Laura Benanti Quotes

I've learned that people latch onto labels and stereotypes. There was a period when I was asked in every single interview how I liked being the new Frank Sinatra... I think people will soon realize that I do a lot more than interpret old songs.

They see you as one thing, and you continue to do that. Do you want to play this really awkward, offbeat outsider? Yeah. I can - but I can do other things. It's having people trust that you can do other things, or proving it to them.

There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I'll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype.

You don't want to pigeonhole yourself.

When people start thinking of you more as a persona, they are less inclined to allow you to move into different areas. Sometimes they're wrong. Sometimes they're just very stereotypical or restricted in their own thinking of what they'll allow you to do.

When you have a label stuck on you, people tend to believe it. If someone calls you suave and debonair, you only get offered parts in a suit and a collar and tie. It just so happens I wear them reasonably well.

I don't like being pigeonholed at all. It stemmed from after 'Mandy Lane': I was being offered all these horror movies. I love horror movies, but when I dreamed of being a director, it was always doing all sorts of things.

I've done history; I've done biopics, I've done a little bit of comedy. I just want to keep going and show people that you can't typecast me, you can't pigeonhole me.

A lot of people get pigeonholed because it makes it easier to understand them - or assume you understand them. I think the way you break away from that is by constantly doing different jobs.

From the moment you enter the league, everyone wants to slap a label on you - some tidy description of what they think you bring to the game. And more often than not, that tag sticks with you, regardless of whether it's accurate.

When you come into this league, everyone tries to put you in categories - 'this is what he is' or 'this is what he can do.'

I am so stereotyped into being this Hollywood girl.

To be completely honest, it's shocking to me that I keep getting the villain roles! I do not see myself as the villain and I know, growing up, I was the opposite of a villain. I would never try to be a villain to anyone - but maybe other people I grew up with feel differently about that.

Being typecast is the enemy of any actor, so if you can try to do something that flips on the head peoples' ideas of who you are or what you can do, that's my biggest aim.

If you overdo something, you end up typecast. You always have to expand.

I try to avoid typecasting by doing different roles.

I do come shackled with whatever people think I am.

Am I going to complain about being typecast as smart? I don't think so.

People like to think of you as a certain person, or a certain type of person, and they do love to give you a label. We like luggage labels, and we like people labels.

Sometimes they try to put you inside a box, but I look at my filmography and I've been able to do a lot.

Whatever show I go to, no matter what it is - and I go to a lot of them - people say, 'Wow, I'd never expect to see you here.' I always say, 'Where do you expect to see me?'

When you are a really iconic character, everyone thinks that's all you can do. It's nice to show people that I'm not a one-trick pony.

My first reaction to being pigeonholed or pushed into certain confines is to be like, 'No, I'm the opposite,' you know? Like, don't put me in a stereotypical black-girl category, because I'm not like that; I'm doing this thing over here.

I stay out of typecasting ruts.

Everyone always says, 'We don't want to be pigeonholed.' But sometimes, your pigeonhole is a great place to be.