Tony winner Lea Salonga admits she never really thought about getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“Most of my work is in musical theater,” says Salonga, who earned international recognition for originating the role of Kim in “Miss Saigon” in 1989. “So even though musical theater does reach Los Angeles and Hollywood, it’s not something that I thought would actually happen. It’s not like the kind of Hollywood career that, say, somebody like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn or any of those icons of the screen or television have had. This is something that I did not foresee.”
But on Friday, Salonga will become the 2,855th recipient of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and makes history as the first Filipina to receive the honor.
While she is known as a star of the stage, Salonga has had major roles on screen, too. She was the singing voice for Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin” as well as Fa Mulan in “Mulan” and “Mulan 2.” Later this month, Salonga, who made her singing debut when she was just seven years old in her native Manila, appears in “Forgotten Island,” DreamWorks Animation’s Philippines-set fantasy adventure about childhood friends who get trapped in the mystical world of Nakali.
