Ben Walker has been gracing the stages of the Great White Way for over a decade, and now he is currently giving a Tony-nominated performance as Chris Keller in the Arthur Miller drama All My Sons. "I've wanted to play this part for a long time," Walker told Paul Wontorek in a recent interview on Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive. "It's chillingly poignant right now. I dreamed to do in this play. They're also doing a production in London, and I was fighting to do that and then it kind of worked out in the best case scenario."
Walker's dream role led to another dream coming true: receiving a Tony nomination. "My son and my wife are in Toronto, so every day off I fly up after the Sunday show, spend Monday with them and then I come back Tuesday and do the play," Walker said. "I was on the plane when the nominations came out and it it took getting through customs for my phone to stop dinging. It's all very exciting." Walker's co-star Annette Bening, who plays Kate Keller, also received a Tony nomination. "I adore her, she makes my job so easy," he said. "She's so lovely offstage and so wild and professional onstage that she's an absolute pleasure."
This production, directed by Jack O'Brien, marks the fourth time All My Sons has been on Broadway. "We had a master at the helm," Walker said. "It's such a good play and with this cast, as long as I pull on my emotional seatbelt it just kind of happens. As soon as we started working it seemed to have a life of its own."
While Walker is currently bringing a masterpiece play to life on stage, he is also a musical leading man. Most recently seen as Patrick Bateman in the short-lived American Psycho, Walker also took on the title role in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. "I'd like to do a little more song and dance at some point," he said. "I keep trying to add a tap number into this one and Jack O'Brien's not having it. I would do [American Psycho] again. I love that show, it's another one that's chillingly poignant. It could do with a brush-up."
Catch Walker in All My Sons, now playing at the American Airlines Theatre.
Watch the full #LiveAtFive interview below!