ANNALEIGH ASHFORD

In 'Kinky Boots,' I looked for moments to be bold, showing Lauren's gutsiness and smarts. She's a little bit kooky now, too, and I love me some kooky.

I've been lucky to play strong women who are trying their hardest to do good.

My mom is a gym teacher, and she's not musically inclined, but she always wanted to help me out with music as best she could.

On camera, the audience can see your eyes close up - they can see behind your eyes - and when you're on stage, you need to make sure that the person sitting in the back row can feel what's happening behind your eyes, even if they can't see them. Having a live audience is exhilarating and exciting all on its own, but you know, it is quite different.

I took obedience, agility, and shepherding with my dog.

It takes skill to sing bad and dance bad, because there's a certain amount of unawareness that people have when they can't sing and they can't dance, so I have to say that it is a challenge!

I always try to have a positive and warm intention that is not about me. It is easy to make everything about yourself. But you take the weight off when we make it about the audience. It's about the joy you can bring to somebody else instead of the joy that you get from doing it.

I think no matter what you are going to pursue, if you pursue it like it's the most important thing, then everything else will be lost. And at the end of the day, when it's time to evaluate the path that you chose for your life, there has to be something more.

It's very unusual to be playing something other than human.

My very first scene on camera for anything was with Sarah Jessica Parker in the 'Sex and the City' movie, and she couldn't have been more lovely and beautiful and kind, and on top of that, she's just a killer actress.

In the late 1950s, the woman's place in society was second-class.

I'm a modern girl with old-fashioned sensibilities.

I think there's something beautiful about the art of making art, and it just will live and breathe.

Sondheim has been a part of my musical collective since I was eight. I was a dramatic little kid.

I love finding ways to make familiar characters into someone unique.

Love is never not going to be a problem.

I think every New York actor's dream is to do Shakespeare in the Park. Each show is so special and unique and diverse because of the elements that we're performing in. Every live show is truly a one-of-a-kind.

Even though technically the fundamentals of acting are always the same in every medium, what's different is the size.

My go-go dancing was not your typical go-go dancing: I really was doing performance art. I would do dramatic, elaborate lyricals across the bar. I learned a lot, actually, as an artist during that time.

I have always known mosquitoes love me, but they really love me in Central Park.

I dreamed my whole life of New York being my home.

The people I see be the most successful are the people who have an inner confidence and an inner strength that comes from the character they display away from the stage and from what their parents taught them.

I've chosen a career that's quite tricky. You have such high highs and low lows, and it's outrageously inconsistent. But it is what I love, which is so rare, and I'm so grateful for that every day.

I'll be, like, grocery shopping or doing something totally mundane, and once a day, you'll hear a Cyndi Lauper song on the radio. It is astounding what an icon she is, not just in popular music but in popular culture.

I started performing non-professionally at birthday parties and family gatherings doing 'Saturday Night Live' impressions at four. Then I started for real at seven.