Actress gets down with 'Avenue Q'

Christy Carlson Romano, the voice of the Disney Channel's animated Kim Possible, laughed hysterically while rehearsing her first big sex scene onstage. Later, she felt dirty.

This one was a little different: Puppets in compromising positions.

It's Broadway's Avenue Q, where Romano recently wrapped up her run as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut.

The actress, 24, worried about pulling off a shocking scene between Kate and Princeton, portrayed by Howie Michael Smith.

"I learned it for maybe an hour and I was, like, done with it," Romano says of the romp. "I was like, 'That's it. I never want to do that again. I feel so dirty.' . . . And I would watch it every night and I'd go, 'I can't do that. I can't do that.' And then, basically, you just start laughing. . . . You just get sucked into the world that is Avenue Q."

Romano booked her first show -- as Molly in an Atlanta production of Annie -- at age 8. She has appeared in a national tour for the musical Follies and on Broadway as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

But she is best known for her Disney Channel roles as Shia LaBeouf's strait-laced older sister on Even Stevens and Kim Possible, for which she voiced the title character. Even Stevens ran from 2000 to 2003; Kim Possible bowed last year after a five-year run.

Romano feels protective of LaBeouf and jokingly scoffs at the actor's heartthrob status.

"That started happening a while ago. . . . I know stuff about Shia that would gross you out. . . . I know stuff that I could blackmail him so good," she says.

Romano says she has graduated from playing Disney princesses.

"When I was Belle, I was treated like a kid," she says. "And, I mean, I had the responsibilities of an adult but I was 19 and a lot of people were a little worried about whether I could handle it or not."

But, she says, "I never wanted to be treated like a princess. I like to get my hands dirty, and I like to work, . . . and I like to meet my fans, and I like to just really be committed 110 percent to the point where I'm exhausted."

Romano has written a young-adult novel, Grace's Turn, recorded songs for Disney movies and mimicked the voice of Angelina Jolie for the Kung Fu Panda video game. Now she's considering a cabaret act in New York.


Source: orlandosentinel.com