Sometimes, the first time is the charm.
Alden Ehrenreich is one of several Tony nominees this season to receive a nod for their Broadway debut performance. The screen star, known for his big screen performances in Hail, Caesar!, Oppenheimer, Weapons, and as young Han Solo in the Star Wars universe, has taken on the complex and caustic role of Max in Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw to great acclaim.
At the Tony nominee junket May 14, Ehrenreich caught up with Playbill’s Jeffrey Vizcaino to discuss how “the DNA of the writing” of Becky Shaw guides him through his deeply layered performance.
First of all, congratulations on this nomination. I mean, Broadway debut, and now a Tony nomination. How has your craft as an actor evolved and changed since doing Broadway?
Alden Ehrenreich: The real heart and soul of the work is the same, no matter what the name is, and understanding the person you’re in charge of playing. But I think there are definitely a lot of interesting little things that I’ve learned along the way. Probably the biggest one is how to keep things alive and how to really use that muscle of being present. This is a completely new moment, and this is a completely new day—which is always actually true, even though you’re saying the same words. It’s been great, because the other actors in the show are so, so wonderful, that it does feel like every time we do a scene a new thing is kind of happening, keeping that kind of concentration alive.
I mean this the best possible way–I like to call Max like a bull in a china shop, especially in this show
I was bracing for you to say something way worse than that!
When you’re dealing with a character that’s so dominant in every scene, how do you bring that intensity and those stakes, but also giving the other actors and characters room to breathe so you’re all playing at an even level?
It’s in the DNA of the writing. What’s happening is really understanding what that person and that character is going after, and what they’re interested in. That is a huge part of it. And so just trying to be as truthful about that, from moment to moment, and there’s so much other stuff going on behind that, and it evolves. [Costar Patrick Ball] and I do different stuff every night, a little bit.
Tell me, what are the perks and challenges of playing a morally messy character, but also making him relatable to an audience?
It seems these days like I get cast as a lot of complicated, let’s say, multi-layered people. If I’m in a period piece, I’m a really nice guy. And if I’m in a present day thing, it’s darker. The great gift in this piece is that Gina, the writer, created such a deep and thorough psychological reasoning and motivation, and background for these characters, especially my character. The roots of where he’s coming from go so deep, and that makes it possible to bring it to life in a different way. What his philosophy is, the way he moves through the world, he says it in the play. And so you get behind that, whether you believe in it outside of the character or not. You make that come to life.
