“Legally Blonde” and “Hairspray” star Laura Bell Bundy makes a point of talking to young actors about her career, her struggles and triumphs, and about the work it took to get there. She explains why.

Question: Why is this so important to you?

Answer: I have always thought that promoting arts education is part of my way to give back. It’s especially important for the pre-teens, when there are less arts in school. And it’s a great opportunity to play - they call them “plays” because they’re supposed to be fun. If you play better, you’re better at life. I had it growing up, and I enjoyed it. Now my hobby has become my job.

Q: And those kids you talk to want to be where you are.

A: It’s connecting Point A, where they are, to Point B, where I am. It could help some of them harness what they’ve learned and see that it is possible. I have my own charity, Creative Kids, that gives scholarships to kids who want to be in programs like this, who need dance shoes, or a guitar.

Q: When you look back at yourself when you were the age of these kids, what do you think would have surprised you the most at that age about what success takes?

A: It’s not necessarily the preparation, because I was prepared in terms of rehearsal. I worked hard. It’s how long it took. You think you’re gonna go to New York and get every part. (Laughs). You are not. What it takes is the mental energy to withstand it. When I didn’t get something, I’d go “Oh, well. I’ll just go to the beach that week.”

Q: So it’s about being committed to doing the work.

A: What was it that Malcolm Gladwell said in “Outliers,” that you get to be an expert at something if you’ve done it 10,000 hours? That is true. If there’s a kid with 4,000 hours of experience rehearsing, and they’re up against a kid with 5,000, the kid with 5,000 is usually gonna get that part. Theatre has its own language. If you don’t study, you’re going to be lost.

Q: On the show “Smash,” one of the main characters, Ivy, is a plugger, a girl who’s been in the chorus for ten years but hasn’t become a star, and the other, Karen, is fresh off the bus from Iowa but winds up getting the big part. What’s the better way to success?

A: The one girl, Karen, could have been singing in her bedroom for years, and she’s new, but she has something that’s very much unique. The other girl, Ivy, has lost her authenticity. That’s the trick. You have to keep it fresh, and not get to the point where it’s just paint by numbers. But hard work pays off and the cream rises to the top. Everybody’s path is gonna be different.