Tony Nominee Stephen Kunken: “Your career is a marathon”

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If you got a chance to see the Broadway show, Enron you’ll know that Stephen Kunken was well deserved in getting a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Andy Fastow.

I say “got a chance” because the day Stephen found out he was nominated he was also told that the show would be closing later that week.

If that were me, I’d want to jump out a window but Stephen is taking it all in stride.

And why shouldn’t he?  The critics universally praised his work, he and his wife just adopted a baby and he’s such a fantastic actor, the phone is probably already ringing in his agents office.

I got a chance to talk to him while he was sitting in his car about to take a well deserved break.

Congratulations on your nomination.

Thank you so much.

How did you find out about it?

I was watching, because I knew it was important to find out about the longevity of our show – Enron. With how expensive the show was, if it didn’t get nominated, I knew it would probably be a rough road for us. I was curious and watching for a couple of minutes. Then, they let it go and I watched it online. I sort of saw it all happening in rapid succession. They did the 5 big categories first on TV and then they ended it. So I thought that I had missed my category. I was like, “Damn, I can’t believe it!” But then they actually went back to it.

What’s that feeling like, to be one of the top five actors nominated?

It’s crazy. I don’t know that it’s sunk in yet. I was just talking to my wife about it. It’s such an incredible honor and its a thing that you always dream about as an actor, I think. Especially as a New York theatre actor who grew up on the Tony’s and grew up coming to see Broadway shows. I went to Julliard in the city, which is an institution for theatre.

I remember my first Broadway show, right before I went on, saying “Wow, as soon as the first word comes out of my mouth, I’m going to have done a Broadway show.” It was an incredible, huge threshold to walk across. It hasn’t even really sunk in yet to be considered a part of the community in a performance that was noteworthy in this season of incredible actors and performances. It’s kind of mind-boggling. It’s thrilling. It’s such a huge honor. I know these are all the things that everyone always says, but it’s so true. You actually really do feel awed by the attention and awed by people actually caring. There’s nothing that I just said that’s new or exciting, but it’s totally true. It puts all of that work into perspective for a moment. It’s a milestone in your career that you can look back and you can say, ‘Oh, my God, I actually put together a little body of work.’ It’s quite cool.

Is it true that now you can get better seats in a restaurant?

I don’t know. If I won the award, I could walk in with the statue and I still think I would lose instantly to anyone who’s been on a TV show or in a film. Maybe at Angus McIndoe across the street they might say “Hey!” but I think other than that, that’s the beauty of the theatre that unless you saw it, you don’t really know it.

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True Blood’s Carrie Preston on Broadway, her career and how she got the role of “Arlene”

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Even if you haven’t watched True Blood, you’ve seen Carrie Preston before.

Carrie has the remarkable ability to transform herself – her looks and mannerisms – in each role she does. She’s been in Duplicity and My Best Friends Wedding with Julia Roberts. Doubt, Vicky Christina Barcelona and even an episode of Sex and the City that I totally remem

ber her in. She even played Ben Linus’ (her husband, the great Michael Emerson) mother on an episode of Lost! I could go on but my fingers will get tired from all the typing.

She’s currently filming season 3 of True Blood and she took some time out to talk to me about Broadway, how she prepares for a role and yes, True Blood.

So, you’re from Georgia and you got started doing plays as a kid?
Yeah, I’m one of those, like I like to say I’m a “lifer.”  I’m in it for life.  My brothers also an actor, and we started doing plays in Macon, Georgia community theater when we were pretty young.  My brother, John, his name’s John Preston, he got the first play.  He’s older than me by two years, so I watched him, and I was like, “I want to do what John’s doing.”  And then before we knew it, we were completely ensconced in doing plays growing up.

And then I even started my own street theater company when I was in the 7^th grade with all the neighborhood kids, and I would charge 25 cents.  We would make up skits and sing songs and do it in the front yard.  I mean, that was pretty much… it was very clear that that was what I wanted to do with my life.  I just didn’t know that you could make a living at it.

Was there any one show or one specific moment that you were like, this is it?
I definitely got bitten by the bug, immediately, you know, when I was in the 4^th grade. Just doing the school, the community theater production of some play, it was called, The Lion Who Wouldn’t.  You know how they write those plays for kids and stuff?

The director who was running the community theater, he pulled my mom aside and he said, “Your child’s an actor”, and my mom said, “Oh thank you, she’s having a good time.”  And he said, “No, no, no, no. You’re not hearing me.  Your children are actors.  That’s what they are.”  So he encouraged us at a young age and sort of brought it up to my parents in a way that they had to kind of sit up and listen.  And thankfully my parents were very supportive and never tried to talk us into becoming accountants or anything like that.

Yeah, my mom said that to me more than once.  And I said, mom I can’t even count.
Exactly!  There’s no back up here.  This is it.  This is what we’re doing.

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