“I was a very awkward high schooler, especially in early high school. I had the middle part with a swoop, all that. It was the late ’90s!”

I had an acting teacher tell me once that if you’re playing a car salesman, you don’t want to be an OK car salesman, you want to play the best car salesman.

I would like to, especially in film, play against type and do some heavier stuff. I’m intrigued by projects that deal with problematic people and things.

I’m at a place in my life where I do finally feel, at least most of the time, that I know who I am and I’m comfortable with the person that I am.

Awards are not something that I measure my work by. I’ve been so fortunate and I’ve gotten to do such terrific things that it seems petty to look back and say, ‘Oh, I should have gotten that prize.’ I’ve been so blessed, it’s hard to look back and think anything but that, so I have no disappointments.

Things don’t always tie up in a nice bow. Even when you make strides with people and relationships, it’s complicated.

I watch a lot of television. I always have.

Sometimes chemistry does the trick, and other times, you have to forge that with the people.

You always have to make positive choices as an actor, even when you’re playing someone who may not be doing the best things.

People saw me as just a singer – yeah, a pretty face who could sing – and not more than that.

I’m ready and open to meeting the person that hopefully I’ll share my life with. It takes a long time to get to that place.

What is wrong with you people?

After 9/11, the amount of applicants the FBI received increased exponentially. Whereas you used to require a college degree, and it was a small group of people who were just out of college, after 9/11, it changed.

Singing for stage, if you don’t hear yourself, that’s when you push, and that’s when you can hurt your voice sometimes. So if I can hear myself in my ear, it really helps me to find that balance of how loud I needed to be singing.

Once I came to acting, it was almost a thing where there weren’t enough hours in the day to work on stuff because I was so passionate about it.

Coming from a background of being onstage, you’re onstage for two and a half hours and you’re in it for the whole time no matter what you’re doing. Even if you don’t have a line, you have to stay in it.

I feel like I’ve been dealing with that building over the years because of the Broadway community, so I’m treating it in the same way – I’ve always tried to keep my personal life private. I didn’t get into this business for notoriety or fame. I don’t go to places to be seen and that’s not going to change.

And in a world without heroes, as the movie trailer voice-over guy might say, the slightly awkward can be slightly cool.

I find standing and posing for photos very awkward.

I avoid clients for whom advertising is only a marginal factor in their marketing mix. They have an awkward tendency to raid their advertising appropriations whenever they need cash for other purposes.

I’m the little half-black, half-Jewish girl who was odd and awkward. I try to be myself.

Step 1 of becoming a mom is leaving that awkward amount of space where I just stare at the beginning of selfie videos.

A camel is a very awkward animal to ride, and it’s very hard to get used to because they’re not very graceful.

I’m so socially awkward. I really had to put myself out there and meet new people.

I still feel awkward taking a selfie sometimes; it feels a little weird.