Four-Time Nominee Raúl Esparza Speeds to the Tonys

Armed with coffee, The New York Times and a bagel,Raúl Esparza is on a mission. Seated in the offices of the Public Theater on Lafayette Street, he’s on a short break from rehearsals for Shakespeare in the Park’s upcoming Twelfth Night, starring big screen golden child Anne Hathaway, as well as Tony Award winners Audra McDonald and Julie White. Esparza, who’ll play romantically torn Orsino in the classic, pushes back a fedora and continues the task at hand: conquering theTimes crossword puzzle. But Esparza’s not being antisocial. The pen soon goes away, and he’s ready to talk openly about his year on Broadway. It’s been a somewhat crazy season for the actor—one that included the very public departure of his co-star, Hollywood frat boy Jeremy Piven, Speed-the-Plow. He admits the revolving door of the Plow revival was difficult at times: Piven was replaced first by Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz, then by William H. Macy, who finished the run. But news of Esparza’s fourth Tony nomination (he was previously nommed for his performances in Taboo,Company and The Homecoming), for Best Actor in a Play, has been a soothing balm—he’s now only the second actor ever to be nominated in all four individual male performance categories, and its his third consecutive nod. While he’s yet to score a win (in a surprise upset, David Hyde Pierce’s performance in Curtainswon the trophy over Esparza’s turn in Company in 2007), the actor isn’t shy about talking Tony, nor does he balk at any other subject, from Shakespeare to Piven to bagpipes.

Crossword puzzle trouble?
Yeah, it’s only the Tuesday issue, but I got a little trapped there.

What’s the hold up?

It’s 52 down: “Messages that might contain emoticons.” Email, right? But then I’ve got 57 across: “Tangled in a net.” Enmesh? I don’t think so. Then I’d have to axe “email.” Everything else seemed to work out. Whatever. It’s Tuesday! I’m embarrassed to admit that Tuesday is giving me a problem.

Are you a big crossword guy?

I love crosswords. While we were doing Speed-the-Plow we used to do competitions in my dressing room of these cryptic, British ones that are really hard. The clue itself contains the answer—you have to figure out if it’s an anagram or a definition. They’re just fun.

You were onstage spitting out Mamet rapid-fire, then going backstage to “relax” with cryptic word games? 

Hey, I had to do something during Act II.

What’s it been like to go from David Mamet to William Shakespeare? 

It’s interesting. These first couple weeks [of rehearsal] I’ve found the verse is something you feel like you’re almost being played by, like a kind of puppet. Now it’s time to get to the place where we can start to be people in that context. I haven’t done Shakespeare in 15 years, but I got my Equity card doing Richard IIat the Goodman.

Who were you playing?

A slave that gets water or something. I had, like, one line. I also did a recording of Henry IV, playing Hotspur, in a radio play. This was years ago in Chicago. When I finally heard [the recording] a few years back I was like, “Oh hey! That sounds good! I’m doing a really perfect…a perfect…oh, an exact Kenneth Branagh imitation.” [Laughs.]

Were you someone who was into Shakespeare?

I started reading Shakespeare when I was in fifth grade. I remember I was in a creative writing class and wanted to write a story about an actress who goes crazy—it was totally precocious. I asked my teacher what role would make an actress go crazy, and she said Lady Macbeth. So I went to the public library and said to the librarian, “Uh, I’m looking for this play, it’s called Macbeth, I don’t know if you know it?” She gave me the actual play, which took me a month to get through. And the school’s librarian—God, I wish I could remember her name—was so impressed she gave me a complete copy of Shakespeare’s plays that had been in her family since 1911. I read through all the plays. I used to act them out in my backyard and make my friends do it, too. I totally nerded out. My grandmother thought I was insane. I’d be wandering around the yard going, “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…”

Was Twelfth Night a favorite?
Not at all. I liked tragedies. The bloodier the better. Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus,Othello—didn’t understand King Lear to save my life but thought that was pretty cool, with people’s eyes being ripped out. And Macbeth has always been my favorite. I just love it.

Did you go and see Macbeth on Broadway last season?
I did, and I thought it was very cool. I’ve always wanted to see a Macbeth, though, that scares the shit out of you.

The character himself or the production?
The production. I’d love to see it done where the audience is really watching a scary ghost/horror story. I thought that last production had elements of that. The sequence leading into Banquo’s murder, with the repetition and the blood spreading on the walls? Great stuff.

Do you ever see yourself directing?
I’d love to direct some plays eventually. It’d be fun. 

So maybe you’ll be the guy who does the badass horror production of Macbeth.
Yeah, maybe I will do the badass horror thing. I have badass horror ideas for all kinds of things: Oh man, Sweeney Todd! A really good scary movie is amazing. They don’t really make them a lot, do they? There’re a lot of really bad ones.

Your Twelfth Night cast is awesome. What have rehearsals been like?
It’s a ridiculous cast! We laugh a lot. We had a music rehearsal recently. I was tired because I did a concert at Symphony Space the night before, and I get to rehearsal and there was a bagpiper in the room… for five hours. You know, the first time you hear a bagpipe with that Celine Dion “My Heart Will Go On” sound, you’re like “Oh wow, Ireland!” The tenth time, you’re like, “Oh…my…God.” And by the twentieth time you’re going, “You know, I kinda really just need a lobotomy!” Now we’ve started this whole thing where no matter what [director] Daniel Sullivan says, we’d reply, “There’s an infestation of bagpipers in this theater! We cannot focus on anything! I can’t work like this!” Also, Jay O. Sanders was saying there are raccoons in the park we might have to deal with. My character, Orsino, keeps sending gifts to Lady Olivia throughout the show, so I’ve said I want to give her a raccoon on a leash. Now Julie White keeps going on about being attacked by a raccoon.

How’s Anne Hathaway handling all of you?
Annie’s awesome. She’s such a warm co-star in that she’s aware of everybody in the room. She knows everybody’s names, goes up to them, says hello and good morning, and is completely unintimidating. I think that’s part of your job if you’re the lead in the show. Your job is not just to play the role but to actually lead the company with your energy and kindness. It sets the tone at the top. Everybody in this group has that and there’s no ego. I’ve been very lucky to have had a similar experience with The Rocky Horror Show. Anyone of those [cast members] could have given attitude for days: Alice Ripley, Jarrod Emick, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tom Hewitt. Right down the line, everybody was so warm and treated me like an equal. I didn’t know how wonderful of an experience that was until it was over.

Did you feel like you had to take the reigns in Speed-the-Plow as far as unifying everybody?
Yes, very much so actually. But in that case, you had three leads. Jeremy [Piven] had done a lot of stage work. Elisabeth [Moss] hadn’t but from the second week of rehearsals on we could see she was a natural. So we all sort of inspired each other in the rehearsal hall. Jeremy is an incredibly playful actor. Anything you throw at him, he’ll run with. A lot of the rehearsal process was just kind of tossing the ball around. I didn’t work with Elisabeth as much, but that last scene was a blast—it’s an aria.

It was interesting to watch your character, Charlie, change each time the cast did, especially when William H. Macy took over the role of Bobby Gould. 
In a three-person play particularly, each actor is going to influence the dynamics. With William H. Macy, he has 30 years of Mamet under his belt. I had been doing my own thing on it, which was coming from a totally aggressive Chicago-theater base. I like muscular acting, and I like acting that is a little bit too theatrical. That interests me. Complete naturalism on stage doesn’t excite me as much as that little extra something. I like it films too, to see an actor give a little extra. But Bill’s style is much more reserved than mine. What happened was we kind of met in the middle. Also, he was 20 years older, so that dynamic between our characters had to change. He played Bobby with such a sense of sadness that—and a lot of people talked about the play feeling very heavy and sad by the end—you knew the relationship between Charlie and Bobby had been destroyed. I think with Jeremy and also very much so with [temporary replacement] Norbert Leo Butz, there was a sense of, like, two dogs just scrapping it out.

Like you might go get pizza after your big fight?
Yeah! Like, “Sorry I punched you in the face, dude.” With Bill, there was this real sense of the end.

How difficult were the cast changes? You addressed Piven’s absence with the audience after one matinee.
I did address the audience, but I didn’t ever mention Jeremy’s name. It was important to me that it not be about Jeremy. The reason I did it was because Jordan Lage, who was the understudy, who was never going to get his name on a poster out front or on the marquee, had worked his ass off—as had the stage management team, as had [director] Neil Pepe. They had worked every single day to keep the show alive. I felt it was important to acknowledge that work. But by acknowledging that work, the extension of that idea seemed to be that I was insulting Jeremy. I have a great respect for actors and what they do, and I feel that it is our responsibility to show up for our jobs. If you get sick, you come back to work as soon as you can. That’s my position. Does that mean that I’m infallible, or that I haven’t missed shows, or I haven’t had problems myself? No. But we do the best we can. It’s hard enough without having extra drama, too.

Did you feel abandoned when Jeremy didn’t return?
Yeah, very much so. Very, very much so. Whatever he may have been going through, that’s a shame, and I certainly feel for him. I hope that he’s better.

But hey, you got a Tony nomination!
But I got a Tony nomination!

You’re the only guy besides Boyd Gaines to be nommed in all four categories. Do they give you a toaster or something as a prize?
[Laughs.] Somebody said I’m the first actor to get nominated in three separate categories three years in a row, which is really cool. And Boyd is one of my idols. I’m really, incredibly proud of this. By the end of everything on Company, I had gotten over whatever idealism I had about awards. That’s not that they’re meaningless—they’re wonderful and lord knows everybody would like to have one. It’s a glamorous problem to have: worrying about if you’re going to win a Tony. But I learned on Company that win or lose, it doesn’t change the quality of your work or the perception of the quality of your work, and that’s all that matters in the end. The fact that I was nominated twice for musicals and now have been nominated twice for plays, which is where I feel my real strength lies—not in the singing but in the straightforward acting—is an accomplishment that I’m really proud of. That has to be enough in and of itself.

Do you get to a point where you say, “I’m not going to care whether I win or not?”
Of course you care. It would be wonderful to win. But I also think part of it is just honoring the tradition of it and knowing I’m part of something that goes a long way before me and is going to go a long way after me. I always remind myself I’m just some kid that grew up in the suburb of Miami and now I’m performing on Broadway. And look: for the last three years, every time I’ve done a play, they’ve said “Really good job.” You can pretend you don’t care, but I think that’s just a way to defend yourself, and in the end you miss out on the experience. The truth is what really matters is coming back into the room and doing the work. If these nominations afford me the opportunity without a film and TV career to continue to be in the room and do the work, then I’m the luckiest guy in New York. I’ve seen some fantastic plays over the last couple weeks that just rocked me in my world.

Anything specific?
I just saw Alice Ripley do Next to Normal and cried through the whole thing. I’m crazy proud of her. It’s a brutal show, and she’s giving a performance that’s to die for. Carla Gugino in Desire Under the Elms—my God! What a performance! If that isn’t a Tony-worthy performance I don’t know what is. It is a slap in her face, you know, that [she wasn’t nominated]. And a slap in Kristin Scott Thomas’ face too. But it’s an embarrassment of riches this season, and that’s phenomenal.

Twelfth Night is your third straight play in a row. Are you taking a break from musicals?
I had not done any musicals for eight years before I came to New York. Musicals are the most difficult to do on stage. And we’re sort of doing one right now with Twelfth Night: we’ve got a full score going and we’re up there dancing away. I think that absolutely, I will do another musical because they’re a hell of a lot of fun to do. It just so happens that it’s been these plays lately. Besides, I love being able to switch back and forth.