Kelli O'Hara
Kelli O'Hara
Kelli Christine O'Hara is an American actress and singer. She has appeared on Broadway and Off-Broadway in many musicals since making her Broadway debut as a replacement in Jekyll & Hyde in 2000. A six-time Tony Award nominee, her first nomination was for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the 2005 production of The Light in the Piazza. Her subsequent nominations were for The Pajama Game, South Pacific, Nice Work If You Can Get Itand The Bridges of Madison...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionStage Actress
Date of Birth16 April 1976
CityElk City, OK
CountryUnited States of America
Sometimes I'm considered, I guess, a subtle actor. Maybe I'm less of a showman and more just trying to tell the story. I don't know what the perception is. I just want to tell the story so the story as a whole works as opposed to just making sure that I work.
I try to do different roles and try to immerse myself deeply and see what they need to be that's different than the last one.
I do always try to find the goodness in somebody. I can't possibly believe in somebody if they don't have a core.
I'm trying to think of myself at a quiet time. I need to do better with a quiet mind because I'm constantly going and I think that's what feeds me. I've been that way my whole life. But I don't think I picture things so much as I talk them through. Words, words, words. Words and melody.
I've always wanted to do a Shakespeare play.
Everyone's story is different, and we can't really be inside them.
I don't ever sing classically when I am singing a contemporary score - I kind of try to fit in whatever needs to happen.
Shakespeare has great ability to skirt around a subject and portray human nature.
My great-grandfather, Peter O'Hara, was born in Ireland, I believe, in County Clare. His father, my great-great-grandfather, had actually come to America a generation before when times were very bad in Ireland. He worked in the Pennsylvania area and did well with horses and farming.
I'm a mother, and when you have children, there's a protection. You'll do a lot to protect them, to do what's best for them.
With a revival, you're compared to somebody else.
It's really important that I have a personal life.
It's always hard - it's a little counterintuitive to leave your baby at any point during the infancy.
When I've done TV and film, when it's offered to me, I loved doing it, and I would do it again, but the ins and outs of auditioning is - that's time away from my kids.