ANDY DRACHENBERG: What qualities does a production have to possess to get your interest?
MICHAEL C. HALL: I look for a story that’s generally compelling, that speaks to me in some way and I, as an actor, look for a role within the context of that story that’s a part of the fundamental fabric of its telling. That’s basically it.
AD: Was there something particular about The Realistic Joneses that caught your attention?
MCH: It’s hard to point to anything specific. I mean, there were certainly things, when I read it for the first time and when we did the first reading of the play, that struck me, but it was really just the simultaneous accessibility and unique quality of Will’s language. There was something so specific and also something so mysterious and ambiguous about the play. I’d never read anything quite like it. I felt, and this has proved to be true, that it would require something of me that I’ve never been asked to explore or access in terms of an approach to material. It was really all about the language.
AD: Do you remember your first read of the play and your reaction to it and what you walked away with right afterword?
MCH: I think it was comparable to the same sense we have when the show ends every night and I feel that the audience has, that’s been something that’s been really fun and enjoyable and there have been a lot of laughs and surprising twists and turns, but in the end there’s something really profound and resonant and satisfyingly sad about it. I say “satisfyingly sad” because these two guys (Bob and John Jones) have this mysterious illness and these women are dealing with it in different ways. I think the common affliction is something that everybody on stage and everyone in the audience shares, and that’s our common mortality. As much as it’s a meditation on that, I find that sometimes when you listen to a sad song it makes you feel good because it makes you feel less alone. This play does that in its way.
AD: In your eyes, what is at the core of this story?
MCH: I think the journey of the play is one in which we watch different people with different points of view dealing with the discrepancies between fantasy and reality. I think in the case of each cast member in this play, the opposite member of the other couple is appealing because they embody some sort of fantasy of an ideal partner that the ‘in-reality partner’ doesn’t. I think that’s one of the perils of intimate relationships – the way we project onto the unknown world some ideal that we don’t experience in the known world. And by the end of the play, in four different ways, we see the four different characters surrendering to, embracing, and/or sublimating their reality in a way that they’re not at the beginning.
AD: In talking with audiences, we’ve often be told how this is the most real story on Broadway. What do you think has audiences saying that?
MCH: I don’t know. I think a part of that has something to do with the language, in spite of the fact that there are obvious idiosyncrasies and there’s a heightened element. There is something about Will’s language that does capture the way contemporary people communicate and fail to communicate! That might be a part of it. In terms of these two couples, perfect negotiating is a very difficult thing, and the play shows quite a realistic portrait of the imperfections of intimate relationships and the ways we all fall short. It’s also, while very funny, fundamentally reminding us that our time here is limited, and that’s pretty realistic!
AD: Can you describe what the rehearsal experience was like in working towards that?
MCH: It was challenging. When we did the first read through, it was great -you just get on the ride and let the language lead you, and the play speaks for itself. I think we realized that it would take some time before we got back to the sense we had of the play in that first read-through. You sort of have to take it apart before you put it back together. You can’t work at it. You do have to get out of its way. I’ve found the play has only revealed itself to me and it continues to do so from my having to let the language do the work. It’s a mysterious thing. There are certain questions you need to answer for yourself, but there’s something about this play that is really served by leaving a door open for mystery. That’s why I love doing it and I still love doing it because I think we all keep discovering things. It’s very nuanced, it’s very dense. There’s not a wasted word. While it feels like it’s, in some ways, dashed off or as light as air, it’s also meticulously constructed and dense.
AD: To that end, who is ‘John Jones?’ Was there a specific entry point for you into understanding him?
MCH: I think John is someone who is, on the page, potentially antagonistic. He’s a bit of an instigator. I think the key is there’s a real absence of malice in him—he’s not a nasty guy. And I think the real permission that’s given with this play is that John has a mysterious and broadly-defined condition, so a lot of how he is can be attributed to that. It never clear where the condition begins and whoever John was before it came into his world and his head. I don’t know, I think of the times when he contradicts himself, “I practically invented sitting down. Actually, that’s not true…” or, “Listen I’m a very spiritual man. I take it back, I’m not that spiritual.” He has an ability to be on both sides of a point of view or to have simultaneously contradictory points of view. I think that’s something that I definitely relate to, and that might have been an early way that clicked me into who he is.
AD: With only a month left of performances, what has been the highlight of this experience (if you could pick one thing)?
MCH: Bringing this play to this audience. I think the thing I love the most is that this play really requires the four of us to really step back and let the play be the star, and we are collectively responsible for keeping the ball of Will’s language in the air. It’s been really gratifying to be part of what is truly an ensemble experience.
MICHAEL C. HALL (John Jones) Graduate of NYU’s MFA program in acting, Michael C. Hall starred as David Fisher on the HBO series, Six Feet Under, for which he received an Emmy® Award nomination and the AFI Male Television Actor of the Year Award. As the title character on Showtime’s Dexter, Hall earned five consecutive Emmy® nominations and won Golden Globe® and Screen Actors Guild awards in 2010. Most recently, he starred alongside Daniel Radcliffe in John Krokidas’ major motion picture, Kill Your Darlings. On Broadway, Hall made his debut as the emcee in Cabaret, directed by Sam Mendes, and portrayed Billy Flynn in Chicago.