I've known since day one of working on Spring Awakening - back in 1999 - that it was special.

When I was on Broadway, my most recent Broadway show was 'Spring Awakening,' and every night I did a topless scene.

I'm Italian and Spanish and Jewish. I'm 100 different things meshed into one. I think that shows girls that uniqueness is beautiful. They can look at me on a magazine cover and see me in a movie and say that they have someone they can relate to.

If anything’s going on in our lives, we have each other. One time, I was having a bad day, and I called Chris Colfer. He came over with a pint of ice cream and Madea Goes to Jail, and it was, like, the best night of my life.

I've always been proud of my body, my Jewish nose and all of that. Hollywood's Hollywood, but that's not going to change.

My mother's side is Italian; my father's side is Jewish. We're the kind of family where every Sunday night we have dinner with all 19 of my cousins.

Talent doesn't appear over night. It takes a lot of work and honing your craft, but also don't give up because people may say you're not good enough. I had so many teachers in high school and college saying "You're not going to make it. You're not. You can't." Luckily I had enough people around me who said I could.