James reveals to The Daily Beast that he and O’Hara are discussing—nothing officially confirmed, or set in stone yet—playing George and Martha if any appetite existed to mount a revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
“I loved being with him, he was loud, opinionated, and funny, with a great, absurd sense of humor. I remember him telling me to watch and educate myself about Montgomery Clift.”
“What I’ve learned is that you can really do yourself in by looking at the show in its totality. I treat it moment to moment, which is a good allegory for what the program (AA) teaches: one day at time, you can’t go further than you can go. Whatever the day brings, the day brings.”
which emphasizes, his portrayer said, “how high the stakes are, how high he is, and how completely insanely he is behaving to achieve his goal of getting drunk.”
Smashing up the shed engenders “a sense of abandon I have never experienced on stage,” said James. “It’s controlled fury—you have to be in control of it—but there are nights when the momentum of emotion I am experiencing does take over.
It’s kind of thrilling not to be beholden to rules. Michael, Craig, and Adam have given us the license to surprise ourselves and hopefully the audience.”
and when alcoholism meant being “a bum” who had too much to drink, as Kirsten says—meaning middle-class professionals like her and Joe do not recognize the signs and symptoms of their own addictions.
It takes James a while to shrug Joe off after every performance, although over the years he has become “better” at learning the line between real life and the characters he plays. That doesn’t mean the ideas and emotions he expresses as Joe “just go away” night after night—
“just that I recognize the line better. I would be lying if I said after every show I was ready for chipper conversation. It stays with you, for sure, and that can be a good thing. The character is so beautifully drawn, his life source informs me.”
I hope this attempt at storytelling is graceful, in a way helpful, and not oversimplistic. I don’t think it is, though I am very aware this thing happening on stage is conceived, pre-meditated, and executed—and then there is real life.”
I like to play ugly, it’s more interesting to gussy something up and give it a sheen, so you can properly expose a character and surprise the audience.”
James said: “Generally speaking, I’d be lying if I said I was not aware of them, and I’m tickled and excited when it happens to me. But one benefit of getting older, and having experience, is that I have actual empirical proof that if you don’t win a Tony it doesn’t mean you don’t continue to work!”
James is most proud of three roles he has played—Joe in Days of Wine and Roses, “not just because it’s right in front of me. This piece is so extraordinary and unique and challenging. I do think it is moving the parameters of what we expect musicals to be.”
Asked about dream roles, James gives me a mischievous smile and opens the bureau drawer in front of him. “Make it clear to your readers I am actually acting this out,” he said, laughing. A beautiful red book cover revealed itself, and in his hands James held a copy of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
“I got the book because Kelli and I have been talking about it quite a lot actually. She has the same kind of attraction to the play—we’d like to do it together, it would be super cool.” He laughed again. “The road map has been paved with us playing Joe and Kirsten. They are weirdly foundational for George and Martha.”
James smiled. “It’s not like we have a blood pact to make this happen. If she doesn’t do it with me and does it with someone else, that’s fine, but it would be great to do it with her. It’s just a conversation right now.”
心心念念啊！讓他演！！！
理所當然後台有酒ww（考慮到你們台上的內容，不要突然開這種玩笑啊喂
首先，給我復排，然後讓他演
話說他們這意思是把狼兒當作演酒與玫瑰的基準嗎、
竟然是Montgomery Clift（筆記
嘿他們竟然有安排爬牆……那個梯子？
我好愛他
就像N2N 時期他說過的，作為演員/觀眾可以看到全面，但作為角色他看不到自己的行為
但想想我根本只要看到狼兒的海報上有他的名字就好，不是我想要，這世界需要
很可愛的是你知道他在角色中同時作為演員聽到這些，從劇外感受到角色行為的責任感
一邊覺得被角色理解傷到（他又來了！）一邊覺得他好過分喔，一邊又覺得他怎麼的在演這種很傷的角色
我會說453堪比Sweeney Todd 的Epiphany，是一個普通人成為『反派』的瞬間
Fresh！🍅
大量獨白的獨角戲(?)跟某種程度上的大師課
你在跟我說他把Joe當George 在演嗎？？？再說一次？？？
好，很可愛，我喜歡好朋友演戲
我想這也是為什麼話題會扯到這裡（兩位好友一定聊了不少，另一邊N2N時期他其實沒怎麼提到、或沒怎麼被問到？）
（看時間線）噢，god，yes……
James smiled. “It’s not like we have a blood pact to make this happen. If she doesn’t do it with me and does it with someone else, that’s fine, but it would be great to do it with her. It’s just a conversation right now.”
好可愛……一起演，好耶
話說雖然是謙虛、不要預設自己不會被選上啊James先生！要演就一起演！
後半段在說家庭跟近期的經歷和體會，看到後半才發現這是深入的人物報導（篇幅比我想像點開前想像得多且深），結語很可愛，有提到他在演員工作的心得、一直在學習、找到新東西的感覺，還有也是一直提到的關於酒與玫瑰、以及參與這樣非典型作品在百老匯演出的獨特性
（一邊激動一邊感動）