Interview: 'I Still Don't Know What The Hell I'm Doing': Actor Robert Sean Leonard on Acting Origins, Auditions and Performing in INTERVIEW at London's Riverside Studios

Interview, a new play adapted for the stage [based on the screenplay by Theodor Holman and the film by Theo Van Gogh] and directed by Teunkie Van Der Sluijs, arrives at London's Riverside Studios later this month. The two-hander stars Paten Hughes as Katya, an influencer who has become a movie star, and Robert Sean Leonard as Pierre Peters, a political journalist past his prime in his career.

Recently, we had the chance to speak with Leonard about taking on the role of Pierre Peters. We discussed how he first got started in the world of theatre, what it’s like to perform in a new piece of theatre versus a revival of a classic work and what he thinks audiences will be talking about on the way home after the show.

So starting with a bit of a general question, how did you first get started in theatre?

It's a long story, but inadvertently is the adverb! There was a theatre group in my town where I grew up. My mother was an amateur artist, and she would paint their sandwich board signs that they put outside the theatre the high school - The Music Man, Fiddler, all that stuff. So I was an eight year old boy, and I would go in the basement with her all summer long and paint those signs. The theatre group was called New Players and the youngest person was fifteen, so whenever they needed a kid, that was me, because I was around. I had no interest in acting! 

I liked the crew a lot because they were cool and I wanted to impress them. The actors were fine, but we thought they were silly. I mostly I hung and put the gels in the lights and hung out with the set, because I was in the basement with my mom where they did all that stuff. The actors, they did vocal warm ups and I thought they were silly. But, when you're a kid, you do what you're told. So I would go on stage and play these little roles and things, and that led to playing the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver!. 

But someone saw me do it, and they asked if I wanted to go to New York to audition for a play. And my parents said I should! His name was Marty Winkler, and to this day, I don't know what he was thinking!

I walked into this audition and I said, “I'm not an actor.” And the director said his name was Tony Giordano. And I said, “I don't have an agent. My friend Marty brought me into audition for you guys,” because in those days, if you went to a movie audition there were 200 kids, but not many twelve-year-olds wanted to do off-Broadway plays. You don't get any money and you miss school, but there's no benefit. So I went in and read the scene, I got the part, and then suddenly I was in a play with this girl named Cynthia Nixon - who was then a little bit of a hot tomato! - and I've been working ever since. I still don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I still think it's incredibly strange. I've learned how to do certain things, but I basically fell on my face in the mud pile of my career, and I still don't know how or why!

And what made you want to be a part of Interview? Had you been familiar with the original film and the remake? 

Nope, I just read it! I thought it was incredibly well written. Teunkie, our director and adapter, has an incredibly good ear for language, for speech, for the way people talk. He reminds me of early David Mamet. The rhythms in it are natural, but also theatrical and satisfying, but yet they're also completely natural, like Mamet does. The dynamics of these two people excited me. It has the flavour of a thriller. I read it and it felt like I read it in eight minutes!

It's incredibly fun to be with these two people. I was so excited. I'm happy to audition, like all the rest of the world, and they just offered me the part - I still don't know why. I couldn't believe my luck! I love London. I've had two of my favourite theatrical experiences here. I love being here. What's not to like? I read it once and called him and said, “I want to do this. Let’s do it.” So here I am!

And can you tell us a bit about your character, Pierre Peters?

Pierre Peters was a war correspondent in his younger days. Then he became sort of a political analyst for a fictional paper, I guess you could say the New York Times. So he's a senior political international commentator writing - I imagine - for the Op Ed page and things like that. He's also in the press room in DC a lot. So he's a veteran political reporter who knows what it's like to be in a war zone. But his career has gone belly up a bit for several reasons, and he's in trouble - something happened with his daughter that was unfortunate. He's a sad guy. I don't think he feels he has anything left. And his paper because they don't want to fire him, but they want to be kind, so they start giving him these assignments. 

He gets this assignment to go to Brooklyn and interview this social media influencer who's become an actress, who's taking the country by storm. He's writing a cover piece on her for the Sunday magazine, and hates every second of it and has no idea who she is or what she does, and walks in not really respecting her and not prepared for an interview, because he underestimates her, and also because he's tired and doesn't care about what he's doing. And she smells that instantly. And the play’s about their relationship.

I think it's a play about politics. It's a play about power. It's play about sex. It's play about respecting or not respecting people, judging people, not judging people. And it's a play about a woman who seems to be, yet again, defined by an older man, edited and photoshopped and presented to the world in a way someone else wants her to be seen, and you realise at the most exciting possible moment that she's been 45 steps ahead the entire play, and it's like fireworks.

And what is it like to be working on a new play versus revivals of things you've done, like Long Day's Journey Into Night or Betrayal?

It's very different, because you have lines that are questionable. You can say, “Oh, I feel like he's not here yet. I don't think he'd say this ‘til four lines in,” and Teunkie, our director, will occasionally say, “You know what? You're right. Let's hold this line ‘til then.” And then when he does that, you're like, “Well, wait a minute. What?” I'm used to working with O’Neill - let alone Shakespeare! - Shaw, Brian. So once you're like, “Oh, this is changeable,” then I'm now, I don't know what to believe. That's unique, but it's it's fun too, because it's a little bit scary!

I know Steve Buscemi played this role in a movie. I've never seen it. I probably will see it one day after I do this. I want to watch it now, but because he's so good, I'll just imitate him! It's very different when you've got an unmovable structure by Harold Pinter. For this one, it is a major difference when that component of the machinery is changeable, questionable, adjustable. It is a different kind of room. Not a bad one, but it is different.

What is it like returning to the UK for this show?

It's nice! I have three girls and my wife... so it's harder than I thought it would be. I feel lost. I feel alone. I don't mean to be playing a violin - not in a very sad way, just in a simple way. It's weird to be away from them. It's been a long time. But then again, we mostly just rehearse and sleep, so London has not really played too big a part in this. It's been a rehearsal room, my bed and missing my girls and my wife.

I like the Underground! So the answer is, I don't know. I don't know that I've experienced London yet, so I look forward to it. It's a city I really love. I find very there's a romance here that I probably project onto it from my angle of theatre life of all my earlier years of the RSC and Derek Jacobi, so it feels special being here, and it'll feel more special as I get more comfortable.

And finally, how would you describe Interview in one word?

One word to describe this play is “thrilling.” Obviously not every place, thrilling every minute, but when you see what Paten does at the end of this play . . . That's what you're going to take on the Jubilee line with you!

Interview runs from 23 August - 27 September at Riverside Studios.