Playing a Despicable Character

I recently received a lovely review for playing the spoiled little rich girl, Sophie Teale, in the international recording of Jerome Kern's Roberta:

"Laura Daniel rates a bouquet for her purring, creamy-toned, absolutely despicable Sophie."

On Amazon, one reviewer wrote, "Laura Daniel deserves a special award for bitchiest bitch this side of the Bitchississippi." 

As I grow as an actor, I seem to keep playing "naughty girls." In fact, Larry Moore had seen me Off Broadway as the tempestuous Barbara Webster, in the revival of Charles MacArthur's "Johnny On a Spot," and knew he wanted me to play Sophie even then.

In Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's musical, Lucky Stiff, I've played Rita twice, and it's always interesting to wrap my head around the woman who shot her lover for cheating on her:

In the new series, Trending, I play Madeline Lich, a naughty CEO who tries to clean up her image:

Rosalie Tenseth, the director and star of Trending, recently shared an article about the marvelous  Margot Martindale, and it really resonated with me. In the interview with The Vulture, she says, "If I were a man, would you call me evil? No. These are smart characters." They are good at what they do.

And for my cadre of "bad girls," I know these women feel justified in their actions and do not consider themselves evil. They are simply driven by what they want.

To quote Jessica Rabbit, "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." 

And as most actors will tell you, it's more fun to play the villain anyway! ;)