Laurie Metcalf 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 feel real confidence in working on the stage.

I loved acting as a kid because I was kind of shy, so it brought me out of myself.

I really liked drama and being in plays, so when I was playing a character onstage and I could act like somebody else, then I wasn't scared or nervous, but I didn't like meeting new people when I had to be myself. That was scary.

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

I started in theater. I did theater professionally for seven years with my company before I started doing 'Friends.' I was waiting tables and doing theater.

If you want to act, do school plays. If they're not there, create them, and the same with local repertory. They are the grounding for a lot of people. Make it happen.

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

I am the kind of person that wants to get up in front of crowds of strangers and perform monologues. To each their own.

The first drama thing I really got stuck into was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' I played Puck. That's when I said, 'I want to be an actor.'

I'm not a singer. In 'Bye Bye Birdie,' I think I was the sad girl who sits on the park bench during 'Put on a Happy Face.'

I think it's hard for quieter, more introverted people to get into acting.

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

Performing was always my thing, so when I act with another co-actor, perhaps that is why I never feel intimidated.

I should be on Broadway. You have to sing, you have to dance, you have to speak well, and I'm good at all of those!

At 14, I was modeling, which helped me come out of my shell, but I always dreamed of theater school.

'Dogfight' was everything wonderful and terrifying about a show, and I feel it 1,000% gave me the knowledge and the confidence that I could do this. I can step up and be present enough to command scenes with amazing actors.

I'm naturally shy but I've done this [movie Salomaybe] so much and you get better at it than you would think.

Dance really built my confidence on stage. I'm still a shy person. But I have a lot more confidence than I did when I started.

I don't feel like I properly started acting until I did my first play, 'Tusk, Tusk.'

I'm a very shy person, and I never tried to do theater. I've been asked many, many times by the most incredible authors in America to do theater. And I always said no, not knowing what it is to be on the stage and to do theater.

As a little girl, I was always shy, but in front of the camera I wasn't.

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.

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