Tveit Rides a Roller-Coaster of a Year “It Sounds Fake, I Know,” Bravo Laughs
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ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MARCH 19-20, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13 People & Places Film ‘Raw and vulnerable’ For Bravo, ‘Cherry’ a star-making role Lindsey Bahr iara Bravo didn’t have high hopes for her pros- Cpects when she saw the names attached to “Cher- ry.” She’d been working in the business for over a decade, but it was mostly in television and bit film roles. No way, she thought, was she going to be cast to star opposite “Spider-Man” himself, Tom Holland, in a major film based on a bestselling memoir about PTSD and opioid addition from Marvel maestros Joe and Anthony Russo. “It was SO out of my league,” Bravo said in a re- cent interview. She sent in a tape anyway and for four weeks she didn’t hear a word. When her agent texted saying he had news, her fi rst thought was that he was going to drop her. Not because of him, she said, “He’s wonderful.” It was just her anxiety. Then he dropped the bomb- shell: She got the role. No sec- ond audition. No meeting. No chemistry test. The tape was that good. “When Ciara’s audition Bravo came to us at AGBO, we said, ‘Stop the presses,’” said Mike Larocca, a producer and the co-founder of the company. The Russos even claim they knew after 20 seconds. It’s not unlike the revelation many have had or will Aaron Tveit, (right), appears with Karen Olivo during a performance of ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical,’ in New York. Tveit was the only actor nominated for a Tony in have once they see her in the fi lm, which is currently the category of best leading actor in a musical for his role. (AP) in theaters and hits Apple TV+ on Friday. Earlier this year, Robert Downey Jr. declared himself “her new biggest fan” and waxed poetic about her raw and vulnerable performance as a woman who gets drawn Stage into addiction along with her partner, Cherry. Yes, it’s Holland’s big foray into more adult fi lms. But it’s Bravo who steals the show. Now, at just 23, she’s on the brink of stardom. Scholarship created to honor choreographer Reinking Bravo hails from Alexandria, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. When she was around 8, she was spotted by an agent at a county fair who asked her mother if she was interested in acting or modeling. Tveit rides a roller-coaster of a year “It sounds fake, I know,” Bravo laughs. “And also, like, the scariest start to any story.” By Mark Kennedy Tveit found work elsewhere. Over the said. summer, he shot a Hallmark Channel Tveit sees something of a silver lin- Auditions ven in a crazy year with so many Christmas movie with Laura Osnes ing in the Broadway shutdown: Long But soon after she and her mother started taking Eups and downs, consider the last and fl ew to Vancouver to work on the unaddressed social issues are being trips to Los Angeles for auditions. About four years 12 months of Aaron Tveit. Apple TV+ series “Schmigadoon!” examined, top among them racial rep- in, she got her fi rst big break in the Nickelodeon se- The Broadway star was wowing “Gratitude doesn’t even describe resentation on both sides of the curtain. ries “Big Time Rush” and then in the channel’s movie fans in “Moulin Rouge! The Musi- how I feel,” he said of the employ- While urging donations to the na- “Jinxed.” cal” when it was suddenly shuttered ment. “I think about it every day be- tional services group The Actor’s “I feel very lucky that my mom never put too much by the coronavirus. Then he contracted cause I know so many people who Fund, he also champions Black Lives weight or pressure on it. She was very clear that the COVID-19 himself. He recovered to have not been able to work at all. The Matter groups, anti-racism organiza- second I stopped enjoying acting, we didn’t have to lend his voice to relief efforts, got a question of paying rent, of being able tions, bail relief and transgender re- keep doing it,” Bravo said. “I think that allowed me few high-profi le acting gigs and then to support families and pay bills - it’s sources. Actress Ciara Bravo poses for a por- it’s truly devastating.” “I’ve done a lot of listening,” he to just thoroughly enjoy the experience and just play trait, Feb 18, 2021, in Los Angeles. landed his fi rst Tony nomination. and fi gure out what this world was and if I wanted to The twenty-three-year-old Kentucky “It’s hard to have perspective,” he Nominations said. “I’ve tried to just shut my mouth live in it or not.” said. “I just think that’s going to need and listen to everything around me and native stars in the Apple TV+ movie Tveit’s fi rst big gig was in a “Rent” As she booked other things and started to learn ‘Cherry.’ (AP) a little bit of time and a little bit of a what people need and what people feel more about the craft of acting and building a char- 25,000-foot view to see what actually tour and he made his Broadway debut and then look at how personally I may acter, she realized she loved it and there was no happened in the last year.” as a replacement in “Hairspray” and or may not be helping.” Two back-to-back blows came then “Wicked.” He then had three star- When Broadway restarts, he hopes turning back. At 18 she made the decision to forgo ring roles in “Next to Normal,” “Catch college for the moment and move to Los Angeles. within weeks last March when his the hard work can continue of ensuring show was shuttered and then Tveit be- Me If You Can” and now “Moulin all people have equal access to theater More TV roles followed, notably on Fox’s “Red Rouge!” His fi lm work includes the Band Society” and some films, too, including the came one of the fi rst Broadway actors work, not just friends or those recom- adaptation of “Les Misérables” and mended. indie “The Long Dumb Road” and the Netflix ano- to speak publicly about contracting on TV he was in “Graceland,” “Brain- rexia drama “To The Bone.” But “Cherry” was the COVID-19. Dead” and “Grease Live!” game-changer. “I wanted to kind of say, ‘Look, I’m Also: A bright spot in a dark year was NEW YORK: Long before she became In the book, her role, Emily, is only seen through somebody that really takes care of my when “Moulin Rouge!” earned more Cherry’s eyes, which the fi lmmakers knew was a health and I’d like to think I’m in good a Tony Award-winning choreogra- than a dozen Tony nominations, which pher, Ann Reinking waited tables to problem for the movie. Bravo credits the screenwrit- shape.’ I was basically trying to say, the company celebrated with a Zoom ers Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg for ‘This can affect anyone. Please take toast. “I’d like to think that our show save up enough money to move to New helping turn this idealized projection into a fl awed, Levine Robinson this seriously,’” he said. would have done as well in any year. York City. She arrived with $500, no three-dimensional person. Then she took it to the next Tveit, 37, says he now suspects he So I’m very proud of the work that job lined up and no connections. level. was sicker than he thought at the time. we’ve done,” he said. When she died at 71 last year, Reink- “When Ciara came aboard, we felt there was a full Variety For several weeks, he slept 13 hours a Tveit was the only actor nominated ing left behind many fans, friends and character behind her performance, one we hadn’t day but thankfully, his lungs weren’t in the category of best leading actor in students as well as a legacy of a cool, guessed at,” Anthony Russo said. “She brought vul- affected. “It was like a terrible, terrible a musical for his role as Christian and muscular dance hybrid of jazz and bur- nerability and a fi erceness to her that was unpredict- sinus infection.” it marks his fi rst nomination. Unop- lesque. able.” NEW YORK: Besides working on her A few weeks later, he had a fl are-up. In her honor, friends and admirers newsmaking interview with Meghan posed, he’s poised to win, as long as Bravo dove headfi rst into the preparation, reading “In terms of lasting effects, I think I’ve 60% of Tony voters vote for him in the have established The Ann Reinking everything she could and dissecting the script while and Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey has been OK,” he said. “I know a lot of Scholarship, a $5,000 annual award been busy with the novels of Marilynne category. on the Calgary set of the FX series “A Teacher.” She people that really, really suffered. So “It’s the most wild thing that it just and mentorship for a young dancer even went to Cleveland a few weeks early to visit a Robinson. moving to New York City to help sup- Winfrey announced Tuesday that she I consider myself very lucky that I got worked out that way.