{"id":102815,"date":"2025-10-28T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/102815\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:21:08","slug":"nicole-scherzinger-on-tony-win-movie-offers-after-sunset-blvd-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/102815\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicole Scherzinger on Tony Win, Movie Offers After Sunset Blvd and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJamie Lloyd had tried once before to lure Nicole Scherzinger<\/a> to the stage. Several years ago, the renegade British theater director pursued the former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman to star in \u201cEvita,\u201d but the collaboration didn\u2019t work out for scheduling reasons. \u201cI had committed to something else,\u201d she says. Still, Scherzinger was fascinated with the way the enfant terrible\u2019s brain worked and his ability to attract a new generation of theatergoers to London\u2019s once-stodgy West End. So when Lloyd came calling again and asked for a meeting in London, she quickly agreed. Then came his offer: playing Norma Desmond in a revival of \u201cSunset Boulevard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tScherzinger\u2019s only familiarity with the material was Billy Wilder\u2019s 1950 film, which starred Gloria Swanson as a faded beauty of the silent era hell-bent on a return to relevance.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSami Drasin for Variety Magazine<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was taken aback. I was like, \u2018Wow. This is what you got me out here for. This is your big idea,\u2019\u201d Scherzinger recalls. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018I\u2019m still Queen Pussycat Doll, and you\u2019re already making me an old has-been movie star. That\u2019s the role that you see for me?\u2019 He said, \u2018Please, just read the script.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd so she did. As she flipped through the pages, she began to see in Norma a version of herself. Scherzinger had been a chart-topper in the aughts, but hadn\u2019t achieved solo success, and her all-girl act yielded to the Katys, Rihannas and Gagas of the next decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI definitely had my time in the limelight like her, and the industry moves on without you,\u201d she explains. \u201cOn a personal level, I really related to Norma\u2019s struggle with loneliness and abandonment and feeling misunderstood and unseen \u2014 feeling very small and pathetic, even.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a warm, breezy day, Scherzinger is sitting in a sun-drenched office in her home in Portugal, a notepad filled with chicken-scratched ideas never far from reach. It\u2019s the same room where she did many of her initial Zoom calls with Lloyd as they fleshed out their vision for the homicidal heroine.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would always say, \u2018Jamie, I need people to fall in love with Norma. If they don\u2019t fall in love with her, she\u2019s doomed from the beginning,\u2019\u201d she remembers.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s hard to square the idea of an \u201cunseen\u201d woman with the figure before me. Even dressed down in a minimalist white button-down blouse, vintage Levi\u2019s and pearl earrings, Scherzinger exudes the kind of glamour visible from outer space. It would also be impossible to ignore the economic bang \u201cSunset Blvd.\u201d made after opening in London\u2019s West End in September 2023, before its triumphant Broadway run at the St. James Theatre the following year. The revival also became a Broadway cash cow, culminating with a $2.48 million haul in its final week in July. The final show alone brought in $514,515, marking the highest-grossing single performance ever at the St. James.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRosie O\u2019Donnell, a lifelong Broadway fanatic who in her days hosting a talk show was considered among theater\u2019s biggest boosters, was not familiar with the Pussycat Dolls when she arrived at the St. James while \u201cSunset Blvd.\u201d was in previews. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was in shock and thought, \u2018How is it that I don\u2019t know this woman, who\u2019s as beautiful as any human you\u2019ve ever seen, moves with the grace of Gwen Verdon and sings like the best Broadway stars we\u2019ve ever known?\u2019\u201d O\u2019Donnell says. \u201cI could not believe it. I went backstage, and I started crying. It was like finding Streisand, all of a sudden, at the height of Streisand\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen she won this year\u2019s Tony Award for best actress in a musical \u2014 only the fifth time a woman has pulled off the feat for a Broadway debut, the most recent being Catherine Zeta-Jones for \u201cA Little Night Music\u201d in 2010 \u2014 there was no mistaking that Scherzinger was very much seen. Now, at 47, she is finally ready for her close-up.<\/p>\n

\n\tNothing has ever come easy for Scherzinger. She was born in Honolulu to an unwed and impoverished teen mother, who herself was one of 10 children. Mother and daughter left for the mainland with Scherzinger\u2019s maternal grandparents \u2014 Tutu and Papa, she calls them \u2014 and headed to Kentucky, where, as a toddler of Hawaiian, Filipino and Ukrainian descent, Scherzinger didn\u2019t look like the other kids. Mom worked multiple jobs while Papa, a Marine, and Tutu helped raise the little girl, instilling a deep faith in her that remains a bedrock to this day.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy papa started out as an atheist, and then he would go on to be a priest and then a bishop, and now he\u2019s an archbishop for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,\u201d says Scherzinger, a gold Orthodox crucifix peeking from behind her open collar. \u201cMy tutu\u2019s mother had 22 pregnancies \u2014 four miscarriages and 18 children \u2014 living in a little three-bedroom house and having no money but a strong faith. That\u2019s the blood that I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven her distinctive German last name \u2014 courtesy of her mother\u2019s new husband, Gary Scherzinger \u2014 stood out. (Gary adopted her when she was 5 and is the man she calls her father to this day.) But her mom, who encouraged her to study musical theater at Ohio\u2019s Wright State University, was her inspiration.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy mother is my everything,\u201d she says. \u201cShe sacrificed everything for me, and she worked very, very, very hard and is a very selfless woman, as all the women are in my family. They\u2019re just silent warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMom also pushed for Scherzinger to audition for a new reality series on The WB called \u201cPopstars USA.\u201d Season 1, which aired in 2001, featured Scherzinger as a member of the newly minted Eden\u2019s Crush. It was the height of the girl group gold rush, following the success of Destiny\u2019s Child and the Spice Girls. Eden Crush\u2019s first single, \u201cGet Over Yourself,\u201d hit the Top 10, and they toured with \u2019N Sync. Then, like a lost plotline from \u201cGirls5eva,\u201d their label crashed into bankruptcy and the women went their separate ways. In Scherzinger\u2019s case, that meant joining a new group, the Pussycat Dolls, as lead singer. (The Dolls had been an established burlesque troop since the 1990s but pivoted to music in 2003.) Despite just two LPs over seven years, the group sold more than 10 million albums thanks to catchy hits like \u201cDon\u2019t Cha\u201d and the \u201cSlumdog Millionaire\u201d tie-in \u201cJai Ho! (You Are My Destiny).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSongwriter Diane Warren, who first collaborated with Scherzinger during her Pussycat Dolls days, says she stands alongside the great divas.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love that the world is seeing what I saw from the beginning, because she is a fucking great singer, but oh, my God, a fucking great actress too,\u201d Warren says. \u201cShe has the ability to hit the notes, but that\u2019s not always what makes someone great. They also have to make you feel what they\u2019re singing while they\u2019re hitting the notes. And she does that, and that\u2019s a rare quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven at the height of Scherzinger\u2019s pop-star success, Warren glimpsed shades of Norma when the pair worked together on \u201cUntil U Love U\u201d from the 2008 album \u201cDoll Domination,\u201d a song about the struggle for self-acceptance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI look over, and she\u2019s crying,\u201d Warren says. \u201cI go, \u2018Nicole, why are you crying?\u2019 She goes, \u2018I don\u2019t think I\u2019m beautiful.\u2019 I go, \u2018Are you fucking kidding me?\u2019 That was such a moment. Here\u2019s somebody who is one of the most beautiful women I\u2019ve ever seen in my entire life thinking that. That memory never left me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the music industry can be particularly cruel to sexy women, their shelf life being brief. And by 2011, girl groups were pass\u00e9. As Scherzinger\u2019s achievements were met with a yawn, she would soon face rejection with two solo albums that failed to chart. Over the ensuing years, there were highs, like voicing the protagonist\u2019s mother in Disney\u2019s 2016 animated hit \u201cMoana\u201d and a West End starring role in \u201cCats.\u201d But other work signaled journeyman status at best, like serving as a judge on \u201cThe Masked Singer.\u201d Having experienced mega-success in her 20s, she never honed the necessary skills to handle failure.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you\u2019re so young, you don\u2019t realize it at the time, but that time of growth is taken from you. I wonder about that with Britney Spears. That time was stripped from her. Is there a part of you that is stunted, and you\u2019re not able to grow?\u201d Scherzinger asks softly. \u201cShe\u2019s definitely found herself in very co-dependent, needy relationships, and I have as well. And feeling desperate. I\u2019ve felt that way in relationships as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe romance wreckage included a 2015 breakup with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, after eight years together, and a 2018 split from Bulgarian tennis star Grigor Dimitrov, whom she dated for three years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the professional and personal heartbreak primed her for something far more profound. As she and Lloyd brainstormed Norma over Zoom, she began to feel something special coalescing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNow if people would like it, I had no idea,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor many in the St. James audience on opening night, Scherzinger was nothing short of transcendent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI almost lost a kidney. I was like, what the holy fuck is happening on that stage right now? It was intense. It was just beautiful. It was one of those times where the character and the actor merged at exactly the right moment in time,\u201d says acting coach Leigh Kilton-Smith, who has worked with Sam Rockwell and Casey Affleck as well as Scherzinger off and on since the actress was 19. \u201cIt was almost a religious experience. Not to get too hyperbolic about it, but it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLloyd\u2019s direction, with its provocative use of camera close-ups on her face and crazy blood-soaked ending, made Scherzinger\u2019s performance all the more mesmerizing.<\/p>\n

\n\tLaverne Cox, who also was there opening night, felt that same presence of the divine as Scherzinger brought Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s swelling \u201cWith One Look\u201d and \u201cAs If We Never Said Goodbye\u201d to life. Cox returned to the St. James altar two more times, and is brought to tears as she recalls a particular moment that occurred during an April performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI headed backstage to say hello to Nicole, and she\u2019s in the corner with Glenn Close, and they\u2019re huddled chatting for about 20 minutes,\u201d she says. (Close was the original actress to tackle Norma on Broadway.) \u201cAnd everyone is still, standing around, waiting. And it was such a beautiful moment seeing them together. It felt very intimate. Dame Glenn Close was sort of passing a torch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScherzinger remembers that interaction vividly. \u201cShe said this was arguably one of the greatest roles ever written. And it really tests your mettle, as she knows. I was nervous, but then I mustered up the courage to ask her to sign my album. And guess what she wrote on it?\u201d she says, pausing for effect. \u201c\u2018To my soulmate. Love, Glenn.\u2019\u201d The self-described people-pleaser is beaming as she draws on the memory. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. Like, how cool is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Broadway can be unwelcoming. And Scherzinger\u2019s outspoken faith makes her something of an outlier in an industry that balks at too much Jesus talk, especially when that talk becomes entwined with Trump messaging. She learned that when she commented on a Russell Brand Instagram post the day after the 2024 election in which the actor dons a red hat with the slogan \u201cMake Jesus First Again.\u201d Scherzinger replied, \u201cWhere do I get this hat?!\u201d with prayer hands and red heart emojis. She deleted the comment and apologized for the unintended Trump association, noting: \u201cMany of the marginalized communities feeling hurt and concerned by the results of the presidential election are people I care about most. I stand with them, as I always have throughout my life and career. If you know me, you know that.\u201d But she isn\u2019t sorry for the Jesus endorsement and notes that she\u2019s not alone in her devotion.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have a wonderful church that I go to in Hollywood. Most of my friends in Hollywood are Christians. I think Christianity does get a bad rap, but I think that\u2019s why, if you\u2019re a true Christian, you have to lead by example and be the light,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore than 400 \u201cSunset Blvd.\u201d performances later, the Nicole Scherzinger resurrection is complete. The moment arrived around the same time a small wave of actresses long defined \u2014 and dismissed \u2014 as sex symbols earned raves for once-in-a-career\u00a0roles: Demi Moore in \u201cThe Substance\u201d and Pamela Anderson in \u201cThe Last Showgirl.\u201d\u00a0 For Scherzinger, the film offers are now rolling in: The CAA-repped actress is first tackling the Rebel Wilson-directed musical comedy \u201cGirl Group\u201d in London, followed by an indie movie that will shoot in New York. She also recently returned to the studio with Warren to record new material that Warren predicts \u201cis gonna be epic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the nesting front, she\u2019s building a home in Hawaii that she will share with her fianc\u00e9, former Scottish rugby star Thom Evans, close to where her mother, father, Tutu and Papa all live. She and Evans met in 2019 and became engaged in 2023, a year before her Broadway debut. If there\u2019s any downtime, the couple will curl up and watch Netflix\u2019s \u201cLove on the Spectrum,\u201d her favorite show. Her new life is the culmination of a metamorphosis that has been both soul-crushing and cathartic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re forced to shed old skins and say, \u2018I can\u2019t make an excuse anymore. I can\u2019t be a victim anymore. I can\u2019t be afraid anymore,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just liberating to take those chains off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tCharity Spotlight: Special Olympics\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOver her 15 years of work with the Special Olympics, Nicole Scherzinger has formed a close relationship with disability rights activist and film producer Timothy Shriver. The actress got involved with the organization to advocate for people like her 46-year-old aunt with Down syndrome. Shriver framed her aunt\u2019s condition in a way that made sense to Scherzinger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTim wouldn\u2019t call it \u2018disability.\u2019 He would call it \u2018super abilities,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cPeople who are special needs are superheroes because they don\u2019t have the cynicism that we have. They see the world in a different, more beautiful way that hopefully would rub off on us to be able to see the world with more hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Special Olympics was founded in 1968 by Shriver\u2019s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, with the mission of transforming the lives of the millions of people with intellectual disabilities \u201cboth on and off the playing field.\u201d In 2013, Scherzinger was named an ambassador. In that role, she has held court at the White House with President Obama and performed the national anthem at the A Capitol Fourth concert in 2015. She also hit those same iconic notes at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles that same year and co-wrote and performed the song \u201cVictorious\u201d with close friend Jonas Myrin for the closing ceremony of the 2019 Summer Games in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe organization enjoys support from the likes of Chris Pratt, Charles Melton and Shriver\u2019s sister, Maria. But Scherzinger would like to see so much more. \u201cHollywood is all about inclusivity. So my pitch would be \u2018You\u2019re fucking missing out if you\u2019re not on this train,\u2019\u201d Scherzinger says. \u201cThey help us get back to the simplicity, the honesty. The world would be a better place if we just spoke like this to one another \u2014 just direct and in a loving way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tStyling: Michael Philouze; Hair: Dimitris Giannetos\/Opus Beauty; Makeup: Rokael\/OPUS Beauty\/Rokael Beauty; Fashion Credits: Dress: Vintage Gucci\/Paume Los Angeles; Shoes: Christian Louboutin; Jewelry: Marli New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie Lloyd had tried once before to lure Nicole Scherzinger to the stage. Several years ago, the renegade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67725,146,85,46,63927,67726],"class_list":["post-102815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cover-star-power-of-women","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nicole-scherzinger","tag-power-of-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}