Brian d’Arcy James, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is a distinguished stage and screen actor and singer who is currently nominated for the best actor in a musical Tony for the 2022-2023 Broadway revival of Into the Woods and who stars opposite Tony winner Kelli O’Hara Off-Broadway in the original musical Days of Wine and Roses.
James is best known for his work on the stage. Over the last 30 years, he has appeared in 15 Broadway productions, garnering Tony nominations in three different decades, specifically for best featured actor in a musical in 2002 for Sweet Smell of Success and best actor in a musical in 2009 for Shrek the Musical; in 2015 for Something Rotten!; and this year for the aforementioned revival of Into the Woods, for which he has already shared a Grammy for best musical theater album. He was also the original King George III in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton when it was playing Off-Broadway at The Public.
He’s been a part of major films and TV series, as well. He starred on NBC’s Smash from 2012 through 2013 and Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why from 2017 through 2018, and in two best picture Oscar-nominated films — Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight in 2015 and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story in 2021 — the former of which won and also brought him a SAG Award as part of its ensemble. This year, he was nominated for a best supporting performance Spirit Award for his work in Ricky d’Ambrose’s The Cathedral.
Over the course of this episode, the 54-year-old reflects on the people who shaped his desire to pursue acting; some of the tough professional decisions that he has faced along the way, like leaving Next to Normal and Hamilton, after originating roles in them Off-Broadway, when they moved to Broadway, in order to star in Shrek the Musical and Something Rotten!, respectively; how he landed the part in Spotlight, and how it subsequently led to a whole different caliber of screen acting opportunities than he’d ever had before; what it’s been like over the past year, coming out of the pandemic, to return to the stage on Broadway in Into the Woods and Off-Broadway in Days of Wine and Roses; plus much more.
