Top 25 Laura Benanti Quotes

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 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.

I always approach every role through a lens of comedy.

I was in Nashville quite a bit when I shot ‘Nashville,’ and I was in Los Angeles when I shot in ‘Supergirl’.

I actually enjoy Britney Spears. Not as a singer but as a performer. I just enjoy watching her. I think, ‘You are so brave.’

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.

Musical theatre is my first love.

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.

I was pregnant, and, like, ‘Being a mom’s going to be easy!’ And now I’m like, ‘Great.’

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.

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.

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.

I love doing concerts. For me, it’s the favorite thing I do. I get to communicate with the audience in a direct way.

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 don’t think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We’ve got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.