Rose Byrne is on line.
After winning a Golden Globe Award for her performance in If I had legs I would kick you in January and received an Oscar nomination in February. Byrne was nominated for a Tony Award on Tuesday for her role as Jane in a rare revival of Noël Coward’s film. Fallen angels.
It’s a rare accomplishment in the industry, and one that Byrne says she’s grateful for amid the typical ups and downs of an actor’s career.
“To have these creative opportunities, like, If I had legs, I’d kick youand something like that Fallen angelsThat’s all I can ask for. It was exceptional. “It’s been really special, and of course, recognition is always great too,” Byrne said, “but having these creative opportunities is what I feel all artists strive for.”
This is his first Tony Award nomination Bridesmaids The star, who was recognized for her role as Jane, an upper-class British woman in Coward’s 1925 comedy who becomes increasingly “unhinged” thanks to a constant flow of alcohol and lusty exchanges with her friend Julia (Kellie O’Hara, who was also nominated for a Tony Award). At one point where the two discuss adultery, but have to quickly change the subject when a maid enters, Jane Brian quips, “I often wonder if the ocean would be deeper if there were no sponges,” among other things.
While waiting for the man they once loved to show up, the two married women descend into further madness, and a great deal of drunken physical comedy, with Byrne falling out of chairs, constantly misplacing her shoes and becoming increasingly disheveled.
Byrne spoke with Hollywood Reporter After a Tony nomination for her role as Drunk, what brought her back to Broadway after her appearance in the 2014 revival You can’t take it with you This year has been a whirlwind.
How do you feel about the Tony nomination?
This was truly a magical surprise. This play has not been performed in over 50 years on Broadway. This is like a real renaissance. This is not a finished play. It’s a two-woman comedy. We also have the exceptional supporting cast of Tracy Cheema, Mark Consuelos, Chris Fitzgerald and Asif Mandvi. It really is this magical combination. And I’m a Broadway newbie. This is only my second show on Broadway, so I’m very happy. And I’m so excited to share it with Kelly and be nominated. We are two halves of the coin, she and I.
What prompted you to return to Broadway in this role?
We have done a useful reading of Vertigo [Theatre Company] 2 years ago. Director Scott Ellis is my friend. I was familiar with Noel Coward but I didn’t know, this play being so old, how we were going to find it new, how we were going to bring it back to life, even in this reading. And we did this reading, and something happened. We looked at each other and thought, “The feasibility of this, how did it reach the audience, what came alive when we got to that point. It’s molecular.” Something flew, something took off, and we said, “Oh, we should try to do this.” It took two years. And the timing was crazy, because it came right after that If I had legs And that whole experience, which was also unexpected and brutal and extraordinary.
It’s just magical. It was a very difficult experience to return to the stage. I’ve long wanted to do a real comedic production of something on stage. And so this came my way without my knowledge, and it was an absolute gift.
I’ve heard a lot of different theories about how to play drunk. What was your path in?
I know it’s great. I’m also kind of obsessed with that, about how people do it. I must say that writing is key. Noël Coward’s writing on Sugar is exceptional. The clues are all there in his writing, his sentence structure, his tracking, and his rapid descent into drunkenness. And that was really, for me, the first way in. I also think being very specific that Julia is drunk is very different from Jane being drunk. And Jane is really disturbed, and is referred to throughout the play as disturbed. So there can’t be more evidence to get there. And then trying to find the physicality of it, how far it can be pushed, how far it can be reined in, and that balance, that kind of tightrope. And every night, it’s fun and funny and exhilarating, and also, really, like re-engaging a tough theater muscle. It’s like discovering the athlete in me.
How does it feel to play ‘troubled’?
It’s balance. It’s a tightrope trying to hold on to the landing of all these moments. And also because it is so informed, as always, by the audience, because it is a real piece of comedy, it also rides the wave of laughter and understands when it comes next. So, it’s always kind of an unknown when you’re sitting in the seat every night, and it’s like you’re holding yourself back a little bit and saying, “Okay, what’s going to happen tonight?” That’s why you do it, you know. Go, can we pull this back?
She received this Tony nomination after a busy year of awards If I had legs I would kick you. How did you feel this year?
I’m filled with gratitude, absolute gratitude and I know in this business to be really grateful for these moments, because it’s just a rollercoaster, being an actor. So to have these creative opportunities, like, If I had legs, I’d kick you And something like that Fallen angelsThat’s all I can ask for. It was exceptional. It was really exceptional. Of course, appreciation is always a great thing too. But having these creative opportunities is what I feel all artists strive for. Getting to the point where I get these opportunities is never lost on me. So I feel very happy and grateful.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
