Conversations with Jeremy Jordan

good afternoon how's everybody we have Jeremy Jordan here today Thank You Mara and good afternoon my guest is one of this decades most respected young leading men working on stage screen and television he made his Broadway debut in the musical Rock of Ages followed by such roles as Tony in West Side Story Jack Kelly in Disney's Newsies Newsies fans fabulous and Clyde Barrow in the Frank Wildhorn and Don black musical Bonnie and Clyde oh yes pre co-starred opposite Laura Osnes he created the role of JM Barrie for director Diane Paulus in the musical Finding Neverland at a RT on television he played Jimmy on the NBC series smash smash fans here today voice the role of Aryan in Disney's Channel's animated series tangled and is known to legions of fans for playing win in the hit TV series Supergirl on film he starred opposite Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah in joyful noise yo yeah and as Jamie opposite Anna Kendrick in the last five years we'll find out what it was like singing live through that whole film well now he's returned to Broadway starring alongside Carrie Washington Stephen Pasquale and Eugene Lee and Christopher demos Brown's new play American Sun directed by Kenny Leon please welcome Jeremy Jordan [Applause] hi can you hear me ah so weird sitting back there and you're just introducing me and I'm just sitting in behind this just like he's the most fun person I've ever met it's well it's like you watch your life flashed before you write your career a little bit a little bit through somebody else's eyes though and you're like oh we're first off welcome back to Broadway how does it feel how does it feel feels great I miss Broadway I haven't been here since 2012 so it's been six years and I'm super happy to be back and it's great I mean I didn't miss the not-so-great dressing room situation on Broadway but other than that it's been great and coming back into play you've always wanted to do a play on yeah he didn't you yeah yeah no I I actually my very first professional gig was a play I did in Hartford did the little dog laughed right out of college and then somebody heard that I could sing and then I've just been doing musicals ever since so I've kind of wanted to sort of you know have people sort of see me a little bit more broadly and and and sort of well one of the reasons that I that I decided to do supergirl and go out for pilot season was because I didn't want to be sort of stuck in that box of just the guy that can sing cuz even all the TV film stuff that I could that I did was all singing or at least had singing elements and so when I got Supergirl it was a big deal for me so that I could do something that didn't involve my voice then of course like they may be singing eventually but but yeah when I got done with that an American Sun came my way it just felt like the really the perfect next little step for me so that I can sort of you know brought in my career and try to not limit myself to just this one little thingy even though you know I do love to sing and I know that people kind of have grown to expect that from me but you know you try to challenge expectations every once in a while and and surprise people and surprise yourself and you know I've certainly learned a lot doing this show so well how did Americans son come about you Americans son kind of came to me at the perfect time I had just gotten back I'd been home for from Vancouver where I left the show supergirl after three years I had come home back to New York I was home for maybe two three weeks and my manager called me and after 30 minutes of like talking about random stuff he's like oh and by the way oh and by the way you know we might be getting an offer for this play for yous like oh really I was like where is it he's like some Broadway I was like what he could have led with that so but I don't think it was like you know wasn't they wanted to talk about it and figure it all out so I read it and I was like we got to make this happen so yeah I just I I I remember getting it at like it was really late at night because they were out in LA so I was reading it before going to bed and I had already like sort of dozed off and was like I'll just look at the character description and it's like 12:30 and then and then like 2:00 a.m. I'm like like shaking my wife like hey this is awesome she's like I hadn't talked about in the morning but it was yeah it was definitely one of those things as soon as I read I was like this I have to do this well let's tell everybody who hasn't seen the show yet what the play is about so Americans son I am NOT the son I am somebody son but no the Americans son basically takes place in present-day Miami Florida at a police station at 4:00 a.m. in the morning a woman a black woman comes in looking for her son he hasn't shown he hasn't come home 18 year old kid his car's missing she's been calling him she can't find out where he is and she had called the police station they they had mentioned that something that the car had his car had shown up in their records and so she starts freaking out comes down to the station meets my character who's really the only guy officer working there at 4:00 in the morning he's the new guy so he hits they have some some issues and and eventually we meet her husband who is a white man and the play really deals with a lot of racial issues in interracial marriage of biracial children really police race sort of relationships as well and and it's really just about how people don't communicate as well as they should about these sorts of things people sort of build up these these walls and you know we we tend to stay within the safe zone whenever we're talking to somebody that is maybe a little bit different than us and so because of the situation and circumstance those walls just kind of get shattered in our play and we go there we talk about all the things and and it's uncomfortable and some audiences have difficult time watching it and some audiences are just like thank you for talking about this sort of stuff and it's just a really beautiful truthful play about the sort of the current state of our country and what I really love about it is that there are four characters that are very different and very diverse in their views and their viewpoints and who they are and where they have come from that we as audience members can really find something at least with every one of them that we can agree with and then those things we sort of get beaten down and sort of a oh wait those that character actually isn't always right are always perfect they're like every sort of viewpoint is challenged and sort of also you know vindicated at the same time it's it's it's a really well-written play talk about your writer our writer is a man named Chris Deimos Brown who is a lawyer from Miami this is his first Broadway show I mean he's been writing plays but this is his big break he's a he's a white guy who is incredibly woke as they say and just a really really smart individual and and a lovely person I know that he had had a couple of serious relationships with black women so I think that he was able to have that white man black woman relationship really well down he was also in law enforcement for a while so he kind of has sort of thing he's a great dude yeah talk about your role without giving too much away okay well my role I play the young police officer named officer Larkin he is he's he's pretty smart although he's he's you know from the south and has that sort of sort of idea that he knows more than he really does you know what I'm saying and that that sort of he sort of is a victim in a way of that sort of casual middle-class white racism that you don't really know what you're saying you don't really you're not sort of aware of it and and he and we he becomes aware of it throughout the play I think eventually but he you know he's trying to be helpful I think he has bigger aspirations he wants to be in the FBI and and he's stuck here in the middle of night trying to deal with this woman who is growing increasingly more hysterical as I'm not able to help her and she is not able to find her son and he doesn't really know how to deal with it and then he meets another character which is steep-ass Qualls character who he kind of can become buddy-buddy with and they kind of he kind of becomes teammates with him which in a weird way sort of goes against this this sort of white dudes against the black woman it's it's very it's it becomes very uncomfortable to watch but um minoo it's he's he's just really trying to he's trying to be helpful he's trying to you know navigate all of his responsibilities as a police officer and follow protocols while at the same time sort of having compassion and and it really shows a lot of the issues I think that that young especially white police officers but police officers in general have to deal with on a daily basis you know they have to skirt these issues it's a very fine line between like remaining you know truthful to their you know the O's that they took to maintain the law and try to also be helpful to people and try to also you know Ben rules so that they can feel their sense of compassion at the same time it's it's a very difficult job because you know it's it's it rests on you know just a needlepoint because it can really just fall over into you know like oh well you're being racist or you're being you know or you're not you know being helpful enough or you're not actually protecting us you're actually hurting us because you're doing whatever sort of thing so he's really trying to navigate that the entire play how exciting and challenging is it doing a new play oh it's so exciting you know I've you know I've I've I've done a few new musicals and I've certainly done a lot of stuff that has never been done before whether it's TV or movie or Broadway but this feels different in that it feels important I feel like it's been a long time or if ever that I've really been a part of something that feels necessary to you know humanity our time it's like something that I feel like people need to see and need to hear and I read that and I read when I read the play I thought that immediately like I even though it you know it's a supporting role and you know previously on Broadway I've done leading roles and I couldn't not sort of find myself within this this world and telling the story because you know is a lot of things happening in our country right now and a lot of them are negative and one of them I think that is universally across the board and everybody can agree on is negative is how we deal with race in the country and how we're also stuck with it and and we don't know how to sort of talk to Pete talk to each other anymore you know it's everybody is really really closed off and and and afraid all the time and this play tries to combat that and tries to get people to talk and in terms of it just being a new play on a Broadway I mean I mean it's I don't know what else I could ask for I mean you know I would love to do a really cool revival one day I've never really done that except for a West Side Story but just being back on Broadway and coming to the city every day and and seeing the lines and the theatres and the crowds and sort of trying to remember to every day before you step onstage that there's somebody out in the audience that this is their first show or this show can change their life or be something that they'll remember forever and maybe lead them to do something great it's something it helps it it's it's good to be here because you can feel the audience's energy because even doing TV shows and stuff you can still inspire people but it's you're so far removed from that that you can't really feel that energy except for like if you go to a Comic Con or something like that and and here it's just like it's everywhere and it's and it's full and it really fills your hearts and it makes you feel like you have some sort of purpose it makes you feel like I'm doing something positive for the world which is strange to think when I decided that I was going to become an actor and performer that I was gonna be like making somebody other than myself feel good but yeah it's great the four of you work perfectly together yeah what's it like sharing the stage with Kerry Washington Stephen Pasquale Eugene Lee the four of you up there we have a blast I mean from the from the the first day that we really got together in the rehearsal room we really just bonded and meshed really quickly and we our Energy's really work really well together we're all very different but also very focused on on the exact same product like we're trying to do the same thing a lot of shows and a lot of a lot of times you'll see people you're like oh that person is doing a different play than that person or this play is directed somehow but like you're doing something and you're doing something and everybody's looking out for number one but we're really looking out for the play and it was one of the first times that I've really felt trust on all facets of the things you know the director the writing the acting usually I mean the past three years I've been doing television which has a lot of great things to it but it's so fast and so furious you're getting a new director every episode you you know you have the scripts coming in like this and you're trying to massage it to make it perfect and feel right for you and then it's done and you don't try all you have is yourself and here I was we were really able to trust material and trust each other and and it's it's gotten to the point now that when we're doing the show we really can just like be connected and and see each other in there in a you know look each other in the eyes and really find new moments and trust the other person's gonna be there for us to kind of like navigate that while still maintaining you know the the integrity of the play on credit there are some days where the lines become something new and we have to but even even more important for those kinds of days to have that trust because there are days well we'll skip like three lines be like well that was really important information how do we put that back in and not completely throw ourselves off and not make the audience be like what is happening on stage so those are always fun for those of you who have not seen this it's electrifying it to the for them it just it crackles on stage is one of the best shows you will see it's some of the for the best performances you'll ever see on a Broadway stage I mean it's it's 85 minutes and most people what they say at the end of was like I I didn't breathe for the entire time there's no intermission and it's like one of those things buy at the end you're just like okay some people just don't even clap to what's funny because we change the curtain call halfway through previews because it felt too like congratulatory of ourselves and so like what happened at the end is the curtain would go down and then it'd come up on an empty stage and then we'd make our way on Eugene and then me then Steve and then Carrie and it was like very traditional and now at the end we all stay on stage at the end and the curtain comes back up we just kind of like stand there and just kind of sit there with it so the audience and us it sort of gives the message to the audience like think about what you just saw don't think about us don't congratulate us right away just sit here and consider what we just gave you what we all just experienced together and then we'll do the bowels because everybody wants the clock you know well so much of this has to do with your incredible director you're working with Kenny Leon yeah what makes him one of the most sought a pa'dar actors I mean one the trust thing is a big thing I mean he is he is big one of his biggest things is all in the bed all on the floor which is a thing from his grandma about like you know there was somebody that you know if there wasn't enough beds then everybody slept on the floor sort of a thing and that's his sort of philosophy with theater so if one person is late everybody does push-ups which we only had to do twice I was gonna ask you about the push-up we only did twice okay and it was never me so I just got that one out but but but but other other you know beside that it's just like we all have to be in the same play in the same moment together we all have to like be breathing the same air and like feeling the same energy used to being back and forth between us and and there's a lot of trust going both ways with that and but the best thing for me with Kenny was that I don't even know if he meant to do this but he like really reformed a lot of my ideas about being an actor you know I have been doing like I keep saying I've been doing TV and I've done a lot of other things in my career where I have had to take what was given to me and make it that you know make it better make it massage it and kind of like find the little nuggets in there and bring that out and bring that out and it's really exciting to do that and sometimes it's difficult because you feel like I wish that it just was that and then I can do that on this scale instead of like it's like instead of like ha and this particular piece was that was that and I still approached it like this and like fine ease up what are you doing like why are you why did you make that word like longer like why are you saying like is he wearing a shirt like why use mine say is he wearing a shirt like just say it let's not align from the play I didn't give anything wrong I was just thinking to think of a word I said but like I would do that every what's wrong and like he's like you're trying it you're you're bringing that like comedy I mean I spent a lot of time doing comedy and so like the carrot my character if you see the show can really really very easily Teeter on to that comedy and he does but it's more like situational comedy other than like me trying to bring more funny to the show because I think we just we found out really really early on that if we bring too much comedy of the show people are ready to laugh more more they're more ready to laugh as the play goes on and gets more serious and then the serious things don't hit as well because people like 1 zanuck funny thing you know but but he he really taught me to trust the words and he gave me a little slip of paper one day after sort of reaming me the day before and the slip of paper just said you are good enough to just say these words and I was like it's it's weird because if I had gotten that out of any other context I feel like I might have been offended because like I have never been the guide to just like show up and say the things on the page I'm like always bringing something new to it or something interesting and finding nuggets and I think that is valuable but when something is so beautifully written and kind of perfect you say the words and everything around it falls into place and then those tiny little energies become so miniscule that you can't even see them but you're still bringing them so instead of like making a choice and it's visible to even the audience that that's the choice you made you're making a choice that's so minor minor and minuscule that it feels natural but it also feels personal and it also feels nuanced but it's but it's not obvious so people are just sitting there experiencing the play so it was a big lesson for me to learn and I had to kind of undo a lot of the things that I had done over the years of you know doing this too a lot of pieces you know like doing workshops of musicals that you know needed a lot of work and I'm trying to like show it to producers be like hair this can be good I promise you know or you know taking a TV script that was written the night before me like come on all right if I change this word around if I really got I can make that funny you know and this it and I well I talked to Kenny about that specific sort of thing and I was like I just want you to know you know like you've really changed my outlook on performing and Island acting you know and I can't and he's like well you know that's one of my main sort of thought I'm one of my goals is to take is to dude work on the material and then by the end of that work the actor has something new to take to the next piece and that's what I really feel excited about like whatever comes next I'm like I have so many new tools I have so many so much more you know within me and more ideas about how I can do certain things you know of course because of course that the character that I'm working on right now has a very limited set of things that he's done that he does in the show you know and but I feel like the things that I learned from Kenny I can implement on a much greater scale separated what he does thank you for sharing ain't pretty good yep he's pretty good let's go back to the beginning growing up in Texas where did your love for performing begin and what were your earliest creative outlets Wow well growing up I my grandma used to run a community theater youth program so like she did all like the kitty plays at the community theater and so she would sometimes you know volunteer my brother and I to come and do the shows and it was fun but like whatever and and so that was like my first introduction to it but I wasn't super hooked on it I was just like something silly to do like I would go and make faces and like you know say funny silly things on stage and then go eat McDonald's or something you know and so like it didn't really impact me and then I I realized I could sing kind of at an early age and I would always but I was always so shy so I'd like sing the shower and my mom she told me this years laters that she would like crack the door open and like sit there listen wise I was like my boy soprano singing singing Celine Dion in the shower so she finally got me a the courage to go audition for a couple of musicals and turns out I could not act save my life so even though I could sing I didn't get those so I went to choir instead because choir doesn't involve acting and so I went into choir and sort of fell in love with that world and and grew learned to grow as a singer and then eventually I think eventually I kind of grew up and matured and started to listen and I think that was the key to unlocking my ability as an actor which was listening which is funny because how it came about was I was a sophomore or junior in high school and I was auditioning for a play called The Fantasticks which was here for a long time and there is a character in it called the mute who doesn't say or speak or sing it's a musical and I'm like and the directors somehow saw something in me and he was like well we're going older for the casting so I can't cast you for the boy even though you are a boy and the person playing the boy is like 35 but that's the lore thing but we're gonna have you as the mute I was like great I have nothing better to do but what at what it did was it taught me to listen and I and I suddenly like was paying attention to everything else going around me and reacting to it and I was like oh this is really fun I'm not just sitting on stage making faces and like doing spit-takes and stupid stuff like that that really didn't mean anything and as soon as I figured that out I was off to the races and auditioning for colleges and yeah it was really raw when I got to college really really raw and needed the acting I know a lot of a lot of people go to college like ah whatever and they end up go getting getting a you know national tour and then leaving school I needed all four years of it like I needed I needed the the ground work and it has served me so well over the years yeah what got you to New York well I went to college in upstate New York I think I grew up in Texas right so I but I always you know I always had this dream of living in New York even before I wanted to be a Broadway guy I just thought it was you know there's like this you know magical quality about it especially coming from small not small medium sized town in Texas were nobody leaves and everything stays the same and everything's flat and you're like look at this big city where anything is possible like it was just very cliche but that's what I wanted to do so I mean I went to you know I looked for a lot of cult when I went for colleges I looked for places that were not anywhere near where I grew up even like my backup schools were up in the Northeast and went to Ithaca College which is in upstate New York so I got to go to New York a few times you know during school and check out plays and see things here and there and yeah I immediately moved here after I was done I mean what else was I gonna go exactly did you try to get waitering gigs oh yeah tell us about those well you know when I was in college I never I worked at the dining hall I never worked real real job when I was in high school but when I went home during college I worked at with my mom at the bingo hall that was like it just came home smell like cigarettes in cigarettes in debt so I hate so that was like my job experience was that was the bingo hall and the and you know the dining hall a lot of holes unfortunately there were no hulls that I could apply to be a waiter at but I so I did that thing where I well first of all I will say first of all I did catering gigs so the first thing I did when I moved to the city was I catered the US Open which was really fun and and at one point I well it was really fun except for when you couldn't eat anything and your stomach's like I have to eat all this even though you're not hungry and then you're like in the tiny little hallway where nobody could see you like bringing back the tray that only had two things on it because you have to replace it and you're just like just crying because like it's not that good I'm like now I have to pee but I did that and I did some other catering gigs but for me it sort of just destroyed my soul I mean you're sitting in a room you're dressed up and everybody's having fun and not paying attention to you you're like you might as well be a robot like that's what they should make robots for not to take people's jobs in like meaningful things but to be cater waiters man that would be the life for a robot fabulous for sure and then they could like warm it and like he anyway so I did that for for a hot minute and then I decided I needed to make more money and talk to people and so I was like okay I'm gonna try to be a waiter and so I made a fake resume super fake and what I because you know all the restaurants for in New York if you want to get restaurant in New York restaurant gig you have to have had three years of experience at least and you have to know all the systems that you that they use for the for you know for ordering I was like oh crap and so what I did was that I picked all restaurants that I know had closed either in New York or in my hometown or anything uh and I put them all on there so that they tried to call nobody would answer but they were legit places that were now closed apparently I worked for two years at the Bennigan's down in Corpus [Laughter] but nobody bought it so like I went all around nobody nobody nobody said nobody's like now we're not gonna give it to you and then finally went to this one restaurant that my friend told me to go to because they liked actors called 44 and 10 on 44 and 10 lovely restaurant really good food and I walked in and I had my backpack on and I was like this is my last one it was really theirs the last thing I was gonna try and then I was like I'm going back to catering and the maitre d stands up was before they were serving it was like 4 o'clock and he's like he looks me over he looks at my resumes like mmm and he looks me over he's like are you an actor I'm like yes actually I am an actor he's like do you sing I was like well yeah I do sing I was like do they sing here I was like he's like now it's not a plan and then and he's like looks at me again he's like do you have your book so for those of you don't know that your book is like your book of audition songs which of course I had on me so I give him my book of songs we like to like busing the tables over here and like stalking the you know wine and and he opens it up it's like sing this I was like right now just like acapella he's like yes so I like kind of like mezzo piano sing through anthem from chess and he just looked kind of looks at me he says come in for training tomorrow at 4:00 and I had that job for like four months and then I got a finally got an act my an acting gig and I left I would have been fired very soon that is hilarious so it was very very close to being fired on multiple occasions a Buick Rock of Ages favorite memories of that how challenging was that show um well I was a swing in Rock of Ages right so that's a challenge in its own swing is like the universal understudy so I understood heed to no three leads and two ensemble tracks and so at first it's really hard because you're like I gotta learn all this stuff but then once you know it all you're like just sitting backstage waiting for somebody to get sick or fall is he gonna fall tonight how do I make him fall my mom's in town how so oh no but it was really fun but my but I didn't I didn't step on stage until after we opened and and it was for the lead and he called like a date I had a days notice so I had one day and I had to understudy rehearsals and we had gotten halfway through Act one and those rehearsals I mean cuz you know I know I know I know all of it because I'm sitting there throughout the entire process but I'm not actually done anything I've not there's no costumes I'm not like stepped into the role except for like the first half of Act one and so we do like what's called a put in which the whole cast comes in and you run through the show like manically before the evening performance and I had two scripts offstage and one on each side and I'm just like every time I go offstage it's like okay okay okay going with my lines and I wore like half of this guy Constantine who I was understudying his costumes he's literally like a foot taller than me I'm wearing half his costumes like no wigs so I'm like trying to make my hair look cool in 80s even though it's literally this short and yeah but it was great I mean it was it was wonderful and I had a lot of people came and and sort of my family came out surprised me and it was it was kind of it was kind of magical my first time on a Broadway stage I was playing the lead in a show I got to take the final bow and amy Spangler was playing the opposite next to me and she turned to me right before we walked out for the last number and she said grab my shoulders and she said you are a star and I like almost started crying I gotta do the show now I gotta go sick don't stop believing it I won't I won't stop yeah it was it was really great it was a great experience and I mean the other weird freaky funny story about that was the writer/director for joyful noise was in the audience that night the first my very first show and and he sort of cast me right there on the spot hasn't happened since as far as I know but that first one yeah let's talk about joyful noise incredible film first film Dolly Parton Queen Latifah mhm what was it like being on a set like that and working with them yeah feels like forever ago that was 2010 nine nine nine ten ten yeah it was great I mean they were lovely lovely human beings and it's two huge names and really showed me the the positive side of what it can be like to be a star to be like us huge because you hear so many stories about people that are like just divas or like nobody likes summer they're always yelling or arguing and making the set a terrible place to be but they're so frigging talented that they're still getting work and people just tolerate it and it was couldn't be more the opposite with them I mean dolly would have given you know the man on the street the time of day if she didn't have her bodyguards around her but you know like she she just was the most lovely giving human being and Queen Latifah was was equally as accessible and and also really lovely so I mean yeah they taught me a lot about how to be a human being on set while also you know having that sort of star power and you know I I have I've been in instances where I've seen the opposite luckily more often than not it's it's not that but I have seen those those moments where you see people you're like oh I can't be like that like but it's so easy to be that way because especially in TV and film everything is handed to you you know you have your trailer and you have all you have you know all the PA is waiting on do you need anything do you need water do you need a sandwich and and just everything is at your fingertips and given to you you want to ride we'll give you a ride yeah do you want a per diem take it do you want my firstborn child please have it you want to bring your dog to work and keep it in a little in your pocket while you do the scene great we'll shoot you from the from the chest up have your dog in your lap it's great we love them like they do that they they just they because because of actors that make life miserable for people they over cater to all actors that's kind of nice but but I try to like you know take myself down a step when I can up you'll come back in a guide oh you watch come on in you'll come in come on back I'd love to a stage actors the first time they're on a TV set yeah was Law & Order SVU Yeah right yeah what was your experience like on that nice for you oh my god what was weird I I had very well first of all I had very different ideas about my character than the director did I was like well then why did you cast me but that was a whole other thing but yeah I would say the best thing for me was well there were a couple lessons I learned on that the the main one being I had a scene with Chris Meloni who was like the lead detective on that show for a really long time and he in the scene has to tell me that my girlfriend has been killed and in the script I'm like supposed to be kind of not really affect as affected like holding it in like dark and the directors like oh now your girlfriend has died well meanwhile I've been like cheating on her and don't really like her whatever sort of things so like and he's also like upper-class like doesn't feel feelings kind of person all that aside I'm so I'm like trying now to emote like having not prepared to a Moute trying to like okay my girlfriend's dead but like I'm I'm a stoic upper class Upper East Side New York you know 18-year old high school kid who doesn't feel things how do I do this and so I'm like he tells me and I'm like looking all around like ah God how do I deal with this like how would somebody deal with this okay you're not gonna like you're gonna be like looking down you're gonna be like just kind of like sinking inside your head okay this makes sense this makes sense and then Chris Maloney was like dude just look at me I was like well that's weird like if you told me that my girlfriend died and I wouldn't just like stare at she like that's creepy he's like it doesn't matter what you would actually do the audience is right here in the camera the audience is this tiny little thing if you're doing this the audience just sees this and this and this he's like if you look at me and I'm right here the audience sees everything happening in your eyes and you just give me that and yeah it might not feel right or like correct like what you would do in real life but is what we see through your eyes that makes us feel you know as an audience what you're going through and that was a huge lesson for me that I still have to remind myself which I think is a big difference between TV and Broadway acting but actually not that much of a difference because a Broadway stage while it's big is not that big you know there's a difference between being like haha and like like you can still see it you can still see it I mean you can see like me you know do that as opposed to me doing you know like it doesn't have to be that thing yeah you know it's like it's subtlety is your is your is your friend and I am still learning that everyday so don't go back and watch everything I did and be like he said some of these your friend but what is he doing right there trust me I've seen it I I gave myself the note we're good fabulous I'm still learning West Side Story will you play Tony I've told you this before but you were one of my all-time favorite Tony's and I have seen 340 totally thanks you got to work with Arthur Laurents who could be brilliant tyrannical and everything else in betrayus and you were young then too well yes that experience like for you doing Westside and working with him yeah that was 2009 I did yeah I was the to show Tony which was fun because it was the best gig on Broadway it literally showed up twice a week and got a principal contract but yeah when I first got it well first of all when I first got it he I had my final callback it was for the replacement and he was like where were you the first round I was like I auditioned I got a callback I met you he's saying through everything I remember because I had a sunburn because I came I left my family vacation in Texas to come there and he's like well I don't know who that was but this is who I want great okay fine no offense taken hire me we're good so he hired me and you know really sort of heaped on the praise early and like and and made me feel very good about myself and you know different he's like I'd never seen anybody do something's coming like that everybody does Maria everybody does like all this but never nobody ever nails something's coming he's like you had this energy and I was like great I love you and then we never I did the show I got put in the show and then he would show up like you know a couple times a month and bring everybody out in the house and give us Corrections and give us notes and it was always terrifying because he would always pick one person no matter what no matter how good or bad the show was one person got the wrath of Arthur Laurents and I thought it was just how he worked and we all knew it and there was nothing we could do about it and it was never me until the very last time he came and saw me and it was like three days before I was leaving the show to do Bonnie and Clyde and he was like you've gone you've left the show already where were you I was so I mean I don't even know why you showed up to work des and I had felt like I had given my like soul like bled on stage that day like I was really emotional performance for me and I like I felt like I discovered new things and and I was just like dude why do you do this like why are you I mean I said this to him which everybody was like what are you doing I was like what is he gonna fire me I'm leaving in three days I don't know if he's gonna be directing anything else anytime soon but I I don't want to say that I was the cause of not I wasn't I wasn't but I kind of called him out it was like what good are you doing you know I felt like I was giving a I really felt really proud of my performance I took all the notes that you gave me last time and the time before and I implemented them into this performance and you're telling me that the things that you told me to do last time I'm doing wrong and I was like I don't know what you want from me he's like he's like you know oh I see what you're doing you're like trying to you know be you're like strong male presence and Mike you know assert your your strength over me I was like no I'm not I'm trying to take you down a notch of anything but like I honestly want to know like what can we all do so that you're not doing this every time that you come see the show and it kind of ended there because people started getting weird and I was like nevermind just and I kind of half apologized afterwards and everybody in the cast came up to me like the next day or they're like dude thank you for saying what we were all thinking but glad that you said it because I definitely don't have balls to say that but it must have been empowering to do - yeah I mean yeah it was just weird that like somebody like that who uses power to manipulate people and to us and it was and really what he was saying that I was doing was what he had been doing asserting his power and his you know male masculinity whatever over everybody and they all feared him for it and I was like that's not cool people eat I don't know it's 2,000 whatever 9 or 10 at that time like you don't need to do that anymore people you can talk to people well you were sensational in that show I think you know appreciate it you clearly weren't there that evening what's up we have to sort of talk about Newsies Newsies fans oh yeah and Bonnie and Clyde together okay you received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Jack Kelly in the musical Newsies yeah Newsies was a life changing show for you wasn't it it certainly was yeah I am you know I grew up watching Newsies as a kid on my little VHS tape came out when I was like 9 or 7 one of those odd ages and yeah yeah I loved it and it's so funny because when I when I heard that they were making it into musical I was like oh man I got to do that and I never got an audition and then apparently they couldn't find anybody so they came back and they're like oh we forgot to call you in but you were we totally had meant to it's a good thing we've we've remembered because you're so great cuz I had showed up and I was the only one auditioning I was like where's everybody else is like well we couldn't find anybody I was like oh I see um not that I was anybody huge at that point but I had you know I was in West Side Story I've done a couple Broadway shows I had I had yeah so I mean I had things going for me and so I got it and it was like a it was just a it was just a workshop so like a week-long reading of it just to see if it was any good and it was great so we did that and then like a year and a half later Jeff Calhoun who who had directed me and Bonnie and Clyde signed on to direct it and he just called me and said do you want to do it I was like yeah no dance audition I'm in and we did it at paper mill and the rest is kind of history yeah then Bonnie and Clyde yeah the double duty the same well Newsies so what happened was I had Newsies the the reading first yeah and then Bonnie and Clyde happened which is when I met Jeff and that was Bonnie Clyde happened while I got but that I'll get I got that that's why I left Westside because we did it out of town right so I did Bonnie and Clyde out of town in Florida which was amazing got to work with with with Laura and became great friends and then when I came back from that is when newsies happened at paper mill you know the out-of-town tryout and then as soon as that was over Bonnie and Clyde was going to Broadway so as I was doing paper mill at night during the day I was rehearsing in the city was doing show in Jersey at night rehearsing in the city during the day to do Bonnie and Clyde and and then of course Newsies was gonna go to Broadway right away and I was in Bonnie and Clyde thinking like oh this dream role of mine is gonna go to somebody else for Broadway I mean I got to do it I guess I should be thankful for that you know I'm doing this show other show that I really like but you know it's I don't know if it's gonna do very well and then Bonnie and Clyde closed after only a month being open just in time for me to start rehearsals for Newsies because they hadn't quite casted any but cast anybody yet and yeah I got lucky I mean lucky for me at this sort of Naughton not that my luck in that cost Bonnie and Clyde anything but I mean I felt so bad for all the people that were doing that show that you know had no job and I just kind of waltzed into another one and did two new Broadway musicals in the same season which was crazy but uh that was the last time I was on Broadway thousand twelve then I went on to this TV let's talk about TV then we got to chat about smash smash fans will you play Jimmy on season two how did Sebastian come about view smash came about because season two got a new show runner fellow named Josh saffron who is now really great friend of mine and he wanted to bring a few new characters into the TV show had seen Bonnie and Clyde in Newsies and tells me that he wrote the character of Jimmy with me in mind now that's not too say I didn't go through like four were four auditions to get it and I had to do a bunch of stuff but uh and eventually I booked it and we started in gosh we started in July or August and we had open news he's in April or no open muses in like March or February so anyways I had been in Newsies for like four months and I'm starting this new gig and I had like a six month contract in Newsies so I somehow convinced them to hire me a standby who was Cory kaat who is now his own famous person itself and he was my standby Newsies while during you know every once in a while I would be stuck on film stuck on set filming and then he would come on so there was like about a month and a half that I was doing Newsies at night and shooting smash during the day in Brooklyn and I think there was like a 35 to 40 day period where I didn't have a single day off over a month and I was like I gotta go and then what ended up happening was that I had built my wedding and honeymoon or little mini honeymoon into my Newsies contract and subsequently into my smash contract so I went from like double duty to like two weeks off and then I just when I came back I I was just doing smash I had left I left Newsies then after like five months it's very sad favorite memories of smash favorite memories of smash you know I met two of my best friends they're Andy Mientus and krysta Rodriguez and we just had a lot of stupid fun times on set just what was great was that you know season two kind of busted and flopped in terms of you know critical and ratings but we didn't premiere until like February and we had started shooting like I said in July August so we had got most the season under our belt before anybody saw it so we had this eternal sense of optimism about us for the longest time and we just had a blast just doing everything and and I don't know man I it's it the stupid little moments or what stick with me like you know Andy and I pulling a prank on set or Krista telling everybody what happened on my honeymoon because she was so sick of me telling everybody the story I came back I came back from my homeland and like everybody wanted to know what I did and she happened to be working with me all day so we were next to each other and every new person I told she so finally like the fifth or sixth person I started telling Jeremy he did this he did he went there team with it was great he has lunch here at dinner there it was great okay next and then I was like suddenly you're my new favorite person but like stupid stuff like that like that's what I loved you like the three musketeers on yeah a little bit yeah we all came in together and yeah yeah the film version of Jason Robert Brown musical the last five years yes yes another dream role for me too I mean when I was in college was right around when the musical was you know at its height of popularity in the city yeah and you know we all it was kind of a litmus test for musical theater performers like I'm not the litmus test that's a terrible what's the test the bar exam I don't know it's yeah you know what I mean it was the but it was the bar right so like if you could successfully get through the last five years number like you were good enough to go to New York can like it was like that was like a thing like subconscious but that was kind of like the thing and so like I knew that whole show by heart almost and you know they they said that they had cast Anna in the lead role and I was like well of course they're gonna get some sort of big name apparently they went through a few and they couldn't find anybody that you know they that could sing it well or or whatever and turned to a slowly Broadway folk and I had to kind of fight for it I did I did I mean I went in initially and I thought I did pretty good and they liked me and they brought me back for a callback and they there was still a sort of Tim Tim it'ld sort of like I don't know for really sure about this guy and I had to keep coming back in and had do like one of the funny numbers than one of the really dramatic numbers and then the story song and and eventually what I ended up doing which I'm not saying this is what got it but I but I learned that I can do this was I wrote a letter to the director telling him why he should cast me which was like what have I got to lose at this point I've gone in like three or four times I I'm so passionate about this and this would be an absolute dream so like how can I be my own like advocate it wasn't like I like please hire me sort of thing it's like here's what I will bring here are all my ideas here is what I know and what I can do and here's how I can even bring this to a higher level level than anybody else like it was just sort of an exercise in like confidence mixed with humility mixed with sort of passion like it was like it was just one of those moments where I realized like I'm in charge of my own career like it's too often as actors we get stuck in that like well this is my one shot I'm gonna walk in this room and if I blow it well throw that away screw that dream that I had and sometimes your dreams are really powerful and really really potent and and you can't just get rid of it because I know like if I don't get this you know it's one thing if you go in for an initial thing and it just feels wrong and you can but if like you you start to get that thing that sort of idea of like what it could be like and you and you start to see glimmers that it could still it might it might it might and then it gets taken away that's the worst so and you know we're just so often just powerless we walk in we do the audition somebody else makes the decisions you know TV and film you go in and even after you have the job you go and you do a few takes somebody else picks it and hopefully you cross your fingers you look good and they don't pick the things that make you look stupid which happens far too often and having some semblance of control or some semblance of of your career is incredibly empowering as an actor and even if it doesn't work you know you tried and like there's so many things that you're told not to do I most of that stuff yeah I mean it's just if you're good and you know what you're doing and you're prepared and you can back up what you're giving do whatever you want see great advice yeah but you have to be able to back it up yeah and you have to you have to have confidence in it because if you go in there and sing you know I dreamed a dream and you're just giving the same delay and performance every other girl came in and gave then yeah don't go sing during your dream sing a different song that's gonna make you stick out but like I'm also like a big advocate of going in like when they when they tell you to go into for a show a musical specifically and they're like bring your book seeing something sing something not from the show singing a 16-bar cut of something I'm like no I'm gonna sing something from the show and you're gonna see what the character is gonna look like because like otherwise why are we wasting each other's time and if I can't give you enough I can't prove to you in this initial call that I can play this character then why am I here so that's not saying that everybody should do that but you know if you can't if you have that confidence then you should they should ask you to sing for the show yeah sometimes and sometimes they do but sometimes it's not it's not that you're like yeah whatever sharing the screen with Anna Kendrick yeah I'm singing live yeah singing live man that's that's uh that was great I mean I done the whole season of smash and you know we use the same audio guys I got them in contact so that so that I had something because I cuz none nobody else had really done I mean Anna had done pitch perfect but all those guys were in LA and our director Richard had never done any sort of film musical thing and so like people that knew what they were doing anyways so but we had always done pre records for that because TV is too hard to do stuff alive for the most part because it's all so fast and you have to get all the elements together and you can't just do a bunch of retakes and you can't go back and like go and edit it all and try to get it and you have to get all the different angles it's a whole but with a small movie and like a really close-up movie like the last five years we were able to do that and of course we'd still like you know cleaned up things in post of course and like there were a couple songs that we couldn't do live because you know we were in a car driving down the highway with the hood down and it would just sound terrible not that we would sound terrible but like the sound quality would just be atrocious you know but um no it was great I mean like it was hard like doing the Shmuel song in a in a upper well in a harlem a brownstone in the middle of the summer in a giant sweater with no a/c ten times over the course of like ten hours full all the way through was I mean it was pretty rough but it became like my favorite number in the show and like doing if I didn't believe in you we did that like 14 times in a row that's a seven minute song that's just me and and we used take 14 in the movie so it's like it took that and it just like took every ounce out of us like it but it was great because like you could give every word nuance when you're singing along to a tape recorder specially verse something like last five years with the entire movie 99% of it is sung like if you have to lip-synch 99% of a movie there's no there's just an entire wall of emotion that you're leaving behind while your brain thinks how do I get that note exactly on the beat you know so yeah it was it was it was necessary but also you know really exhilarating it was so alive yeah and on film yeah yeah and well the other thing is we had its tiny budget you know and a very small window of time to do it so one of the things that I that I've grown to love about it because I don't know if I always loved about it but I've grown to love about it is its imperfection there are a lot of really imperfect moments in that because but I think it's sort of mirrors the the story in a strange way yeah yeah you are known to millions of fans who play win on the hit TV series Supergirl yeah Supergirl fans I got a big one right here I know she's a big Supergirl fan right here how much fun was that doing for you um well for me it was it was it was a big big deal for me because like I said it was a departure from the musical singer dude I really felt like I got to play a character that was much more close to who I was you know I was often putting on this sort of like strong leading man face because you know whatever the jawline and the notes and the you know being a straight man in musical theater is you kind of get boxed into those you know strong characters and this was like a sort of fragile funny lovable guy and I really got to like because I always felt like I tried to bring a sense of comedy to everything I do even if it's like the most traumatic thing I try to find the humor in it and try to bring that out and try to like sort of humanize the character and ground the character and humor because generally most people unless you're like a serial killer and even then sometimes you know you you if in the seer in like things get too heavy you make a joke you like try to like yeah take a bring a little levity and and so being the sort of funny humorous humorous comic bestfriend character was kind of like coming home to me was like it was like it was like rediscovering Jeremy in a strange way because you know a lot of times you spend your time doing all these roles you lose track sometimes of you know the off the most authentic version of yourself because you bring little parts of yourself to all these characters and sometimes you take parts of them with you and I'm not really one to like carry a lot of character baggage with me but I didn't realize until I did Supergirl and did win like how much I long to be that goofy weird silly version of myself which people that know me I've got to see but nobody else did and it was very sort of cathartic and you know to release that in that energy into the world that was just always felt the most authentic to me so yeah I love that I mean I miss it it was I I I had to leave the show for for my own reasons nothing to do with anybody there or the cast of which I loved and the character which I loved there's just you know I needed to be back in New York I needed to be with my friends and my family and and I need to be back onstage and well what's what's what's great is I'm going as I am gonna go back and do some more stuff with them so I'm not done with the character which is really exciting because when you decided not to become a regular character anymore you've got American sign right yeah it's so funny because it's that same idea of taking ownership of your life because when you sign these TV contracts they're like six years there's six years and when I signed the Supergirl contract it was in Los Angeles and I have a lot of friends and I love Los Angeles it's sunny and beautiful I grew up in South Texas it's kind of like home to me like there's the beach there's the hot weather I can wear shorts every day I love LA and and after season one we were shipped up to Vancouver first for all eternity and it and you know we were talking about this backstage Vancouver is like it's a lovely city in the summer and it's just kind of gloom and doom for like six eight months out of the year it just rains and you know the people are lovely and you know things a little bit cheaper because the Canadian dollar but it's it got to me really quickly and and my wife was out here you know she's also an actress and we've done that thing where we follow each other before and it doesn't work for us and for a lot of people like you you start to lose your identity when you start to follow your partner into whatever they're there gig is so I knew pretty shortly because we were gonna move out to a lay because she could have like a career out there and I pretty pretty quickly after I moved to Vancouver I realized I needed to get out as soon as possible and I just couldn't find that way to break a six-year contract without a lot of red tape and I you know just started having conversations with people and was lucky enough to you know amicably leave the show and be written off in a lovely way and still you know still be close with everybody and be invited back whenever you know they need me and so yeah it's but but it was definitely my decision I remember I was in therapy and I they he gave me like he wanted to meet her right out of five-year plan and this was after season one and so you know started with like six months from now and then you know a year from now two years from now five years from now and I got to two years from now and I was like well I want to be doing it two years like the last thing I want to be doing is being stuck in Vancouver again for another ten months and like super unhappy and like in the you know cloudy gray depression and so as soon as I wrote that out I like made it a goal for myself like to not be there and two years later I'm right here this is about two years ago so here I am so I mean it's it's it's taking ownership you know it's really just like sometimes ownership comes at a cost you know uh actual costs in this case because TV money it is nice and Broadway money less nice so you can go back and forth oh yeah yeah I mean that the the ideal is kind of to be well-rounded you know so but I saved that up up enough money and my wife and I are building a house out in Jersey so it's kind of the dream it's kind of dream for us we have a few questions from the audience ooh this is one for you when are you recording a live audience I've been waiting for years when am i recording a live album yes oh well you know I'm in the process of doing a non live album first and then maybe we can talk about a live album but yeah I it's been a dream of mine to put out an album for a long time but I've done so many you know theater and soundtrack albums that I wanted to be different so you know I've been writing music since I was in high school the high school stuff nobody needs to ever hear but as I got older I started to get better at it and I've started collaborating with some people and yeah now that I'm back in New York and have a few more resources and a little bit more time we've been working on putting together an album of original material it's it's not a theater album it's it's like a pop kind of alternative pop album which is like my jam and something I have no dreams of being you know a huge pop star but ever since I was a kid I always wanted to have a pop album like I like a pop or rock out you know something something that was like that you could play on the radio and I always have theater and I always have all my concerts and symphony gigs and music and this is I just wanted to find a new facet to express myself so that's what we are working on right now you know I've been working on it for a while but now that I'm back here we're actually starting to get it done so good for you stay tuned we will we'll have something hopefully sooner than later about about that to announce beautiful another question is what do you consider your most challenging role as an actor or a singer Wow most challenging I'm just going through the rolodex you know this one has been pretty challenging for me but I would say you know actually I would probably say when I did JM Barrie and Finding Neverland at a RT in Boston beautiful yeah was really was really a big challenge for me you know it was I was playing a little bit older than I am I was playing in a historical character I'm sure I was trying to do justice to a lot of things at a time while at the same time trying to help build this new show that was trying to find itself and trying to lend whatever bits of my voice I could to the process and it was also really difficult because I always felt and rightfully so that I could lose the gig at any time and so I really felt like I was fighting for my job every evening every time I was doing the show because I and I loved the character so much and I wanted him to grow and find new things and I was always constantly building but in the back of my mind kind of fighting against myself and against the producers and unnameable people that we don't well person that we don't need to talk about and yeah it was it was a tough really difficult but rewarding and it's its own way and constantly challenged by the character but i but i but i finished with a pretty decent Scottish accent so I can't do Irish anymore I used to be able to do Irish and then I played a Scottish character now I can it's one of the other oh really - like that Thanks so those of you didn't see if you go on YouTube there's some beautiful b-roll footage of oh yeah and Laura Michelle Kelly yeah and I wash it just last night you see your whole performance through your eyes so wonderful everybody go home today Ritchie bring it up and why see and I'm not blowing smoke I'm pretty sure my tie is askew in that Bureau said all notice all the press photos it was like the first dress room and that we're backstage doing the quick change I like trying to get the time we didn't quite get ahead run on stage like it was like this looks ridiculous all the press photos my tie is like like what is that tie choice that's interesting is he like a quiz II Corki like that I don't know I love what you watchers look at look at a picture or b-roll what I mean it was a very uppercut look for that look for that online to look for that once you see it you can't unsee okay this is from Leah do you have any dream roles you'd like to do uh classics that's a tough one because I just am a big creator I'm a I'm a big fan of creating things yeah I I will say I haven't really done any proper Sondheim okay so I think I would want to do something I mean I've done west side which is lyrics spice on time but I think I would really love to do a Sondheim roll one day with six by Sondheim yes but that's just a review you know like I mean a real character yeah I think that's something that I would want to do so either Bobby or George I don't know something yeah great George - yeah I have some time I still got my youth well look that someone is question is there any musical you you wish or in that you auditioned for that you did not get oh wow I got to go back for this one him well you know there was the whole funny Neverland thing but but I did get Supergirl because I wasn't doing that so I don't want to count that yeah and I didn't do it so it was like musicals that I you know there's a lot of them that I did audition for that I'm glad I didn't get because you know they've been tanked man I don't know maybe you know what here's the thing is like I I so I do it subconsciously now whenever I audition for something and nothing happens of it I literally like cleanse my mind I like delete I like format the drive of that in my brain and I don't think about it so I don't know my manager Ted's here he could probably give me some that I could think of which one yeah what'swhat's one I didn't get yeah well that's the right answer Thank You Ted my manager appreciate you there have been plenty of like you know movies and things I still I try to just I just delete app do I think - yeah forward with anything who said you know you do the best you can you push for something if you can if you get it you get if you don't yeah move on to the next project yeah right yeah exactly exactly because everything you do is different yeah nothing you if you look at your body of work nothing is the same no I don't think so I know I don't think that I've I try to everything that I actually end up do doing I try to make it different and you know this American Sun yeah being a prime example you know playing a you know the conservative police officer is is definitely new for me so it's it's yeah I'm really excited to see what comes next but you know talk about empowering yourself you made those choices and when you make those choices other great things followed right behind it yeah yeah it's really about making choices and even for me you know like I find times where I'm feel stuck yeah and I'm like why am I stuck because I'm sitting here waiting for something to happen yeah you know and I happens to me all the time you know and sometimes just little things like you know on a daily basis when I'm sitting at home vegging in front of the TV feeling just wondering why I feel like kind of sad I'm like oh because you decided that you weren't gonna do anything today and some days that's earned but some days you're like I feel like I have more to give the world than what I'm doing at the moment so I mean I'm right now thinking about like last week I was like I could have really done a lot more last week so you've done a lot today you'd already picked I all right yes I went out I was in Jersey picking out tile for our new house all this morning you got by me I was sat back and said that's ugly or that's not ugly and then everybody else picked the stuff but I definitely let him know if I didn't like it god yes or that's too expensive that's a big water we're thinking square footage here okay total this is not a closet that's a that's the master bathroom yeah a lot of tile a lot of coaching oh my god you have no idea we have a young in here Grace and Kelly today is my 11th birthday oh please sing happy birthday to me or wish me a happy birthday oh my goodness what's your name who's grace racing right here I don't ever do this I'll sing happy birthday to you okay all right don't blink happy birthday to you happy birthday to you what's your name happy birthday dear Grayson happy birthday to you thank you very welcome thank you for that I have two more questions you were one of the most humble and sincere gentlemen working at the top of your game in an ever-changing business how do you view your success and stay so level well I don't know that I view it as success I view it as this is what's happening and this is what I've done and this is where I want to go and this is where I am like if you start thinking like I'm successful actor then where do you got to go from there like I don't feel I'm as successful as successful as I could be there are a lot of things that I want to do that I have not had the opportunity to do there are a lot of things that I want to do that I don't think I'm ready to do yet there are a lot of things that I have done that I'm proud of that I would go back and do better if I could but I can't so it's like I don't know it's I don't really feel successful I feel like I'm here and I have something to give and and that's all I can really do is is try to go day by day and try to become better be a better person be better husband be a better performer you know it's it's it's it says it's a daily struggle not struggle I don't want to say it's a struggle it's a daily sort of it's a privilege honestly for me I mean I feel privileged I feel lucky to be in the position you know I am in given so many other people in the world who are nowhere near as well off as I am and so yeah I mean in that case I I feel like I can't really say oh I'm not successful because there I know are hundreds of thousands of people that wish they could have the level of success that I have had and I can't like shirk that I suppose I can't like say oh no but I think that if I have that mindset I'm going to become a different person yeah and I don't want to be that person I want to be the person that's constantly building and growing and changing and and bettering himself and other people around him beautiful so that leaves it to my final question is what is the best bit of advice that you've been given either personally or professionally that you live your life by well I mean I yeah I mean I guess the one thing that I always think of when people ask me that question is my sophomore year of college my acting teacher taught me how to take a risk and I thought that I was doing it and I realized that I was playing safe within my bounds so like you say take a risk and you're like oh hey that's not taking a risk taking a risk would be like taking this and splashing it all over you which I'm not actually gonna do but you know what I'm saying it's like people say take risks all the time and people take a tiny step but a risk isn't a tiny step it's like it's a leap it's a it's a leap blindfolded and it emits a leap blindfolded while you know having a parachute you know ready to go if need be but it's and basically you know we came about because you know he he would give me like a piece of work our piece of material and I cut and I go and do it and I try to find my own safe way of making it my own and he just say no that's wrong I was like it's what's on the page I just said all the words right I did all the things that it said it's like that's wrong I was like no it's not we've gotten this huge argument I was like no it's not wrong he's like why don't you do this and he told me something completely opposite I was like what how is that right when that's not what's on the page and I did it and it became something totally new and totally interesting and that wasn't the final product but it informed my right choices in a completely new way so I think that if we reached a little bit outside of our comfort zone a little bit outside of our box everyday a little bit more a little bit more you know and maybe we'd kind of shrink back but then we can reach back out again that's when we're gonna find the things that change us and that make us grow and that make an impact on people it's same thing with with with you know it's kind of the similar idea with the play it's it's finding your way out of your circle and expanding your mind to encompass the rest of the world you know like if somebody from Zimbabwe was given this scene how would they do it they're given the exact same pages but maybe they might think of this in a completely different light like why is that wrong and your way is right you know so it's I took a lot from that apart from just like how to approach a scene I think it's it's really important to approach life and it's it's simple as saying take risks but it's not as simple as that yeah you know perfect just so you know I have known you since Rock of Ages and you had I've known you since Rock of Ages oh yes oh yes so great to have watched what has happened to your career like I said you were one of the nicest people working in this business I think taking the time sitting here today for all of these people and people watching around the world Thanks haven't seen American Sun go see this man work please gentlemen Jeremy Jordan Kia [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 21,472

Rating: 4.9227467 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Conversations, Jeremy Jordan, Supergirl, Tangled, Newsies, The Last 5 Years, Joyful Noise, The Flash, Law & Order: SVU, Smash

Id: 05fSY_lbt3w

Length: 82min 58sec (4978 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 13 2018