Exclusive: Tony Award Winner Leslie Odom Jr. On Hamilton & Its Disney+ Release
Coming out on July 3 on Disney+ is Hamilton, the filmed version of the original Broadway production.
Directecd by Thomas Kail, “Hamilton,” is the 11-time-Tony Award®-, GRAMMY Award®-, Olivier Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning stage musical produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeffrey Seller and Kail.
Filmed at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in June of 2016, “Hamilton” features Tony Award® winners Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton; Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson; Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr; Tony Award nominees Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jonathan Groff as King George; Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton; and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds; Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison; and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton.
The cast also includes Carleigh Bettiol, Ariana DeBose, Hope Easterbrook, Sydney James Harcourt, Sasha Hutchings, Thayne Jasperson, Elizabeth Judd, Jon Rua, Austin Smith, Seth Stewart and Ephraim Sykes.
For Odom Jr., who won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Aaron Burr, it was the role of a lifetime. Prior to that, he had appeared in other stage productions and movies, such as Leap of Faith, the NBC series Smash, and Red Tails with David Oyelowo and Terrence Howard. An accomplished singer, he’s been on the road performing songs from his albums and will soon appear in Regina King’s One Night in Miami.
BlackFilmandTV.com spoke exclusively with Odom Jr. on Hamilton being shown on Disney Plus and his favorite song.
When did you get the call that it was going to finally be released on Disney Plus?
Leslie Odom Jr.: I found out like everybody else. I think it was a decision that was made wisely but very quickly. The team, Lin and Tommy and Disney responding to the material shifting landscape that we find ourselves in; trying to respond and trying to show up. You try to meet the moment with art, which is what we do best. If you're looking to make real change, probably the best way is always going to be using your app for you or using your pen. For me, it’s going to be these artistic endeavors that I'm a part of. So for Disney and Lin, it’s about what can I do, what can I offer in this moment? We have this thing that we can release a year and a half from now but is there does it mean more? Will it mean more to people right now? Will more people see it right now? Could it have more of an effect right now? It’s just trying to try to rise to the occasion in the moment.
What was your feeling when you finally saw yourself in the show?
Leslie Odom Jr.: it was a glorious preservation. There was so much work for this that went into this. It started with Lin, sitting alone in a room and writing this thing for six years. And Tommy asking questions about it, asking him to dig a little deeper and go a bit farther. After that those of us hopped on board. There were people are part of it longer than I and before we had a Broadway audience. I am intimately acquainted with the work that went into it and so I'm just happy that it's been covered, preserved so respectfully and so beautifully.
I have no idea what it will mean in the national conversation in America today. I know it meant meant quite a bit the first time. I don't think we could take it for granted that it will mean that same thing. I don't take that for granted. I hope that it does. To be honest, before we opened, I didn't know the way people would respond to it. I didn't take any of that. I had no idea. We just made something that we loved, that we believed in. America championed it and the audience that found it were the other half of the conversation. They made it relevant and important and special.
Of the songs that you sang, which one was your favorite?
Leslie Odom Jr.: "Wait for it." I think that song is just a classic, new American standard in my book. "Dear Theodosia” obviously. I have an embarrassment of riches in that show. Lin gave birth to some really memorable tunes.
It was a special thing when most of the cast appeared on the John Krasinski Some Good News video. Was that the first time all of you had been together?
Leslie Odom Jr.: That was the first reunion. That is was why it was so special. John called Lin and Lin called all of us and we put that together. It was for the young lady but also for the millions of people who were checking in with John who wanted to share some good news. Hamilton meant a lot to John and his family personally and he wanted to include us on that very large and necessary platform that he built. That was the first first time we'd ever had a reunion.
What can you say about working with this cast?
Leslie Odom Jr.: All Stars. I grew up a casual fan of sports, but I certainly was not a particularly gifted athlete. It wasn’t until I got into the into theater and really the performing arts that I found the thing that I was uniquely gifted at.
As an athlete, I never knew what it was like to be a part of a championship team until I was invited to be a part of the cast of Hamilton. it is an all star team. I imagine it's like being on the Golden State Warriors or Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. It is a very special thing where you look to your left and to your right and you feel lucky and honored to be in the number.
You have Regina King’s One Night in Miami coming up. What’s the word on that?
Leslie Odom Jr.: We still have two scenes to shoot. We were scheduled to shoot the week that everything shut down. So One Night in Miami is on little pause, but they're editing the footage that they have. We just have a couple of crucial things that we need to shoot in LA. As soon as they get to go ahead that the industry is back open, which had which just happened. we’re about four weeks out from finishing this movie. I'm really excited to have that film out in the world because I think the conversations that Kemp Powers has these guys having in that motel room is relevant and vital.