Laura Benanti
Laura Benanti
Laura Ilene Benantiis an American actress and a singer. She played Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, winning the Tony Award, and appeared in the stage musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2010, winning the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played Baroness Elsa Schräder in the 2013 NBC television production of The Sound of Music Live! and in 2015 began playing twin sisters...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth15 July 1979
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
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.
I think it's a deeper issue on the lack of communication in our culture in general. It's not abnormal to see a family out to dinner and every person is on their phone instead of communicating with each other and that's pretty sad.
I find human behavior to be fascinating, which is probably why I'm an actor, and I think that there are a lot of dangerous misconceptions about mental illness in our society, and I would like to be a part of remedying that - particularly the stigma that surrounds so many mental illnesses.
I do think that there is an almost more old fashioned mentality to the way musical theatre people and actresses especially are treated.
I'm 35 but because I've been acting professionally playing women since I was eighteen years old - I never played a teenager - people constantly think I'm like ten years older than I am, which is a little hard on my ego.
I think being young in a grownup world, I think it stunted me a little bit. I had to grow up too fast on the outside, but I didn't get to grow up on the inside in the way that you might if you're allowed to fail more.
I think it's good to have an old fashioned musical as well as new musicals. There's a lot of room for different shows.
I don't think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We've got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.
I think there's that weird bastardization where musical theatre actors are treated as almost like vaudevillians or circus performers - that we're somehow not good actors because we sing and dance.
Think of life and the world as a wall and that we're all climbing up the wall. So just put one hand in front of the other, keep your eye on the prize, and then get there. And then turn around and help the other people - because you're already there, so start helping.
I do think musical-theater actors can get a bad rap, and I see why. There is a certain slickness - there's nothing better than an amazing musical, but an okay musical can be one of the worst times you've ever had.
I think that every therapist that I know, including my dad and my sister, have their own issues. But that empathy is what makes them good at their job.
I try to give the appearance that I have it all together and that I know what I'm talking about, but at the end of the day, I think I might be full of crap.
Food is the most basic forum for discussing things like love and the absence of love; how we hurt ourselves and how we heal ourselves.