Quick Q&A: “POP” Stars

I talked with the 3 sensational performers – Emily Swallow, Cristen Paige, and Brian Charles Rooney – who play Andy Warhol’s most famous Factory girls in the new musical POP, now at Yale Rep.

EMILY SWALLOW
(Viva)

What did you know about Viva when you first heard about POP?

When I first heard about it I didn’t know anything about her. I knew about Warhol and Edie Sedgwick and the Factory in general. It was hard to find out about Viva because most of the films she made have been banned. One of the reasons that Warhol was attracted to her was that she was very intelligent and loved to talk – she could go on and on about philosophy or religion and art – and she was also willing to take her clothes off at a moment’s notice. Warhol was very interested in capturing intimacy and sex on film and realized that he could use her to get around the censors. For that reason her films aren’t widely available – they feature naked people and intercourse. From the film on her that I saw she had a detached quality not unlike Warhol’s; I read in one of the memoirs that after Warhol met her he started talking like her. As Randy (Harrison) said about Andy, that kind of mannerism isn’t theatrical; how she talked and carried herself had to be translated in a way that carries to the audience.

What are the most vivid things you took away about her from the research?

Even in the middle of all of it, she seemed to understand the game that they all were playing and the hierarchy; she knew she would have to bring something unique to the table if she wanted to stay first and foremost in Andy’s mind. And she did – for a while they were thick as thieves – but ultimately, like the other people who were close to him for a time, she realized that she was not going to get out of it what she wanted. They had a falling out, over money, and she went her own way. From what I’d read, she seems incredibly strong: she had an impermeability that made it seem that she could not be hurt. But of course she must have been very hurt to explode at him as she did.

Did you form a strong opinion about Andy Warhol during the process?

I think he’s brilliant; I had no idea of the reach of his influence. It was surprising to learn how much he planted the seed for the celebrity culture we have today. All these people grasping for their 15 minutes of fame and no time to question why they even want that or if that person is even worth the time. That last song that Maggie-Kate (Coleman, bookwriter/lyricist) and Anna (K. Jacobs, composer) wrote for the show is really beautiful; it doesn’t tie everything up in a neat and tidy way. We all surround Andy and sing this heartfelt emotional song and we think we’re going to finally get him out of our heads but we don’t. We’re still stuck with the questions and the needs. I particularly feel that – that search for something meaningful and then when you find it you have to renew the effort. It never goes away.

I can’t say I have a strong opinion about Warhol as a person. I mean, I don’t think he maliciously used and discarded people. He viewed the world through a different lens and everything was art to him. When his interests would evolve he didn’t see it as the break-up of a business or a friendship. I think. It’s hard to know, but maybe that’s part of why he continues to be fascinating.

CRISTEN PAIGE
(Edie Sedgwick)

You find out you’re playing Edie Sedgwick. What goes through your mind?

I was confused! I knew she was a model and a real drug addict so when my agents were telling me about it I had to look twice. I started doing some research and read the script. The role requires a lot more than just looking and sounding like Edie Sedgwick. She’s the focus, but there’s also some Jackson Pollack, Shirley Temple…

What’s your favorite part of the show to play?

There are so many goodies in this. I love Denis Jones’ choreography for “Big Gun”. I love the progression I have as Edie as this poor little rich girl into Shirley Temple and the song “Paper Doll” – it’s such beautiful writing. I get to be silly but then have this emotional journey in that song. This is such a great opportunity for me because it’s pretty range-y; I get to sing opera-style and then the pop stuff.

How would you characterize Edie?

She’s someone who is desperately looking for love. It seems to me that Andy took a special interest in her. She came from everything he wanted – money, privilege, beauty. Especially after putting on the costumes and the wigs, you could see how she and Andy looked like the twins they were mistaken for. They were trying to look like each other. I feel very close to Randy on stage and his Andy, at least for the first half. But by the time there’s the song “15 Minutes” Edie is delusional. She’s asking Andy for money for the first time and talking about going to Hollywood. Maybe somebody told her that she should but she didn’t have the work ethic to make that happen and nobody really followed through. I watched her movie “Ciao Manhattan”, just as information for me, to get me through the desperate climax Edie has in the show that is definitely fueled by her drug abuse.

Did you come to a decision about who Andy Warhol was in doing this show?

Yeah and it hit me like a ton of bricks. We all have talked about it while doing this show. Even Mark (Brokaw, the director) knew someone in his lifetime who had cut him out. For me it was someone very recent who sort of dismissed me in very much the way that Andy did time and time again with the people in his circle. I can step back and see that Andy was living his art and that that worked for him – he really did change the world and aren’t we fortunate for it – but to be the subject of his art and to be dismissed in that manner is just devastating. And relateable – I think a lot of people have had a relationship like that in some form. He treated his stars like Picasso treated his blue period or his Cubism – “okay I’m done with that”. But these are human beings and not paint colors. For me that’s where I feel most connected to this story, telling him I’m not nothing, I have my own potential, I can make my own art.

BRIAN CHARLES ROONEY
(Candy Darling)

Why do you think that Candy Darling, rather than one of the other characters, has the special role in the show of also being a narrator?

That relationship between Candy and Andy was different than the others in that she wasn’t destroyed by him in the way that the other people were, if they were. I don’t know if Andy was the cipher or if the people around him were. Candy was in magazines and had her own success. Her death was from the abuse of hormones.

Did you hesitate about playing another drag role?

When I was first asked to be a part of POP in the NYU workshop, the casting lady there said “I have a role for you but I don’t want you to feel like you’re being typecast”. I don’t, but what’s funny is that before I did Threepenny Opera on Broadway all I was ever called in for were male ingenue roles. There might be some casting directors who typecast me, but I haven’t been in a situation where I couldn’t be seen for something that I really wanted to be seen for. Besides, the drag roles I’ve played have all been interesting and funny people.

But yet markedly different, even in physicality. How is Candy different on your body than, say, Lucy Brown in Threepenny?

Lucy was more brazenly sexual so it was more from the groin. She was more dirty and willing to forgo acting like a lady whereas Candy is more about being perceived as beautiful and lady-like. She’s centered in the feet and chest which is srange but both are augmented in the show so that’s probably part of it. In rehearsals when I would go to a groin-based expression of her it felt wrong to me, I thought “no, that’s me going into my bag of tricks” before I found her.

What’s been the most exciting thing about being a part of POP?

To be perfectly frank when we did the first reading I was excited first that it wasn’t like anything I’d seen and also that it was actually produceable. We don’t, but you could do it with just some lights and some chairs. I’ve talked with a couple of people in the cast about this – I wonder if this is one of those times where we are living history. This is a group of really brilliant people: sensitive actors and writers who can deliver and a director who gave us so much freedom while always being clear. All around – the design, the catchy music: it’s new and smart and special with the state of theatre right now.

How would you say that POP relates to our culture right now?

I’ve learned a lot on the show and it’s opened my eyes to how easy it is to get a reaction and to manipulate people with art. Pop culture now is a hugely exaggerated version of what Andy Warhol did. It’s telling about our country and how we’ve been trained not to think. I go to see shows and half the time they stink because they’re based on a movie that wasn’t that great to begin with, yet they run for years and win Tonys. It’s equal to the “celebrity for no reason” phenomenon we have now, with people like Jon and Kate. I don’t watch that stuff, but I can’t escape knowing who they are. I wish there was a way to start a movement that says “you know what it is cool? Real talent.” It’s not lip-synching on an awards show.