Phillipa Soo

“I would put on shows for my family.”

“I hope they're reminded that joy is very easy to access if you just put down your phone, look at another person, and make a human connection. You'll find a new experience that you wouldn't have had otherwise.”

“Beyond just the respect that you want to have, people just miss out on being in the moment when they have a screen in front of their face. I just don't know to tell people. I feel it's like, you know, 'Turn off your phone and go to the theater.'”

“I like that Amelie is strange, just like me. I'm happy I've gotten to be on this journey following my 'Hamilton' journey because they're so different.”

“I think it's just amazing to be in a group of women, in a group of people that you can spend enough time with them to really get to know people and be inspired by them and learn something new about them every day.”

“It doesn't matter where you are: theater brings people together.”

“The way theater can bring people together is so powerful.”

“I relate to that idea of not necessarily seeking out 'interesting female roles,' but 'this character, this role, who happens to be a woman, is interesting to me, and I relate to it in some way, so I'm just gonna go with my gut and see where it leads me.'”

“I actually grew up seeing a lot of classical theater - a lot of Shakespeare - but I have such a passion for music and find that way of telling a story to be really compelling as well.”

“There's a very old tradition of theater actors doing their own makeup. It's like putting on your mask. There's an element of storytelling involved in it - you put on your character when you put on your makeup. At least, that's how I like to look at it.”

“There's a huge shift in the way we connect with people as humans in the technology age versus right before that, when we still had a little bit of mystery.”

“My mother took my brother and I to a production of 'The Tempest', and it was in this very small - it could have been the basement of a church or a black box. The space was vast, but there were maybe 15 seats in the middle. Ariel came out wearing a nude sparkly thong and spike heels, and the muses had these gossamer see-through gowns on.”

“I feel like 'Amelie' is very much an extension of me. She's a contemporary woman who sees the world through her imagination.”

“It's the coolest job to be on Broadway.”

“In terms of my own experience, my dad is first-generation, so his parents were from China, and my mom was born and raised in southern Illinois, and she was involved in the arts. My dad's a doctor.”

“It wasn't until 'Hamilton' that I began to be considered an actor of color, and I really don't know what to make of it.”

“I took dance from a very early age, although my first recital, I remember refusing to go onstage. I think I was three. It's funny because that stage was also my high school theater stage.”

“Doing a show eight times a week is kind of like doing yoga or tai chi. A vinyasa is the same every single time you do it, but depending on how you're feeling, it tells you a lot about what's happening in your life.”

“I learn something new about love every day. For example, loving yourself is just as important as loving other people.”

“As a woman, it's nice to hear people at the stage door say, 'I didn't even know! She's a woman, and that's the most amazing thing'.”