Gina Rodriguez Quotes

My brother, who's a violinist now, was the real ham, the real performer of the family. His passion for the violin is the only thing that kept him from being an actor.

And my mother caught wind of this. She never had really tried to guide my career or really had any say in my life as an adult, but this was the one time she said she would never speak to me again if I quit acting.

My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker.

I was in a competing company and have been dancing since I was four - ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop - so it's a huge part of my life and my music.

Unlike my mother, who was unashamedly delighted when I decided to become an actor, I always feel that my father, had he lived longer, might have been a touch disapproving of some of my career - I think he might have tutted a bit at 'Men Behaving Badly.'

I'm the only one in the family who stumbled into acting.

I didn't grow up, really, in the film business, even though my parents are both artists. I grew up in New York City. They would never put me into acting. I just kind of wanted it, and I told them that.

Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to be a performer - whether it was acting or singing or whatever.

Given my family background, whenever, as a child, I was asked about becoming an actor, I used to answer in the negative.

Acting is not in the blood. My parents weren't actors, but I imagine that if you've been brought up with actors, you have a lovely time at home and just want that to carry on.

I was in California, and I was going to UCLA, and I knew I certainly didn't have movie star looks. I remember seeing pictures and photos of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, who were kind of average looking. I said, 'Well, that's for me, then, to go back to New York and try to be in musical comedy on Broadway.'

I told my father I wanted to act, and he stared renting all these classic films for me to watch.

I could have made it as a singer, but I went with acting - surrendered to it, in a way.

There's nobody in the arts in my family. It was kind of embarrassing to even say that I wanted to be an actor.

I was a dancer, and my father was a dancer, so I really grew up in that environment.

I grew up learning ballet, and then I took up contemporary as I got older. I probably thought I was going to be a ballet dancer when I was younger, but at a certain age, I really was more interested in acting.

My mum very much wanted me to go into the theatre.

My father was sick when I was little, and we had a woman, a nanny-type, who was from Ireland. Her daughter was in Irish dancing, so she put me in it, and in the summertime, every weekend was filled with traveling somewhere to dance in competitions.

Both my brother and mother are actors and dancers. Of course my mom, who is a Kathak exponent, is the most established dancer amongst the three of us.

There wasn't really anything I wanted to do other than acting, which is ridiculous because there were no actors in my family, and we didn't know anything about acting.

I was a dramatic kid. I was always like, 'Watch me put on my play, Mom and Dad! You have to watch me put on all these outfits and do this play!' But my family is very academic and straightforward and normal Midwestern people, so the idea that I could act as an actual job wasn't really there.

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 was not one of those children hanging on Ma's coat-tails following her round sets. I'd go to the theatre after school if she was working, but I didn't even know what an agent was.

I've been trying to sing for a long time. I didn't realize that's what I wanted to do until I was about seven or eight. I tap danced since I was three years old, and that's all I did.

I started dancing at age three and then got involved in musical theatre and acting around age seven. I think I've probably known since then that I want to be a professional actor.