Yes. It’s re-contextualizing an entire century of popular art, which is definitely welcome. When it came to working with Bradley Cooper, what was it like acting opposite your director? That’s probably not an experience you have in theater very often, I’d imagine?
No. In film and TV, I’ve been lucky that I’ve worked with writers who also direct their own pieces, and as a result, there’s a sense of authority that they obviously have. They’re so immersed in it. Sometimes in television, when you work with directors who are guest directors, it can be a weird relationship because you as a performer can have more sense of ownership over the story than this person who comes on for one episode.
In this case, I’m working with the writer, the director, and the actor, and that comes with a lot of surrender. He stayed in character for the most part. He always stayed in voice. He would engage you as Lenny in between takes. That wasn’t something I’ve ever been exposed to. As a result, you go with it. It’s like this crazy, magical sandbox that you get to play in.
First of all, we didn’t do that many takes, which was really fascinating. He predominantly did three takes for most of his scenes, and then sometimes we would just let the camera roll and see what would happen. We were doing that in a Panavision camera, because my stuff is in the Panavision era. And I thought, “How amazing is this? We get to play around in this very expensive movie and take really big artistic and exciting swings.”
Yeah, it’s remarkable. I love the Panavision scenes. They’re such eye candy.
Yeah. I feel so lucky that I get to be colored in.
Did you stay in character as Tommy as well?
When Bradley was engaging me as such, I would try to keep up. But for me, it’s like I don’t want to disappoint Bradley. He’d been part of this project for six years, it’s a passion project, he has so much invested in it. I didn’t stay in character when Bradley wasn’t around, but I did it for him and also it helped me. I think there was one scene where I didn’t know we were shooting until two minutes into it because we kept it so alive outside of the scenes.
How did you find chemistry together?
It was oddly easy. He’s so alive, he’s so connected, and so I got to flirt with Bradley Cooper, but I also got to flirt with Leonard Bernstein. I think as gay Gideon Glick, I was having a blast because, in a strange way, I got to kiss Leonard Bernstein. I feel very privileged in that sense.
Every grown-up theater kid’s dream! Do you have a favorite Bernstein musical?
West Side Story is not only my favorite Broadway musical of his, it’s one of my favorite Broadway musicals of all time.
Which do you think is his gayest musical?
On the Town is pretty gay, too. It’s about sailors coming in and trying to have sex.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Maestro streams on Netflix December 20.
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