Every actor has a story to tell, but Billy Crudup has a lot of them through a sterling career on stage, screen and television. And at this moment he is prominent in all three.
Joining me for this week’s can’t-miss episode of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side is Crudup, currently back in his fourth season as Corey on The Morning Show; playing a key supporting role opposite George Clooney in Jay Kelly, opening this week; and now in rehearsals to star as Will Kane in a new stage production of the Oscar-winning film High Noon, which is going to premiere in London’s West End before hopefully also taking him back to his Broadway roots.
The two-time Emmy winner and Tony winner takes us on a wild and entertaining journey through his entire career with one great story after another in the life of an actor. “I’m happy to be working — whatever they put me in, I’m happy to go,” he tells me, and indeed he has gone many places and recalls them all — many times hilariously. He talks vividly about what he calls the “carnival life” of acting, his regrets, his fears and his triumphs. He also talks about making his first film, Sleepers, 30 years ago with Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt and many more; replacing Pitt in Almost Famous as an ace rock guitarist (he had never picked up the instrument before); singing in Woody Allen’s only musical (he wasn’t a singer); playing runner Steve Prefontaine in Robert Towne’s Without Limits; facing off with a face-hugger in Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant; and playing the bad guy opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III with a monologue that he had to learn the same day they shot, being unable to remember it and finally getting some (hilarious) advice from Cruise on how to do it.
Of course we also talk about Corey’s adventures on Apple TV’s The Morning Show and how he had to convince executives he could do the part. “Oh, are you still acting?” one asked. And there is his role opposite Clooney in a key early couple of scenes in Jay Kelly in which he plays an acting friend of the title character who loses the role of a career to him that he might have had. It is a masterclass in how to steal a scene. And now he is taking on the iconic part of the reluctant Marshal Will Kane in a timely and relevant London stage production of High Noon, putting his own spin on the role that won Gary Cooper his second Oscar.
To watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Billy Crudup, just click on the link above.
Join me this Oscar season every Wednesday for a new edition of The Actor’s Side and every Monday for a new episode of Behind the Lens.