The Last Ship's Collin Kelly-Sordelet on Fake Blood, Making Peace with Glee and Getting Close to Sting
Collin Kelly-Sordelet photographed by Caitlin McNaney for Broadway.com
Hometown: Montclair, NJ
Current Role: Both a young version Gideon Fletcher, a man who leaves his seafaring town and returns 15 years later, and Gideon's son Tom Dawson in Sting’s The Last Ship.
Stage Cred: The Last Ship is Kelly-Sordelet’s first professional job, though in school he appeared in Guys and Dolls, Grease, Anything Goes, Aladdin, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Urinetown.
“I knew how to make fake blood when I was five. My dad [Rick Sordelet] has been a fight director my entire life. I'd walk into my basement and there’d be medieval weapons all over. I’d open up the fridge to get juice, and I’m like, ‘Oh, hey! Eight gallons of fake blood.’”
“The first show I remember seeing was Beauty and the Beast. It was magical and I loved it. It’s always been very close to me because it really launched my father’s career and I’m kind of here because of it.”
“I auditioned for Glee and didn’t get it. Those bastards! But I’m OK. I made my peace with Glee. It was really eating at me for a long time. I auditioned a lot throughout my senior year of high school for Broadway stuff, television and film.”
“I had to drop out of Juilliard. I did one semester. Right before I went on for my first and only show there, I found out that I got The Last Ship. I wanted to finish the entire year, but my last month of classes would have conflicted with my first month of rehearsal.”
“Sting puts everyone at ease. He kind of floats around in his Sting-y manner. He took a bunch of pictures with my friends, and I said, ‘Thanks for being so cool.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I find it so much easier to be cool than not to be cool.’ I was just like, ‘C’mon dude? Really?!'”
“One of the greatest moments was when we were all leaving rehearsal with Sting. We’re in a cramped elevator—I’m literally inches away from him—and I said jokingly, ‘Sting, I’ve never been so close to you before,’ and he turns to me and goes, ‘Don’t stand so close to me.’ I was just like, “Ohh! I’ve just made history!’”
