Interview with Glamour Magazine
By Jessica Radloff 3 hours ago, 29th January, 2016
It's been a full calendar year since Fox first announced that it would air a live musical version of Grease, and the big night is finally almost here. For the last several months, the castwhich includes Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Vanessa Hudgens, Carly Rae Jepsen, Carlos PenaVega, Keke Palmer, Kether Donohue, and many morehave been rehearsing around the clock to bring the memorable musical to life this Sunday night.
With crunch time upon them, you'd expect the cast to be all nervesbut on a recent visit to the set, it was clear they have this under control. During a short break from rehearsing "Summer Nights" in the Rydell auditorium, Danny Zuko himself (that would be Aaron Tveit) walked over to introduce himself. "I noticed you across the way and figured since we're going on a date later, I should come say hi," greeted the charming Broadway vet. Usually, the setting for our On a Date column is at a trendy restaurant (or sometimes even an actor's trailer), but this time it was at a more appropriate location: the Frosty Palace.
Actual food isn't allowed on the set, but the prop managers decorated a corner booth with plastic cheeseburgers, fries, sundaes, and milkshakes for usand they even gave Tveit real money to "pay" for the end of the date. And so, over the next hour, we chatted about career milestones, seducing Julianne Hough, relationships, and how he'll be spending the hours leading up to Grease: Live.
Glamour: We're sitting at the Frosty Palace with plastic burgers, fries, and milkshakes. Is this where you take all of your dates?
Aaron Tveit: You know, if we had sock hops and malt shops today, I would definitely take dates there! How fun would that be? I'm surprised there's not really many of thoseor even a bar that's a throwback sock-hop diner. Someone reading this should fix that.
Glamour: So where would you take a date before or after a Broadway musical?
Aaron: There's one called Vice Versa, and that's a really nice, beautiful restaurant. If you really want to make a special night of it, there's Le Bernardin. It's Eric Ripert's restaurant and one of the number one rated restaurants in New York City. But that's like high high!
Glamour: Great, so on our next date we will go there!
Aaron: Yes, we'll go to Le Bernardin! [Laughs]
Glamour: How did Grease: Live come about?
Aaron: A little over a year ago, I was in London doing a play, and the casting director [for Grease: Live] asked if I'd be interested in doing a work session with Tommy Kail, the director, and Mark Platt, the producer. Mark oversees WickedI did Wicked years agoso I was really excited it was Fox doing it, Tommy was directing, and also that Julianne was attached.
Glamour: You and Julianne had to do a chemistry test together before you were cast. What was that like?
Aaron: The funny thing about chemistry is that you either have it or you don't. She was doing chemistry reads with three or four different guys, and they rolled 'em in one after the other. There was a moment in the diner scene where I go up to her at the jukebox, and I haven't seen her since the confrontation at the pep rally. Tommy gave me a note and had us go again [in the scene], and I did something where I just went over and stood next to her and didn't say anything. I kind of mocked her body position, and she just looked at me and started laughing. We had to start the scene over. But that's the kind of thing that you hope you have happen because that's a moment in life. Especially in a chemistry testthat's what they want to see. I don't know if that's ultimately what it was, but that's when it settled for me that I felt [good].
Glamour: You didn't dye your hair jet black for the role. Were you worried the producers might make you?
Aaron: A little bit! I didn't know what they were going to do. It's such an iconic thing, and I heard that the whole black hair thing was all Travolta's idea. I think it was a nod to Elvis. I was a little worried about the jet black. If [the producers] would have said it, I would have asked them to do a temporary wash. It actually came up in my first costume fitting with William Ivey Long, who I've done three shows with. His thing was that my Danny was not the Elvis Danny Zuko, but the James Dean Danny. I have the same hair color, so we're going that way a little bit. He fought that fight for me.
Glamour: Julianne met Olivia Newton-John for the first time at Dancing With the Stars last season. Have you gotten to talk to John Travolta?
Aaron: I haven't. I have not met him during this process, but actually in 2013 at the Oscars when we did our whole Les Mis performance, he announced our whole musical section. And he said my name correctly! [Laughs] We met in the rehearsal process, and he couldn't have been nicer.
Glamour: Of all the characters you've played, which one is closest to your personality?
Aaron: That's so interesting. It's different times in your life, you know? It's so hard to say. All of them have different aspects of my personality. I think [Catch Me If You Can's] Frank Abagnale Jr. is the closest, without the con-man part. [Laughs] He's the guy I hope to still be. I think it's similar to how I was younger: wide-eyed and optimistic. I'm a very positive person, and I always find the good in things and work really hard.
Glamour: Since, news flash, Grease is live, what's your routine before you go on stage?
Aaron: Ha, yeah. I have a daily routine and an opening night routine. On a daily basis, [if a Broadway] show doesn't end till 11 P.M., I usually can't fall asleep until 3 A.M. because I'm wired after a show. I'll wake up at noon, eat breakfast, go to the gym, and just start moving. I'm not a warm-up right before the show guy, so I think if you can be active during the day that's the best [method]. But then on opening night, it's a little different because there is so much adrenaline. Also, I drink coffee before every show, but on opening nights I don't. I have so much adrenaline that if I drink coffee on top of it, I'm out of my mind. It's almost too much, and I can't control my energy. On Sunday for Grease: Live, I'll probably eat breakfast when I get up, go to the gym, come here, and just try to keep it as normal as possible.
Glamour: Any superstitions or rituals?
Aaron: I usually say, not necessarily a religious prayer, but I try to have a moment of gratitude before the first night. Just to think about the experience and be thankful for what I've been gifted with.
Glamour: You've been rehearsing like crazy, so come the week of February 1, then what happens?
Aaron: I'm staying in L.A all week and have a couple days off. I have a film that is in competition at the Santa Barbara Film Festival called Stereotypically You. It's a film that I shot last summer. It's a romantic comedy from a guy's point-of-view, and I'm the guy. It's about this guy who is stuck on his ex-girlfriend and all in his head about it. The festival is the week after [Grease: Live]. After that, I fly to Australia because I'm singing in a concert in Sydney with Sutton Foster and Betty Buckely and some amazing Australian musical theater talent. It's called Defying Gravity, the Songs of Stephen Schwartz. Then I fly back to New York, have a week off, and on February 22, I start pre-production for Brain Dead, which is the CBS series I'm doing [from the creators of The Good Wife]. I get to play a sort of ******* chief-of-staff, and it also co-stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead. When that come up, and I learned I'd be playing opposite her? I was like, sign me up! I've been so lucky to have been able to do so many different things.
Glamour: I heard that you almost auditioned for a season of American Idol, but you couldn't miss rehearsals for your school musical. Is that true?
Aaron: Yeah. A buddy of mine and I were going to go audition, but we had rehearsal for whatever college show we were doing at the time, and they wouldn't let us go, so I didn't go. And then the next year, I was doing a summer stock production, so I didn't go, and then I got cast in the national tour of Rent and started working. I really wanted to, but who knows how I would have done? But now, here I am on Fox doing this live thing!
Glamour: Is it true that you also turned down the role of Finn on Glee in 2009?
Aaron: I didn't turn down the role, but I had auditioned for it and they wanted to do a screen test. I wasn't offered the part, but I was far along in the process. I decided not to screen test for it.
Glamour: How come?
Aaron: Looking back, I kind of think, "What the hell was I thinking?" I hadn't done anything on television yet. That was before I got Gossip Girl, so I hadn't done much TV. I had also been involved in all the readings and workshops for Second Stage and Catch Me If You Can. So at that point, I would have been walking away from these shows that I was so attached to personally, and my heart was in it. I couldn't walk away from those. The other side of it was, at the time, I kind of wanted what I did on TV to have nothing to do with my musical theater career. I think I was afraid that I'd be looked at as only a musical guy, so I tried to keep it separate for a long time. Looking back, it did serve me well, but it was a difficult [decision] to make.
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