing-off. The two talented singers landed among the bottom contestants in the competition.

Rachel chose to sing the Shania Twain ballad, 'From This Moment' for the sudden death competition. However after an emotional deliberation, Simon, Paulina and Demi all preferred Khaya's performance and voted to send Rachel home.

"That absolutely makes it easier. Ultimately to go out on this note of the judges really didn't agree with the decision, that they had to make a very tough decision between Khaya and I, [is comforting]," Potter explained to the site.

Yet the one regret the 'Evita' star has is the way the show portrayed her as a struggling bartender rather than as a Broadway actress who chose to forego her successful stage career for a shot at becoming the next great country singer. "I have a lot of history and I think people didn't really understand my struggle and what I've really been through," she shared.

The actress, who began her professional career as a performer at Disney World, soon realized that Broadway was calling her name. So she packed up and moved to the Big Apple. "I waited tables and pounded the pavement like crazy," she says. "Auditioned every single day, and was rejected and rejected and rejected over and over again for years."

Her break came when she was offered the part of Glinda in the national tour of 'Wicked.' The role of Wednesday Addams in Broadway's 'The Addams Family' soon followed. And in 2012 she hit the big time, co-starring with Ricky Martin in the Broadway revival of 'Evita'. Despite the success, she still did not feel satisfied. "I realized that my heart lies in country music, and gave that all up -- all of that glamour and all of that glitz of that dream," she says. "I felt like I was living someone else's dream. So I sacrificed literally everything, packed up everything I owned and started completely fresh in Nashville."

While Potter's dream will not be realized as the next The X Factor champ, she has not given up hope that she will reach her goal of having a career in country music. Her self-released album is now available on iTunes, and she has written another ten songs set to be released. "Maybe I'll just end up Being a songwriter, or maybe I'll end up actually living this dream and Being the artist that I want to be, but either way I'm not afraid," she says.

Either way, we know this won't be the last we'll see of Rachel Potter!

About Rachel Potter

Rachel Potter starred in the first Broadway revival of Andrew Llyod Webber's Evita in 2012 in the role of Juan Peron's mistress. She wowed audiences with her stirring rendition of the ballad "Another Suitcase in Another Hall." The actress made her Broadway debut as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, with music by Andrew Lippa.

Her other theater credits include Glinda in the national tour of Wicked. She was also a contestant on the MTV reality series 'Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods.'

Rachel Potter was feeling good about her chances to make Top 10 week on "The X Factor" Season 3. Her social media feedback after '80s night was positive, people around the studio were telling her she did a great job, and she started to gain more confidence.

Photo courtesy of FOX