Laura Benanti
My mother was an actress and my voice teacher, an incredible voice teacher. My biological father is an actor, and my stepfather, who raised me along with my mother, is a psychotherapist. I was always supported in creative ventures.Collection: Teacher
I was a little girl who grew up idolizing musical-theatre stars.
Musical theatre is my first love.
My parents were in 'Brigadoon' on Broadway when I was a couple of years old.
I do think musical-theater actors can get a bad rap, and I see why. There is a certain slickness - there's nothing better than an amazing musical, but an okay musical can be one of the worst times you've ever had.
Well, I'm grateful for all the experiences that I've had.
I try to give the appearance that I have it all together and that I know what I'm talking about, but at the end of the day, I think I might be full of crap.
I think that every therapist that I know, including my dad and my sister, have their own issues. But that empathy is what makes them good at their job.
There's a lot of pressure on Broadway. There's this feeling that the show has to be a commercial success and the producers have to make their money back and Tonys and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I was not a fan of the Bush administration, as I think many of us were not.
I don't think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We've got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.
Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, 'No, you're going to be normal, you're going to go to school, you're going to get good grades, you're going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year.'
I was always a little adult. Even as a little kid, I just couldn't understand why I was surrounded by all these kids. I took things very seriously.
I actually enjoy Britney Spears. Not as a singer but as a performer. I just enjoy watching her. I think, 'You are so brave.'
Do I want to write a musical? No. I like to do musicals.
A lot of times, when you're the leading lady, you get to sing heartwarming songs and that's it, and people don't get a sense of who you truly are.
I think that people are most comfortable when they can put you in a box - and that's very easy to do that when someone can put you in more serious roles. I'm not blaming them for that - it's just up to me to show people what I can do.
Usually, in musical theater, if you sing operatically or if you sing in a legit style, you're the heart of the show. You maybe get to be moving and do dramatic stuff, but it's very rare to be that funny.
I grew up loving musicals. My mom had records of original cast recordings, and one of them was 'She Loves Me.' I wore that thing out singing along to Barbara Cook when I was eight years old.
I think that I come off as, 'Nothing bothers me, I don't care! I'm funny and sassy.' But I'm deeply sensitive. Not only about myself but to others. Not to pat myself on the back, empathy is a quality I've cultivated over my life. It came naturally to me as a child.
I'm very grateful for social media. I think it has shown people my true nature, and through that has come a book deal, and I think it certainly contributes to people's view of me as a person with a sense of humor, which is only helpful in my industry.
I do think that having the villain be a woman is just as feminine, because we're not just saying, 'Women are wonderful and made of marshmallows,' but women can be anything. They can be amazing superheroes, or they can be dastardly villains, and everything in between.
For me, Melania represents America. We're all reluctantly married to Donald Trump now. She is a vehicle to making fun of him. I can't do a Donald Trump impersonation, but I can impersonate her.
For me, Kate McKinnon can do no wrong. She is an absolute genius. She's a hero of mine. Melissa McCarthy is hilarious.
When I was 5 years old, I was coming up the stairs, and I saw my mom standing there, singing 'A Quiet Thing' a cappella, and it was such a differentiating moment for me. I realized that we are separate from each other - she has dreams and goals.
I was pregnant, and, like, 'Being a mom's going to be easy!' And now I'm like, 'Great.'
It's always fun to play someone who is a little off. Normal is a little boring.
If people don't like your act, it feels a little bit more like they don't like you as opposed to they didn't like that character... It's weird because on one hand, we make our living from being permeable and vulnerable, but we also have to have very thick skin.
Most people don't even get to be on TV, so I got to be on TV a bunch of times... I feel so lucky that I get to go back and forth between television and theater.
I always approach every role through a lens of comedy.
That's all TV acting is. Like, let me find my mark and seem like I'm still acting. Sometimes they'll put sandbags there, but then it's even funnier because you're walking and you're, like, stepping into sandbags, so now you look like you're having a seizure.
I was in Nashville quite a bit when I shot 'Nashville,' and I was in Los Angeles when I shot in 'Supergirl'.
I love doing concerts. For me, it's the favorite thing I do. I get to communicate with the audience in a direct way.
I've worked so hard since I was 18 years old, and I'd hate for the memories to be boiled down to being a Melania Trump impersonator.
For me, even if I'm singing to a very large audience, like in 'The Sound of Music Live' or in the 'She Loves Me' broadcast, I try to imagine that I am just singing to each individual. It doesn't change my energy other than being perhaps a bit more nervous. I try to sing to each person and right into their individual heart.
Television can be a little tricky in terms of finding roles that feel fully flushed out, which is why I love being in the theater so much, because the roles tend to be really on the page.
I feel like comedy is important, and I think political satire can be really important.
If you can hear music, you can hear the musicality of the way someone speaks. It's easier to nail down the way that they talk. So much of it is listening, just like in acting. If you're listening, you pick up the nuance of why a person behaves the way that they behave.
People don't say they're pregnant until the second trimester. I intellectually understand that you don't want the whole world to know your business, but at the same time, what does that mean? You don't tell your employers you're pregnant, but then when you miscarry, no one knows you miscarried. Miscarrying is a horrible, painful event.
I think we've become a TV culture, where we forget the live performer in front of us can see us. I think there is a self-centeredness that happens. There's nothing more important than what you are doing in that moment. So, unless it's an emergency, put your phone away.
I am not so secretly a comedian. I write a lot of my own material if you've seen videos I've done. I write jokes.
My favorite show tune has got to be Stephen Sondheim's 'I Remember Sky.' It's probably the saddest song of all time; I sing it to myself in the mirror. No, I am kidding. That's the joke.
Don't wait for people to tell you who you are. Show them.Collection: People
Think of life and the world as a wall and that we're all climbing up the wall. So just put one hand in front of the other, keep your eye on the prize, and then get there. And then turn around and help the other people - because you're already there, so start helping.Collection: Wall
How did we go - in a relatively short amount of time - from Audrey Hepburn to Kim Kardashian? I don't know how that happened. Like did we all collectively slip and hit our heads as a society? Why are we accepting garbage as nourishment? I don't know what's going on.Collection: Garbage
I sing songs from the theater and pop songs. When I say 'pop songs,' I mean from the 90's. And I tell jokes. So it's sort of a stand up show meets a concert - not your traditional lounging across a piano cabaret show. It's much looser.Collection: Song
I feel like people used to leave their homes and go to their local theatre, and they used to watch ballet dancers and musical theatre performers and tap dancers and orchestras and dog acts. You had to leave your home, be in the presence of other people, know how to behave, and enjoy the human being whose beating heart was in front of you.Collection: Dog
I think it's good to have an old fashioned musical as well as new musicals. There's a lot of room for different shows.Collection: Thinking
There were TVs everywhere. When we weren't on stage, we were watching what America was watching and rooting for each other and our leading lady. That experience was incredible, and I was just enjoying myself.Collection: America
Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, 'No, you're going to be normal, you're going to go to school, you're going to get good grades, you're going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year'.Collection: Soccer