Being good at one's craft requires discipline and sacrifice, according to actress Kate Mulgrew.

As reported by Totally Kate, Mulgrew, currently appearing in Equus as Hester Saloman, is preparing for her next role where she will portray Maria Callas in The Master Class. Getting ready for the role of the opera star means research for Mulgrew. "I’m in the middle of it," explained Mulgrew. "I've got every single thing she ever sang and every documentary that we could get, and all the literature and I'm right in the middle of it. It's extremely dense, the research for this, because there's so much available to me. Do you know? I feel really torn."

If Mulgrew were to prepare her own master class, she would teach her students certain things about life and art. "[Callas] says a lot of the things that I say when I teach my own students. She says it's all about discipline; it's a certain...it requires a certain epic strength; that if you want to be great at anything that you do, the sacrifices are unending. And I think that her passion for her craft is not unlike mine for mine, with one possible exception, and that is that she was absolutely unsurpassed as a dramatic coloratura."

Mulgrew's ambition has eased a bit as she has aged. "I've lightened up, you know," she said. "When I was young, my ambition was pretty incredible. And even throughout all the years of raising the children and all the rest of it, it was...I had blinders on. I would say now there's no question that life is about who you love. And I have loved this, and it's saved me. It saved me. I've had a lot of bad blows. It's really saved me. I've always had it to go to. It's exalting and it's great, you know, it's art. But it's not people. That’s where I would say the change is. I know that now."

Like many Americans, Mulgrew was happy to see Barack Obama elected. "What an amazing thing, huh?," she said. "What a...what a brilliant thing. I was reading in the Times a few days ago, letters to the editor, and there was a letter from Canada, this is how I feel, from some woman in Ottawa, but she was speaking for Canada: 'We've missed you. Welcome back dear America.' And that's how it feels. That we're back. It's going to be hard. It's going to be very hard. It's going to be complicated. But dear America is back. And that idiot and his cohorts have gone. Right?"

To read more, head to the article located here.

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