Leslie Odom, Jr. Quotes
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At 14, 15 years old, I started reading 'Backstage' regularly. Eventually, I got enough courage to look at the auditions section.
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Josh Gad was in my class. Katy Mixon. Griffin Matthews. Josh Groban - he ended up leaving to become a huge star, but he was in our class in freshman year. I remember Josh was this nerdy kid in a turtleneck with a voice from heaven.
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What goes up must come down; I'm not going to be in 'Hamilton' forever. Everything I work on won't have this kind of success.
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It's not about doing something that's as big as 'Hamilton.' That may never happen again, and that's okay.
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I've done a lot of translation in TV, and I can do it. I'm trained to do it. I know how to inject a certain amount of my naturalness into that and where I come from into those things, but it helps if somebody's writing with my experience in mind.
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I know it's hard for people to imagine a time when 'Hamilton' wasn't 'Hamilton,' but for years, it was just this little thing that I was telling people about that didn't make any sense to anybody as I was describing it. But I loved it.
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If I'm allowed it, I'm really looking forward to a little time on the couch and a little time on a beach in Brazil.
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The record company felt wisely that we should get something out before I left 'Hamilton' or around awards time, and that deadline was not easy.
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I know what feeling broke feels like real well. I know that real well.
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I've dedicated more than 15 years to this theater and television thing; I want to spend the next 10, 15 years or so devoted to music.
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You hear a song like 'Wait For It,' you hear a song like 'Dear Theodosia' - if you get one of those songs in a musical - one - it's worth dropping everything to sing that one song.
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I'm in no way running from 'Hamilton' or its success or these beautiful songs that I've been blessed to be able to be the one to introduce them. I certainly won't be the last to sing them, but to be the first, I feel very lucky.
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The bad guys have way more fun, in my opinion. 'Bad guys' in quotes.
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When we go and cheer Cynthia Erivo on in 'The Color Purple,' it's because we've elected her to be our voice. She sings 'I'm Here' for all of us.
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What is the future going to say about us now? What are our kids going to look at us and say, 'How could you not stop that person from getting into power? How could you not stop that environmental disaster that you saw coming a mile away?'
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To get even realer with you for a second, as a black actor, as a performer of color, I don't know how many more roles like Aaron Burr are gonna come along for me.
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I haven't had a chance to decorate my dressing room yet, but I have these pictures of myself as a kid that I want to put up because I said, 'I really want to make sure that I take that kid with me on this journey.' I want him to experience this.
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I wanted to make an album that was hopeful and encouraging and inspiring. That was the goal.
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'Hamilton' has restored my faith in theater.
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We didn't go to Broadway musicals when I was growing up; it was too expensive.
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People are coming to you at their most vulnerable; they're showing you the parts of themselves that they're afraid to show: the parts that they're not so sure about, not so secure in. And so it's a really holy profession I think, teaching. If you do it right, it can change somebody's life.
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There's this Frank Wildhorn tune 'Sarah' - it's not a widely known tune, but it's my favorite song to sing.
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I grew up in Philadelphia in a time where we took it for granted that we were supposed to be young and gifted and black. It was a culture of excellence - and all my friends were more talented than I was.
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I know what it's like to be ignored; when I got to L.A., I longed for somebody who looked like me to show me the ropes.