Laura Benanti

I was in Nashville quite a bit when I shot 'Nashville,' and I was in Los Angeles when I shot in 'Supergirl'.

I'm very grateful for social media. I think it has shown people my true nature, and through that has come a book deal, and I think it certainly contributes to people's view of me as a person with a sense of humor, which is only helpful in my industry.

I do think that having the villain be a woman is just as feminine, because we're not just saying, 'Women are wonderful and made of marshmallows,' but women can be anything. They can be amazing superheroes, or they can be dastardly villains, and everything in between.

For me, Melania represents America. We're all reluctantly married to Donald Trump now. She is a vehicle to making fun of him. I can't do a Donald Trump impersonation, but I can impersonate her.

For me, Kate McKinnon can do no wrong. She is an absolute genius. She's a hero of mine. Melissa McCarthy is hilarious.

I was pregnant, and, like, 'Being a mom's going to be easy!' And now I'm like, 'Great.'

It's always fun to play someone who is a little off. Normal is a little boring.

If people don't like your act, it feels a little bit more like they don't like you as opposed to they didn't like that character... It's weird because on one hand, we make our living from being permeable and vulnerable, but we also have to have very thick skin.

Most people don't even get to be on TV, so I got to be on TV a bunch of times... I feel so lucky that I get to go back and forth between television and theater.

I always approach every role through a lens of comedy.

That's all TV acting is. Like, let me find my mark and seem like I'm still acting. Sometimes they'll put sandbags there, but then it's even funnier because you're walking and you're, like, stepping into sandbags, so now you look like you're having a seizure.

I think that I come off as, 'Nothing bothers me, I don't care! I'm funny and sassy.' But I'm deeply sensitive. Not only about myself but to others. Not to pat myself on the back, empathy is a quality I've cultivated over my life. It came naturally to me as a child.

I love doing concerts. For me, it's the favorite thing I do. I get to communicate with the audience in a direct way.

I've worked so hard since I was 18 years old, and I'd hate for the memories to be boiled down to being a Melania Trump impersonator.

For me, even if I'm singing to a very large audience, like in 'The Sound of Music Live' or in the 'She Loves Me' broadcast, I try to imagine that I am just singing to each individual. It doesn't change my energy other than being perhaps a bit more nervous. I try to sing to each person and right into their individual heart.

Television can be a little tricky in terms of finding roles that feel fully flushed out, which is why I love being in the theater so much, because the roles tend to be really on the page.

I feel like comedy is important, and I think political satire can be really important.

If you can hear music, you can hear the musicality of the way someone speaks. It's easier to nail down the way that they talk. So much of it is listening, just like in acting. If you're listening, you pick up the nuance of why a person behaves the way that they behave.

People don't say they're pregnant until the second trimester. I intellectually understand that you don't want the whole world to know your business, but at the same time, what does that mean? You don't tell your employers you're pregnant, but then when you miscarry, no one knows you miscarried. Miscarrying is a horrible, painful event.

I think we've become a TV culture, where we forget the live performer in front of us can see us. I think there is a self-centeredness that happens. There's nothing more important than what you are doing in that moment. So, unless it's an emergency, put your phone away.

My favorite show tune has got to be Stephen Sondheim's 'I Remember Sky.' It's probably the saddest song of all time; I sing it to myself in the mirror. No, I am kidding. That's the joke.

I was a little girl who grew up idolizing musical-theatre stars.

I am not so secretly a comedian. I write a lot of my own material if you've seen videos I've done. I write jokes.

I don't think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We've got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.

Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, 'No, you're going to be normal, you're going to go to school, you're going to get good grades, you're going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year.'