Yesterday was a big day for Once, the unlikely hit musical that's traveled all the way from award-winning no-budget indie film to Off Broadway smash to critically-acclaimed Broadway phenomenon. The beguiling little rock musical racked up 11 Tony Award nominations, more than any other production, and we imagine the show's co-star Cristin Milioti is feeling pleasantly surprised by with her introduction to Broadway. (She's nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical.) We recently spoke with Milioti about her enchanting Broadway debut in Once, which tells the simple-yet-complicated love story between a struggling busker and a lovely piano-playing stranger who connect musically and emotionally—and melt your frozen heart. The show's also a lot funnier than we expected, much like Milioti herself.
So I'm going to record our conversation. I hope that's okay. Totally fine.
It's going to be on the Internet. That's cool, I like the World Wide Web.
You don't get World Wide Web stage fright at all, because it's, you know, global? I don't, I know. Well, I mostly use the world wide web for looking at, like, kitten videos, or like, "this dog dressed as a werewolf," or things like that so, it's pretty harmless.
Have you looked at anything online relating to Once or any performance you've done? Nope!
So you keep a pretty firm wall up? I don't read reviews. You know what's funny? There is a TV commercial for the show and I had a friend show me on her iPad. She was like, "Can I just show it to you?" and I was like, "Um, okay, uh, okay," and she played it and one of the first comments—like you know how it brings up and you can see the first couple comments?—and like, one of the first comments was like, "This girl looks like Dracula," or something. And I was like, "Okay, I'm done, good night!"
Yeah, the comments are really like the sewers. No, I stay away for the most part.
Are you on Twitter? I'm not on Twitter, I'm not on Facebook, either.
Do you have a blog? Do you have any internet presence? No. I don't.
Not even a website? No. Nothing.
I wonder if there are any fan websites. I guess you wouldn't even know! I would not even know. I feel that my relatives would tell me. They're into that. You know one of my aunts would be like, "There's a blog about you and it says that." It would say something really offensive. And then they'd be like, "Oh, isn't that weird!" and I'd be like, "Oh, yeah, that's so weird...that they said I look like a dragon"
So, even after a production ends, you won't go back and read the reviews? No, I used to do that and then, I forget which show it was, but I had an amazing experience on the show and then I was like, "I'm not going to read reviews until it's all done," and apparently we got slammed and I had no idea and I read all these reviews and then it colored this experience. Because I was like, "Oh, my god, I can't believe no one liked it, or, not as many people as I thought liked it."
And so then I was like, you know what, fuck this! This is not why I do it. I don't do it to get good reviews and I don't really care what...I want the audience to enjoy it, that's like my biggest goal. So, I've just kind of backed away from all that stuff. I know a ton of actors who read everything and I just, I don't know how you can. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.
Yeah, it's always been interesting to me because acting takes so much sensitivity, you really have to open up your psyche. And then when that's open, all the stuff that comes in can really send you for a loop, you know? Yeah, well even good reviews can do the same thing, I think. Because I think if you're going to believe the good ones, you have to believe the bad ones. Then it's all fair game. I actually don't read reviews for anything now. Not any other play, not any other movie, no TV shows. I stay very, very far away from reviews of any kind.
Cristin Milioti and Once co-star Steve Kazee (Joan Marcus)
Wow, so, what do you read? I watch a lot of dog videos. I go to BuzzFeed a lot, do you know that website? I read your website, I go to Huffington Post, BuzzFeed. A lot of it is driven by cute animals. And then, that's also how I watch TV, is the internet. So that's what,I would say I mostly use it for.
Have you been in television shows? Yeah, I have!
What kinds of TV shows have you done? I did an episode of 30 Rock last year, that was awesome. Yeah, that lead to a bunch of films, actually. But my roles on TV have always been like guest stars and stuff. I've never been a cast member. Well, I had a recurring role on The Sopranos, but I wouldn't even consider that I was a cast member.
Who were you on The Sopranos? I played Johnny Sacramoni's daughter. Remember he was the New York mob boss? Have you watched all of it?
Yes. Okay, so he died of cancer in the last season and he had that wedding where he was arrested and he had two daughters. He had the daughter who was getting married and a chain smoking, anorexic daughter and that was me!
Was it fun working on that or was it really difficult? No, I was 19 and it was my first job and I just dropped out of college and, um, I was pretty consistently terrified. But, Steve Buscemi, actually directed the first episode and cast me and he was the most incredible guy to work with. And we would have lunch, we would sit, you know when you go get your lunch from the buffet line or whatever, and he made it really enjoyable. But, I was terrified. I had no idea what I was doing whatsoever.
I love Steve Buscemi. He's incredible. I've seen him in a couple things since and he's always really, really sweet and he's such a fantastic actor and, yeah, he's awesome.
Where did you drop out of college and what made you come to that decision? I was at NYU for musical theater, but this is the first musical I've ever done, ironically. But, you know, when you audition for NYU, they place you where they think you would best fit.
Really? Yeah, it's based on one person who auditions you. This woman auditioned me and then she was like, "Oh, it says here that you sing," and I was like, "Yeah, I've been in bands and I really love singing," and she was like, "Ok, cool," and I ended up in musical theater. And I can't dance unless it's on the dance floor, then I can dance really well. But not tap dance or anything. I was there for a year and I was really, really unhappy and one day I was just like, "Fuck it, I don't like this, I can't foresee myself liking this." Then an agent came and saw me in a play—in a college black box play—and she sent me out on a couple auditions, I think the second one of which was The Sopranos. Then I got that and I was like, "Okay, well, I'm going to take this as a sign and just gonna quietly slip out."
I like it. Yeah, well, my dad didn't go to college, my brother didn't go to college, my mom's the only one who finished. So it wasn't even that big of a deal, I feel.
Cristin Milioti and Once co-star Steve Kazee (Joan Marcus)
I completely agree. I think that the conservatories—and NYU isn't even a graduate program—their undergrad program is a liberal arts degree. But they create these microcosms where you're constantly safe. And, I for one, learn more sort of being thrown into the deep end. And I just felt like I was in an extension of high school when I was there. And I couldn't wait to get out of high school to go to college and I was like, "Oh, it's the same, so I'm just gonna go." I do think it can create a safety net sometimes that can be hazardous down the line, although it works for some people.
You've had really great success on the path you've chosen and now you're in this Broadway show that audiences seem to love. I won't tell you what anybody said. But you must have to hear some feedback when you leave the theater. Are there kids waiting outside the stage door at night? Oh yeah, the audiences are amazing and especially a lot of college kids and people in their twenties and then teenagers that come to this. The things that they say afterward is kind of what keeps me going sometimes. This one girl wrote me a letter saying how the show inspired her and she wanted to create beautiful sounds and beautiful music and no one thought she could but she was going to now because we seemed like a group of real people, that we weren't larger than life. And I was like, "Yes! That's what this is about!"
I read that letter when I have a bad day. That matters more to me than someone saying, "Cristin was convincing as a pirate," or whatever play I'm in. So, the response has been overwhelming. I've never been a part of something that the audience loves so much. I've been in a lot of shows where it ends and there's slow clapping, or people have already left. And so this is really, really awesome.
Yeah it's a real crowd pleaser, and it connects with people—at least, the night I was there, that's all I can speak to—but the night I was there it seemed to really connect with people in a palpable way. Yeah. I mean, that's what makes theatre so awesome, I think, is the sort of communal aspect to it. That you go and share an experience with a thousand other people. It's molecular. And only you guys know what that night was like. And everyone's energy is bouncing off each other. It's a completely different experience than movie-going, which I think is actually a very private experience. But I think that the sort of—oh God, I feel like I'm getting really existential or something—the sort of molecular level that we all come together as a group of people, audience included, is really special. It sort of sizzles every night. It's awesome. And the music is awesome. So that helps.
I loved it. I had not seen the film. I haven't either.
Did you feel like you didn't want to be burdened by this preconceived notion of what the part is? Yeah, it was kind of a happy accident in a way that I hadn't ever seen the film or heard those songs when I got the job. I only learned the songs that I needed to play for the audition and I was like, "Well, I guess I'm not going to watch it now," because, yeah I didn't want to be influenced. I didn't want to even subconsciously mimic something. So I didn't. It's interesting because now I feel like if I watch the film, it would be out of support for Glen and Marketa who've been lovely and amazing and I actually wanna see this thing that they were a part of. It's almost become completely separate in a way. But I'm still not going to watch it until everything's all done. Just in case.
What was your biggest challenge with this? The piano playing. I don't play, really. I can't sight read. I've never had to have each hand doing a different part. I've always been able to play chords, because I played with bands in high school but it was rhythm piano; it was like, C chord, C chord, C chord, G chord. So that was, no doubt, the most challenging part. For the audition they gave me ten days to learn how to play a classical piece and "The Hill." And I just sat for seven hours a day. I had a friend write out the charts. So if you look at my music it's all letters and numbers and each number represents a finger so that I could learn the proper fingering. So those songs I play in the show are kind of all I can play you.
Sounds like an intense training process. It was, but once I kind of broke through and was able to do it, it was the best feeling in the world. My dad bought me a song book of Adele, "21," as an opening night gift. And I tried to sit and play it the other day and I thought maybe I'd learned something, but I really can't sight read. I still don't know what I'm looking at.
What do you think it is that resonates so much with audiences about Once? Well, I think music is the number one thing, especially this music. It's not your typical...it's not at all like a "musical." It's this gorgeous, enchanting music that sort of brings you to another place. It brings us to another place every night. And I think the fact that it's a story about regular people who are lonely and need something and music is the way in. Every character in this play needs this demo tape to happen just as much as the guy and the girl do. And yet, I think it also embraces theater at it's finest; the theatricality of it can be very transporting. Because it's very magical and yet it's all based in—we're just using chairs for for the most part—it's still based in reality and everything. You could do what we're doing.
Right. And I think that's what the whole preshow—when they play and you guys can come up and drink on stage—that's like a welcoming. You're a part of our world and we're a part of yours. It sort of erases that fourth wall.
I didn't realize that I could have gone on stage and I went to the restroom during intermission and I came back, I saw people on the stage drinking at the bar and I thought, "Oh, I gotta go up there." But it was too late. Awww. Well, if you come back, you show up like twenty minutes early and they play like three or four songs on the bar while you drink before they kick everyone off.
Is it an open bar up there? No, I think the beer is pretty expensive. But the songs they play during the preshow are different every night. It's a new set each night of Czech songs and Irish folk songs. It's awesome.
