Jesse Tyler Ferguson Quotes

I've been able to perform in front of thousands of people on stage in a character that's nothing like me. I'm very shy.

I probably didn't talk in public until eighth grade, and then in high school, I started doing oral interpretation - kind of like monologues. Through theater and plays, I started coming out of my shell.

Before I started touring, I worked with someone to help me, even physically, because I was so shy. And you can't be shy going onstage. So I had to push myself in a direction that wasn't myself.

I'm very shy, and I shy away from people. But the moment I hit the stage, it's a different feeling I get nerve from somewhere; maybe it's because it's something I love to do.

Usually I like playing other people. I like finding myself through other characters. But when you do cabaret, you are yourself. I think it's the most fun, and I tell you, if somebody had told me that, I would have done it fifteen years earlier than I did.

I am basically a shy person, so performing sometimes helps me focus - having all those people concentrate their attention on you. I don't see it so much as becoming another person onstage; it's more exploring a different side of your personality.

Right after 'Idol,' I was like, 'I've got to become a totally different person. I gotta upgrade myself.' I can't just stand there and be all shy and sing.

I got into performing fairly young and went from, like, a shy kid to a total weirdo.

Once I decided to be a different person on stage, I got the chance to be larger than life and over the top, which I love.

I had done some community theater plays and I just had so much fun doing it. I was a really shy kid growing up and it gave me a platform to be able to express myself in a way that I didn't feel comfortable doing yet in my own skin.

I was a very shy kid. Very shy. But I started doing theatre when I was six years old, and that really changed something. My more playful side came out of me.

My parents thought if they put me in drama classes, I might come out of my shell. It worked, and I've acted ever since.

I finally felt that I came into my own when I went on the stage.

Pretending to be other people helped bring me out of my shell and shed my inhibitions.

Strangely enough I'm better on a stage. I love that I feel like I blossom in front of a whole bunch of people.

Through theater and acting school, I found a way to articulate myself.

I was horribly shy all through grade school and high school. But somehow I got up the nerve to audition for one play in high school - 'Auntie Mame.' I got a small part as the fiancee who comes on in the end. I got laughs. I wasn't shy at all doing the part. I can do anything on stage and write it off as a character.

I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me.

I think acting has helped me come out of my shell because when I play a character, I can't be self-conscious.

I always knew I had a voice and I've always known I could sing, but I was too shy to let it come out. I think it's the hardest thing to do, to sing in front of people. When I finally let go and did it, I realized it's what I'm most talented at and what I love to do the most.

I started elocution lessons because I was being teased, and I had a brilliant drama teacher. At the age of 14, I appeared at the National Theatre in 'The Crucible.'

Yeah, to me, acting is very therapeutic. I get out a lot of anger and frustration.

I wasn't into acting when I was a kid. Maybe because I was shy or it didn't occur to me.

Acting has always been a way for me to express myself, and show all my vulnerabilities and flaws through my characters.

I'm hideously shy as myself, but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish.