Lily Rabe on Merchant, Pacino & Those Daniel Radcliffe Rumors

Given her pedigree (dad is playwright David Rabe, mom is actress Jill Clayburgh), Lily Rabe might seem to be to the theater manor born. But the young actress is holding her own against some pretty hefty co-stars on Broadway in The Merchant of Venice. As Portia, Rabe shares the stage with none other than Al Pacino in the role of Shylock. The Northwestern grad made her Broadway debut right out of college, playing naive hairdresser Annelle in the 2005 revival of Steel Magnolias, and has since gone on to star in Heartbreak House and The American Plan on Broadway, as well as Crimes of the Heart and Colder Than Here off-Broadway. As Merchant entered its final week of previews at the Broadhurst Theatre, Rabe found a moment to chat with Broadway.com about her many famous co-stars and her dreams for the future.

The Merchant of Venice isn’t the most popular Shakespeare play around. What do you love about it?
Well I'm getting to do Shakespeare, I’m getting to do Shakespeare in New York, and I’m getting to do Shakespeare in the hands of [director] Daniel Sullivan. There is absolutely nothing I don’t love about that. And of the few Shakespearean ladies I’d always hoped to play, Portia was at the top of the list.

Do you think Merchant is a controversial play, given its repuation for anti-Semitism?
Yes, people are wary of Merchant. There is trepidation about this play, famously so, and I think that speaks volumes about Dan [Sullivan] and the Public that they didn’t cut any of the pricklier lines, they didn’t soften anything. I think doing Shakespeare like this not only makes you a better actor, I think it also makes you a better person. Not that I’ve necessarily become a better person!—but I do believe it has the power to do that because it explores morality in such an intense way.

Were you intimidated to join this all-star cast?
I’m always intimidated at the beginning of a job! After the table read I always think I might be getting fired. But I like being a little bit terrified. If I think, “Oh, I can do that, it’s going to be easy,” then it’s probably not a job I should take.

What’s it like working with Al Pacino?
It is a real privilege to work with Al because of the kind of actor he is, not because of who he is. He is one of those actors that never stops working. He is never going to say, “I’ve really got this down, I’m going to phone it in.” That will never happen, even if it’s 102 degrees and we’re in Central Park and we’re all dying.

How has the transition from Central Park to Broadway gone?
I think there was a feeling that it would be an easy rehearsal process, since we were just moving, but in fact the process has been grueling in its own way. The diameter at the Broadhurst is about half of what it was in the park, so a lot of things have been reblocked. There were also new cast members, so there was a lot going on in that rehearsal room. 

You come from a serious theater family. Were you always planning on being an actress?
I have no idea! When I was young I was very focused on ballet and I loved writing. My parents were not eager for me to get into the acting business, I will say that. They did their best to protect me from it, but by the time I was a junior in high school I was pretty set on going to college to study it. Before that, I wasn’t interested in plays. I was only interested in putting on plays in my living room for my parents, and making my brother dress up so I could boss him around. I was the star, director, writer, everything. But at the same time I was saying “There’s no way I want to be an actress.”

Were your parents upset when you decided to pursue acting?
Once I made the decision I got nothing but tremendous love and support. When I look back on it now, I think they wanted to make sure that anything I found, I found on my own, and not because I was being fed into the world around me. They wanted me to feel like I could do anything.

There was a rumor circulating earlier this year that you were going to be doing a Nicholas Sparks movie with Daniel Radcliffe. True?
That movie exists, but I have nothing to do with it, and Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t either. But we did do a reading of another wonderful movie.

Was that Nothing Else Like It on Earth, about the early days of the Brooklyn Bridge?
Yes, and all I can say is that we did a reading! And that it’s a beautiful movie and Daniel was beautiful in it. That reading was the first time we’d met and he was great. I'll definitely be seeing him in How to Succeed..

Moving on to the films you can talk about; your movie All Good Things [about a notorious unsolved missing persons case] comes out in December?
My character in that was awesome; I played a sort of Jewish mafia princess. There’s a lot of responsibility when you’re playing someone who you know was real, but it’s so much fun. [Director] Andrew Jarecki comes from documentaries, so this was sort of the perfect segue for him. And, of course, I got to work with Ryan.

Of course, Ryan Gosling [as a suspected murderer]. Is he just as dreamy in real life as he is on screen?
There’s really no two ways about it: He’s really dreamy. He’s also like an actor from another time; there’s something about him that feels very old Hollywood. Even though he’s a major movie star, there’s nothing of the young crazy movie star feel about him.

You had another pretty amazing leading man in your new film Weakness.
Bobby Cannavale! That was so much fun. Bobby had done play of my Dad’s [the off-Broadway revival of Hurlyburly] and we’d gotten to know each other a bit through that so it was great to finally work together. It’s always so much fun to make a movie in New York with no money, so in between takes you’re all sitting on lawn chairs in a random warehouse or wherever and it’s just great.

Weakness is hitting film festivals now and getting some excellent buzz; are you reading the reviews?
I never read reviews for anything, ever. My parents told me not to—I don’t listen always to what they tell me, but I listened to that! It was a good piece of advice and I’ve stuck with it.

Aren’t you curious?
Of course I’m curious, but reviews are wildly powerful, especially in New York, and I have to do whatever I can do to stay out of my head. I don’t like to know when people are coming to the show, even my friends. You don’t want to think about a person in the audience, you want to think about the person you’re acting with! When they surprise you at the stage door and you go out for a drink after the show, then you can think about them.

What comes after Merchant?
I’m not sure what’s next. There are a couple of directors who, if they said they wanted me to stand on my head, I’d say OK, probably without even reading [the script].

Who would you stand on your head for?
I would stand on my head for Dan Sullivan. I really want to work with [director] Sam Gold; I think his Aliens is one of the great things I’ve ever seen. Bart Sher, Doug Hughes—there are so many! But if you can embrace the unknown that’s a big part of what can be fun about being in this business. Otherwise it’s incredibly anxiety-making.

See Lily Rabe in The Merchant of Venice at the Broadhurst Theatre.