I suppose there are a lot of reasons to be jaded or sarcastic or bitter in life, but I hang on to the reasons why life is beautiful.
Kelli O'Hara
Everyone's story is different, and we can't really be inside them.
I've had great opportunities to show different sides of myself, but the challenge will always be getting either people to let you do it or finding the right things to do in order to do it.
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 was able to do concerts all the way up until two weeks before I had the baby; I thought I was stopping a month ahead, but he was three weeks early.
By no means, I can't sing any rock and roll.
With a revival, you're compared to somebody else.
There is such a cliche to certain roles that all I can do is to try to make them realistic and work for the times, and so the audience actually won't see me as a caricature of something, but rather as an actual person.
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.
The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.
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.
I don't mind talking about my family and how to balance it all. But, in today's world, we should probably be asking both women and men about work and family and how to balance the two.
I've always wanted my characters to have more dimension and realistic cores than the ingenue material often provides. It's been a challenge.
I feel so rich in my emotions and in my life and so grateful when I'm home and so grateful when I'm at work.
When I was a kid, I would sing in people's living rooms and for different little family things.
Corned beef and cabbage - that's our favorite holiday meal when all the O' Haras gather around the table.
Every part has its relief when I'm done with it.
I never really try to watch the movie of the things I've been in.
Playing characters allows me to do things I may not always do, while singing in concerts allows me to really find my own voice and grow.
You breathe fast when you're scared.
When you step out and do a song in a musical, the easier thing to do is make it funny. But when those transitions become necessary, when they aren't camp, that, to me, is magic. I've done musical comedies and enjoyed them, but subject matter that's deeper and more realistic is always what's appealed to me most.
I think it can be a good idea to know what you do well and use that to open the door for yourself. Once you open the door, close it behind you, and start to make changes.
Some songs depend heavily on the character, but, for the most part, a great song begs for reinterpretation every time it is sung, even when in character.
'South Pacific' has a definite heaviness that people don't realize. It's got a seriousness and a message.
To play a character is to inhabit the world and the life of that character.
It's always hard - it's a little counterintuitive to leave your baby at any point during the infancy.
It is such a luxury to open a new book that's highly recommended by friends - either an inspirational yet humorously self-deprecating memoir, or a page-turning piece of fiction.
I've been singing since I was nine or ten.
I was raised in Oklahoma. I was actually born in Tulsa, but I grew up in a small town on the west side of Oklahoma called Elk City on a farm, where my dad grew up, actually.
Everyone has these ideas, especially about the middle of the country, about people being backwards and three-toothed.
In my special place, room service could only consist of my husband making me a breakfast of eggs, avocados, and hummus. And coffee with milk.
I loved to sing and I loved to act, and I didn't want to continue opera because I wanted to act.
The 'Carousel' overture has always been one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.
When you're pregnant, things - at least for me - get very sincere and very wholesome, and it's about family, and singing becomes about warmth.
I think anything emotional adds to your acting and singing, no matter what it is that you go through. It will always add to it, never take away.
I grew up on a farm.
My degree was in opera.
I don't ever think about the roads I didn't take because I spend too much time thinking what's ahead. I don't go backwards.
I don't want to be famous for being famous.
It's really important that I have a personal life.
My mom's side of the family is from Arkansas!
I love playing an ingenue, and I love doing revivals, and I will continue to do that.
I'm proud to be Irish.
My father named me Kelli because 'Kelli O'Hara' just sounded so Irish.
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.
I've always wanted to do a Shakespeare play.
We didn't have a lot of live theater in Oklahoma. I didn't visit New York when I was growing up. I watched movie musicals, and I believed in an idealistic, idyllic version of Broadway.
I don't read reviews, because if you believe the good ones, you have to believe the bad.
If I get tickled in a certain way, I actually lose the ability to stand. I don't mean to, but something happens to my knees, and I fall on the ground.
