You can just roll on over in casual comfy clothes and be in the studio and just have fun. What’s so great is that not only do you get to work with some really talented people in animation who just love what they do-and it’s a fun energy to be around-but you don’t have to put on hair and makeup. While you’re doing all this, you’re also voicing a character (Queen Miranda) on Sofia the First. She can be incredibly strong and aggressive when she needs to be, but she can also be vulnerable. Physical strength as well as her courage. What do you think are Callie’s greatest strengths? Obviously for me as an actor, all of the comedic tones and the dramatic ones. The range that she gets to explore as a character. What do you like most about playing Callie? It was handled beautifully and I really appreciated that. And without making too much commentary about it. Not only to the audience, but getting to discover that there’s this whole other side to her that is brought out by the character of Erica Hahn, which I thought was really cool and brave. Specifically with Callie, they’ve really taken a chance with this character in terms of opening up her development around her sexuality and revealing that part of her. You’re able to not just play one thing all the time. It’s fun when the writers take risk regardless of the reaction that it might get, and that’s fun for an actor.

Never a dull moment playing this character and that’s great. My experience has been really interesting.

What’s it like to play a character for eight years on a show that’s lasted this long? (We also asked her to reveal her favorite Disney movie, just for good measure.) On the heels of an episode centered entirely around her Grey’s character Callie-about which she says, “I was in every scene but one”-we found out what it’s like for her to play these two very different characters. In the first of a new Insider series about multitasking Disney stars, we got a chance to chat with Sara Ramirez of both Grey’s Anatomy and Sofia the First.

Sofia the first character