Stephen Pasquale is seeing the color of money this fall as the star of Junk at
Lincoln Center Theater. Hear the popular Broadway leading man rave about Ayad
Akhtar's financial thriller, gush about his new offstage leading lady Philippa
Soo, and more on this week's super cool episode of Show People.
--Mr. Pasquale --Hello, Darling.
--So good to see you . --Good to see you
--First of all, let's just be very clear, this is this is kind of a make up Show
People -- Yes
--The last time you were here, there were some issues with the
climate, with the temperature control, --By some issues you mean it was
like 108 degrees --You were game you were game,
and you can't tell by the way I just watched
the interview again. You cannot tell that there's any.
--I think it's your favorite
interview. -- And also my hottest interview.
--Yeah just a ball of clothing. --Literally my hottest
subject ever. That was a lot, so anyway. Welcome back.
--Thank you. It's freezing.
--Are you okay? A little chilly. --A muffler or something?
--You have a cool drink -- Yeah everything this is
entirely comfortable. It's positively civilized.
--So good to see you as always --Thank you.
--U m so I watched our last interview to make sure you couldn't actually tell we
were hot. How do you feel about like reading comments and reading things
about people write? -- I'm pretty good at understanding that like one out of
three people are insane, so I don't... --Is that the actual number?
--I mean it's you know it's it seems pretty close these days.
--Maybe it's going up a little. --So, I try not
to let any comments upset me, but I generally avoid them. Why were there some
horrible mean things? --So I thought it'd think I read
some of the comments on our last
interview on Youtube. -- Oh I can't wait for this.
--I don't read YouTube comments for some of these reasons, but let's just
let's just read some of them. It'll be fun maybe. -- Great.
--Violetta said, Paul, I adore you, but let him speak!
--Amen, Violeta. -- Is this, so I just wanted to like
--You're like Broadway's David Letterman. -- I have heard some people have said this to me,
actually, I've seen a similar comment on YouTube. So I don't know if it's all
Violetta. I don't know if she's like leading this campaign
--Against you? -- I've
heard critiques that maybe I don't let people speak, so I just wanted to sort of
set this up in the beginning that if you feel that with me
--That's pretty --Tell me
--Can I speak? -- Please do!
--I mean that's a pretty harsh critique of yours. I feel
like you do a really good job of filling the experience and the conversation with
--Dead air.
--Because if you don't there could you know you get like a less gregarious
guest. You're gonna have some uncomfortable silences.
--But maybe.... -- I'm not
finished. [laughs]
--No I actually don't have that critique of you, but I'll take it.
Let me speak, Paul. --For Violetta, I might leave some of those airs
in this interview. --And I'll
have nothing to say in that moment. --Let's keep it awkward.
--Yeah -- Make it awkward, so anyway
that's one. Anna said he needs to sing with Pippa with like 18 exclamation
points. Who is this Pippa?
--Phillipa, my wife, my
recent bride. --I thought you called her Pippa
--I do call her Pippa, but she but most people probably know her as Phillipa Soo
--Soo-Pasquale? --No. Didn't take my name. No, no, no.
Screw the patriarchy, darling. She's Philippa Soo, but she's my wife and we are
married now --You were just engaged last time
you were here, so that that progress. Life progress.
--She's stuck around. --Do you want to sing with her?
--We would love to sing together.
We've work-shopped a couple things together...
-- Sang some Billy Joe online I
saw that. --We did a little Billy Joel online
and we had an she did an evening
at 54 Below. I joined her there. She's a great singer. I would love to we'd love
to find him a musical to do together. -- Okay do that for Anna
--Thank you Anna. --Yeah Anna Rachel just wrote in
all caps I loved do no harm. That must be my
mother. Hey Ma! We get it. You watched and dad didn't even
watch it was so bad. --Really is that true?
--I mean he tried but I was like Steve
my dad's the best.. he's like that was not good.
--Did dad watch your Mark Fuhrman --Yes of course that was a very beloved.
--Who didn't watch that? -- Yeah I mean Do No Harm,
although many wonderful people involved,
I'm afraid was uh not our finest hour quality storytelling.
--You know things get
rebooted randomly nowadays -- True, maybe a musical version.
You know it premiered, we
talked about this last time, it premiered as the lowest rated television drama since
the advent of the Nielsen box in 1981! Soon to be unseated by Anthony Edwards'
thing that he made at ABC that same season, but for about two weeks, that
honor was ours and ours alone. --Is that on your IMDB page?
--Totally. By the way, you know it just like you know what's an
interesting tdbit-- let me talk, Paul! --Sorry.
--You know it's an interesting
tidbit about that, a terribly rated network television show would be like a
million viewers, a million and a half viewers, which would be kind of a hit if
it were a cable show, or a Netflix show, or a Showtime show, or isn't that
interesting? The standard is so different in terms of
just the amount of eyeballs you need to get for something to be successful. Back
to me.
--I was letting you talk. -- Oh thank you. The escapeologist.
--Another think about that, Paul! I just I think that no....
--The escape-ologist. I don't know how that this
person secured that name, but somehow they did on YouTube just wrote, I would
love to see him in Streetcar. You ever thought about that?
--You know what, I'm
gonna, I just sent Sarah Paulsen a text the other day saying let's do Streetcar
together. She was like I'm terrified but I love it, so there it is, right there, on
the record. --Wait did she actually say that?
--Yeah, we were like, that sounds exciting and
then we'll probably never talk about it again, but it was a moment, was two
artists being like wouldn't it be so great and fun. So make it happen Paul.
--Oh my god. --She's the, she's the person to
play that part I think. She would
play it better than anyone maybe ever has, SP, looking at you.
--III just have to stop this interview. I can't stop thinking of anything but that. I want that.
--Yeah, wouldn't that be good? --Yeah I want that to happen.
--It's also a master work and
you know it's fun to work on stuff that is just so perfectly written.
--Yeah --Yeah.
--Tennessee Williams. I mean ya can't go wrong. --Can't go wrong.
--Karen Villanueva, Villanueva wrote and I
wonder if things like this happen to you often. I remember a Carousel in Chicago
in 2015. I remember I fell in love with Billie and Julie.
It wasn't until two years after I saw the show that I realized it was Stephen.
Does that ever happen to you? That's a big theater let's be clear.
--I mean the audience is kind of far away from you at The Lyric.
--That was a big theater.
--I think it's like six thousand seats --6,000, so to be fair, although I think your
voice is kind of, but do people ever tell you that like I didn't know that was you?
--I mean she didn't realize she was watching us? Is that what she's saying?
Somebody just kidnapped
her and took her to see Carousel. --She didn't know. Not everyone's a
superfan. -- Well that's fun. Yeah also
--Not everyone follows you around from show to
show like I do. Maybe she just wandered in to see Carousel.
--Actually you're the
only one. --Yeah I think that theater fans
are a different group of people than
television fans, so oftentimes the the the never the twain shall meet.
So I do get that occasionally. --Yeah so anyway, balloon panda said do an interview
--I'm not gonna we're not gonna talk about balloon panda,
Paul. Can I talk about this? --Well obviously it's a fan of your wife.
--Paul! --Do an interview with Pippa, but right
now we're gonna do one with Steven. But maybe we'll do one with Pippa.
BD wrote, Oh Stephen you ridiculous man you.
--True, accurate. --And then Andrew Semen?
Semon? --How would you pronounce that?
--Rannells. [laughs]
Definitely Andrew Rannells
Come on. --So Andrew Rannells wrote, Paul, you are so
thirsty lol. I could not love it more. I don't know if that means
I was thirsty for you or as acting
--Maybe that was the day we had no --We were hot. So maybe it did
--We were like pouring Gatorade all over our
--We were thirsty, yeah it did
somehow play that I was thirsty. -- Subtle, Andrew Rannels.
--Does Andrew Rannels sort of like
follow you around? --No no, but he's a great pal, and
--I wonder how many fake accounts
he has actually. --So many. He's clearly an internet stalker.
We're kidding we're just kidding Andrew. --So you're a show. You're in a play. It's
fantastic. --I'm in a great huge new American play
--Junk. --It's not junk.
It's actually fantastic. -- Yeah it's a super intense examination of finance in
the 1980s and the practices that were put in place then, and it's one of the
great pieces of writing I've ever been around.
--So when did this piece of writing get handed to you and did you get excited
right away, and how did this...? -- It was handed to me in May.
Doug Hughes, who's our
brilliant directors said let's chat, and we met in that beautiful Plaza at
Lincoln Center sitting like with the fountain in the background, and he was
this is a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright. He's one of the
great minds storytelling minds of our time. I really know how to direct his
play and I think you're the guy to play this part. And I certainly didn't need
need any more than that. I was sold at that point.
--And you saw this this
play, and you saw this guy, and you were like this isn't this is a good thing for
me. Like what do you look for when you see something?
--Well I thought I could I
thought I could play him in a way that confuses the audience, which is my goal,
which is that what is so brilliant about performing this play is that to feel the
audience's ambivalence about this character, who's based on a real-life guy.
Mike Milkin. And to feel them sort of routing for
him in one minute and disgusted by him in the next, to feel them disappointed
when somebody that he works with undermines him even though he's a
criminal and breaking the law. -- And did you know anything about this world?
I mean maybe you've seen Wall Street? --My brother's my brother's an investment
banker, so I know a little bit. My father worked in corporate America, so I
had your sort of news obsessed layman's knowledge, but Ayad Akhtar our
brilliant writer is truly an aficionado. He's read The Wall Street Journal every
day since he was like a kid, and he really wanted to examine leveraged
buyouts, corporate raiding, a debt driven economy, a transactional economy, without
sounding too academic, the play is a thriller, but it really holds a mirror up
to raw, unfettered, rapacious, voracious, American capitalism and whether or not
we are doing it right. --Those are spectacular adjectives.
--Aren't
they? -- Those were great.
--I just came up with them. --And you know what?
--Actually they're
in my pocket on a piece of paper. No, they're not, they're not.
--I think we're gonna take a quick break because those adjectives are good enough
--Oh, thank god! --We'll be right back with more Steven Pasquale
--You're exhausting! [laughs]
--And we're back with Mr. Steven Pasquale. How are you sir?
I'm really good how are you?
How's the temperature?
--It's chilly. --Sometimes when you know goes on for a
bit you know we might heat up the room. --I'm entirely comfortable right now.
--I'm glad, so let's talk about about this Junk, that Junk
you're in every night. --Yes.
--And it's great. It's fantastic theater. --thank you
--It's really exciting the way it's staged. Big big cast right?
--I think 23, yeah
Doug Hughes did a great job staging.
--But you have a lot of words to
say. You have a lot of lines. --It's like a hundred and seventy pages, and it's only
two hours and 20 minute play, so it goes by very quickly, and if you hesitate for
a second, the play will leave you in the dust.
--Is it easier to do a play that has
so much bouncing like to learn the lines? There's a lot of like you know.
--It was
harder to memorize, but once you know it because it's very sort of Sorkin-esque
that is the speed at which it comes at you, it's really fun to play because once
you know it, the sort of music of it, then it just is what it is, you know anything
there's not a lot of pause Pinter-y sort of kitchen sink, I'm gonna do this
with this moment. It just sort of goes. It's it's really very much about the
text and the information coming at you. It's really fun to play but was the
hardest thing I've ever been a part of in terms of memorization...
--Is there much screwing up? Have there been any like embarrassing moments on stage
because there's so much action --There's been a couple.
Yeah well the words come at you so
fast you can yeah you know no one gets through a performance without screwing
up a couple words because they come so quickly.
--You've done a lot of research in
this world, so convince the people why this isn't terribly boring? Why isn't
the world of finance boring? And I know a lot of people kind of like zone out and
they're like when's he gonna do another musical?
--Here's why:
It's a thriller and it is a it is a one company trying to take over another
company, and there's a timeline on that happening, and so the scenes come at
you like lightning and it is high stakes and people 15,000 people may lose their
jobs, the economy may be affected, the guy who's leading the charge in terms of
taking over this company he's on the cover of Time magazine and his
entire system of beliefs is new and dangerous and possibly criminal. It is
not indictment, it is a brilliant examination of
real people acting as they would have and did in the 1980s and continued to
today.
--Did you hang out with any of these guys?
--Yeah my god I've had so many Wall
Street friends come and the response is really mixed. They're either like they get it,
obviously, because it's their world and they love that, they love a story about
them. Or they're like, I feel like Mike Milken
is a hero, the irony being Mike Milkin broke the law like a hundred times and
went to jail and right but you know it really asks the essential question would
you go to jail for two and a half years if you could walk away with two billion
dollars?
--Would you Paul?
White-collar jail where you get like an
Xbox. -- Oh Xbox.
--Yeah, and grass. -- I would.
Imagine the musicals we can do with two billion
dollars in the bank? Produce all the old dusty old timey
--I could produce every musical starring Steven Pasquale I want to do on Broadway
--And I could get paid. --Let's get that carousel in here. I mean
there's so many things yeah, but would I get you to perform Bridges of Madison
County every night? -- You could.
-- As often as I want. -- For the proper
price you could. -- So that leads me to
how are your finances are you a smart
guy? If I if I saw your bank accounts. Does this make you smarter? Are
you good investment. I'll let you talk now.
--I'll show my I'll show our collective asses in terms of artists. We all basically
suck at it. I'm probably a little bit better than your average actor, but I
still suck at it relative to like another adult. So 15 years ago, I hired an
accountant to take care of my finances so that I could just go and do jobs and
work in Canada and California and New York and Australia or whatever and
somebody else would worry about paying my taxes and commissioning the
people that worked for me and so that was actually one of the best decisions
I've ever made because now I just follow along without the stress of like
checking my mail at home and I have to pay this bill and that person and and so
that was a wise decision for me. Without him I think I'd be in trouble I'd be in
jail for some accidental tax evasion. --Okay so you have it figured out because
you have --I got a guy, I got a guy!
--So it's important to get a guy? -- It's
important to get a guy. --How do people find the guy?
-- I got him. I got the name just tweet me just tweet at Paul and I'll
give you my guy. No, I'm pretty good at it. My father was really good at, he was an
accountant by trade, so I'm pretty responsible, although you know I think by
nature artists we worry less about adulting.
--Right --Yes we just want to like
tell stories and then people clap and go to the Glass House Tavern afterwards.
--Since the show set in the 80s Junk, do you have fantasies that maybe you
would have a crazy costumes.
--No I was actually important to me
that we just hinted at the fact that it was the 1980s, because the last
thing we want is like a Wedding Singer shoulder pads, you know and then it feels
like a like a like a too light and too ridiculous, so we have a hint of it.
Kathy Zuber genius. She just gives you just enough to remind you that it's the
eighties, but the play is so poignant and timely now, that it literally could be
have been written about today.
--Are there any 80s properties because you grew up
in the 80s. -- Oh yeah come on.
--That you would love to see like on stage? Well you
know I think it's hard to make an iconic movie a musical. I think like..
--Well
tell Broadway because good luck. --It's all we're doing.
--Every show. -- I know, it
seems to be all we're doing now. And you know, they can be great. I mean Full Monty
was great yeah but it's just hard --Where's that revival, Steven Pasquale?
--Yeah god that was was that even that long ago?
--Yes like that time. --It's time.
--What else? You have a better you have more
encyclopedic knowledge of shows than I do? What else should we revive? What else
hasn't been revived that like just is screaming for a revival? I'm putting you
on the spot. --You are putting me on the spot.
--Let's talk about something else.
-- I'm gonna let you talk. This is all about you
talking. --Clearly that woman affected
you when she said stop interrupting. --Actually very upsetting to me.
Well, I was actually excited, speaking of like Wall Street kind of
world, sort of Working Girl. I'm excited that might become a musical.
--Oh really?
Working Girl is the William Hurt movie? --No.
--What's Working Girl? -- Melanie
Griffith, you, you could perhaps play the Harrison
Ford role, Sigourney Weaver. --That's gotta be...
--You don't know working girl ? --I mean I it's
at the River Run?
--Darling that was a long time ago those movies.
--You know there's actually
a connection to what you're doing because I saw that the same day I saw
Wall Street, the movie, they came out the same
Christmas.
--I mean that Wall Street was Oliver Stone right? I mean think
about how I mean I know a lot of people like to dismiss him as a super radical,
but he you know that was pretty timely. Like the the insane amount of greed
happening in that decade, in that area of our country, you know, he really opened
some eyes with that movie. -- Right, so you're gonna do Gordon Gekko in the
musical version? Or you just against the movies
--You know that you know what I loved, was
that American Psycho. --Oh me too!
--That was very much about that.
I loved it. What a raw deal that show got. It should have been a monster
hit. --I loved it too! Are you kidding me?
--Loved it. -- I talk about all the time.
--Me too. Timbers, too. I saw Alex Timbers the other day and he loved it. We all
saw it like a bunch of times. Sometimes the good stuff doesn't last and
sometimes the turds just stay forever.
--Sometimes the steaming Broadway turds last forever, and the good shit lasts a hot minute.
[laughs]
--And as we think about those turds, let's take another break. We'll be right back with
more Steven Pasquale.
And we're back with more Stephan Pasquale!
--How are you sir? You you're good? -- I'm good.
--So, on a bicycle built for Soo.
Tell me about this hashtag. A charming hashtag a couple
months. -- Was it really?
That was our we showed up on a tandem bike to our
wedding. That was our like cute little bit that
we did. And always anyone that took pictures of the wedding they were they
were to hashtag it A Bicycle Built for Soo.
--I didn't know there was an actual bicycle involved in this.
--Yeah of course we didn't you know classic us, we didn't test drive it or
anything so it was like very dangerous. We almost ruined her wedding dress. It
ended up being me like with my feet down like walking because we couldn't, we
couldn't like do it right without hurting ourselves. But that was our
intent and so.. -- Whose idea was that?
--Jason Mitchell Connor, wonderful wedding
planner, if you are looking for a... --Look at you you got all kinds of guys.
--Yeah I can't do anything other
than... -- A finance guy, a wedding guy.
--Come on I can I if I didn't have this job, I have
no idea what I would do. I can't do anything else.
--Did he come up with that
hashtag on a bicycle built for Soo? -- I think he may have.
It's pretty specific.
It's pretty crazy. So did the wedding go well?
--It went terrifically
well. We had the most fun. It was a great group of people, super informal, and we
had the best time. We got married --First of all did you wear a tie?
--I didn't
wear a tie. I went to Catholic school, Paul. So I try never ever ever to
wear ties. I got stuck with one for 12 years as a kid.
--Oh sure always showing up
a little bit chest hair.
--I can't wear tie it's just too much for me. it makes me feel
--In the show you don't actually in the show you wear a tie but not the
whole time.
--No I well Mike Milken, loosely based on Milken, and he was of
California corporate raiders. So we did like some we made some design
choices to try to remind the audience that their stereotypical like, up tied up
right Wall Street guy.
--Mr. Jonathan Groff, was he part of this wedding? -- He
officiated our wedding.
--That happened. -- He married us yeah.
--That happened. And did he do a
good job?
--He did a great job. He did a great job. --Just making sure.
--We just said just whatever you want just don't do anything too crazy. Of course he
had Celia Keenan-Bolger speak and Renee Elise Goldsberry give a little bit of
a speech, and Kelli O'Hara did a rap that Lin-Manuel wrote, which was
hilarious and perfect and of course in true Jonathan Groff style, everything was
just right --Wonderful yeah wonderful. I'm glad that all worked
out. Yeah and how is your beautiful wife? I just saw her on Broadway.
--She's great. I think she's here tomorrow to do Show People.
--She's fantastic. --She's great in
everything. Pound for pound there's not very very
many more talented people on planet earth than she is.
--And doing obviously doing plays and musicals. That's something that you've
really embraced going from one to the other.
--Yes, which is hard to do.
People think of you as one thing.
And so it's important, or it has been
important to me to just yeah always still going to think out of the box a
little.
--And it's so convenient that you're both doing shows fall plays
Broadway. -- With the same day off.
--We do plays and we're married and we both do plays
--Yes and there's not much singing in our house these days.
--That's right it's very fancy. --Yeah.
--Being married to an actress. Let's talk about this. So you're both in the
business...
--Both in the business. --Is it something that makes you nervous is
something you know how to navigate? You --The reason she's amazing is
because she's like a super regular person, and an incredibly low maintenance
artist. As am I. So most of the time that is not the case. Actors are famously
insane, so it's just I think that's the reason we hit it off so well is
because we just like to you know unwind and you know take the pressure off and
not have an enormous amount of stress about this crazy line of work.
--How many times did you see Hamilton? -- 11 or 12 times
--Okay. -- I mean I've seen it a lot. It's
you know a landscape changing perfect piece of art. I can't believe my my
friend wrote it. I didn't know he was that much of a genius when we became
friends. So it's been fun to watch it like really change the world.
If only they could sell some tickets. --What do you think Lin, what do you think he
should do next?
--You know I think about that a lot. Haven't seen him in a
while, but I'm dying to know what's going on in that brain of his.
--Yeah, I wonder about that too, like what would the next what would the next...
--Something weird.
I think he should get like weird, you know? Like a totally an unobvious
choice, which I'm certain he's already... because I'm sure a
million people are like contemporize this story, or let do you know but I'm
sure I'll bet he's got some really... --You think it's in his brain.
--I'm sure it is.
--Yeah it's been a year since he's working on that two years?
--Would you want to be a part of it -- Yeah! Come on.
--Okay you want to get on that bandwagon?
--My rapping skills are amazing. I would of course. I would of
course if anything he writes, you know one of the world's great writers, writes
something, all of us would like to be a part of it.
--Right and I love that so you
and Sarah Paulson figured out that play.
--Well I mean I sent her a text she
was like oh my god that sounds so fun and terrifying, but that's all we know, but now
I'm gonna put a lot of peer pressure on her.
--Yeah please do. Well now it's on
camera. But do you and Pippa ever do that? You ever go like we should
do something together.
--We do, we occasionally do.
Somebody the other day was like You guys should be in
Pirates of the Penzance together, and I thought Pirates of the Penzance?
There's no the in that is there? Isn't it Pirates of Penzance?
--I don't know, Paul, these are all the questions
I would ask you!
--That could work. -- And hasn't been visited in a while.
Yeah, we think about that a lot, actually.
Although we are both quite fond of new
you know the idea of a new work. -- Of course everybody wants
--Originating
something! --New works.
--Important things. -- So you're gonna do you're gonna go through
the holidays and you're both in shows, so what does that mean? Is
that sort of like intense? --You know get like the you get the holiday
off and then you
like nine shows the day before and five the day after.
--So it's not like you get to sort of like
go off to like a snowy ski resort and -- I think we'll have to wait on our
honeymoon until the shows. --Yeah yeah it's when is that?
--It's uh not on the schedule
because --There's no schedule.
-- Not yet, but it's but we'll come
up with something. Jesus you wanted like put me on the spot or what here buddy?
--There's not like a... -- So, you haven't planned a honeymoon?
What kind of husband
are you?
--There's not like a dream board of like ideally what we
would do.
--Yeah we want to go to Italy or Europe or something, but we just have
to find like two weeks where we're not busy, and we're very lucky people. We're
pretty busy, so...
--And how you gonna ring in the New Year with her?
I think we may have a get-together in our in our apartment in Brooklyn.
--Do you have big
parties? Is this like
--Well we just move so this would be like one of our first.
So we'll have to see how it goes.
--Okay --You know see if the neighbors can stand
us. --Right you're new.
--Yeah we're in the new we're in a new apartment,
new neighborhood, so we'll see if we see if we can really
piss off our neighbors on New Year's Eve. If not then we'll make it a regular
situation.
--Right, okay, well you have other places to go.
--Yeah I'm gonna go
talk finance on Wall Street. Never thought I would say that our loud.
--Because you're in Junk. You have to go yeah
about, you speak very intelligently about these things, but it's impressive.
--Well but I'll be
with Ayad Akthar, who really is an aficionado, so any questions that are
hard, I just literally look at him as if to say, can you take this one?
--Well thank
you for being here. --Thank you for having me.
--I hope it was more
comfortable. --Thank you for having air conditioning on
and working --Everyone needs to see Junk
at the Vivian Beaumont theater, I mean. --It's true.
--I love seeing a show
at the Vivien Beaumont. --And if you love it, you can be a Junkie.
--Thank you, Stephen! -- Thank you.
--Thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.
--Knew you had to do that.
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