Nia Vardalos Quotes

I got an agent when I needed one, when I had a contract negotiation for the first time. I was doing the Second City E.T.C., and I got invited to audition for the last season, it turns out, of 'In Living Color.'

I was fresh out of drama school and had no idea what I was doing. They hustled me along and Bill Cosby tolerated my rookie behavior. It was great. Once you have 'The Cosby Show' on your resume, you can keep going.

I started out as a musician. Although I always wanted to have a dual career, I fell into the TV and movie business more strongly and more quickly.

My dad was one of the original members of the Groundlings, and I watched him as an actor have ups and downs, and I watched my mom as a casting director have ups and downs.

I was very much aiming to go into movies eventually, like a lot of 'SNL' people. But, soon after I arrived, all these really good actors started, like Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg, and I thought, 'If I were casting a movie, I would put all of them in it over me.'

Gossip Girl' was a great opportunity, but it would be misleading to think that anyone on that show doesn't have anything more to offer.

Even with limited success as an actor, you usually have a more interesting life than in many other professions, so it's not an unreasonable choice.

I started off in comedy, but that's just where I got my work. I've always been an actor.

I did so many acting jobs for nothing. I was in a play that opened on Christmas Eve above a police precinct on 54th Street. Three people showed up. One of them was an agent. It was my first agent.

In the '80s, it was difficult and frustrating to appear in the theater and TV again, even though I had some successful shows and hit records. Now, I have to say, the '90s are the best decade of my life. I've done the best work and, in a funny way, I'm enjoying the most success... more than in the '70s.

My roots were in acting. That's all I wanted to be. Even though my father was a radio comedian, it wasn't cool to say, at a young age, 'I want to be a comedian.'

After the Oscar for 'Shampoo,' I had a sense, even as I was walking up to get it, that this was the height of where I was going to go as an actress. And I felt that now was the time, if I wanted a longer life in the arts, that I had to jump from acting to directing.

When I first started out in the industry, I was 12 or whatever, and I wanted to be on something so bad, and I didn't know what I was going to be on. At the time, I was in school, and I was working on drama and theatrical stuff, so I never thought that I'd end up going to comedy.

I would love to do more television.

I have no deep desire to hit the pavement and audition for TV projects or raise money to produce a show.

Soap operas were my first professional experiences, and I always knew I was eager to explore a lot more work in a lot more arenas.

I always thought it'd be cool to portray these certain things, make people feel a certain way. I was kind of fascinated with that, but I wasn't the type to do acting school or theater. I didn't have the best views of Hollywood, so it wasn't something that I was going to try and pursue.

I think my TV show is gonna be my big thing, so I'm pretty focused on that, and I think doing that will lead to all of the other opportunities I want, to jump to movies and other stuff, but it starts with that.

When I joined the industry, people were not very appreciative of models turning to acting.

As an actor, I feel there isn't much to explore on TV. So, if I get better work as a host, why wouldn't I do it?

Actually, acting and hosting shows just happened on the way, and I will do it 'til it lasts and then concentrate on writing.

Being an actress and a singer, you get more 'nos' than you get 'yes.' You get more rejection than you do anything else.

My whole initial goal was to be a comedian, so it's not like I chose to do a TV show out of nowhere. It's kind of always been goal to do a TV show.

Moving to L.A. and making albums was an exciting outlet, but I always thought I'd be slumming it job to job in N.Y.C. with hopes of being on Broadway!

After my debut film, I was doing reality shows and hosting so it was not that I had nothing else to do.