This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:07] Rory O'Malley: Hey guys, Rory O'Malley, living the dream. How's everyone doing? Um, I have a great guest this week, Alex Wyse. He is another Cleveland kid, uh, just like me. Um, I've had three guests from Ohio. I mean, obviously I'm talking to friends, so I guess that makes sense, but uh, it's definitely a running theme so far. Um, he's awesome. He's just a really, really good guy, and he has done a lot of cool stuff. Most recently, Spring Awakening, the Deaf West production of Spring Awakening, he was in that and was so good. That whole production was stunning. Like unbelievable. And uh, he was in Lysistrata Jones, which was also a really good show that did not last long enough for sure on Broadway. But he's done Wicked, he was a Bach on tour, he uh also was in a bunch of TV shows recently on Masters of Sex, Bored to Death.

He's had a really uh cool career. Um, he's just getting started in a lot of ways, but um, he's a good guy. We talk a lot about the audition process and all the feelings that come with it. And uh, yeah, yeah, I hope everyone had a uh good week. I had my mother in town for her 70th birthday, and I got to do something really cool after my uh Broadway Cares speech. You know how every Broadway show collects money for Broadway Cares? Twice a year, the Broadway community comes together to raise money for a wonderful organization called Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. Right, so we all have our spiel. Well, I got to do it this past Wednesday at Hamilton, and afterwards I got to wish my mom a happy birthday because it was her 70th birthday that night and had everyone applaud for her, which was awesome.

Um, such a cool thing to get to give to her and to have for myself to say thank you for all she's done to help me get on that stage, make my dream come true. She's a single mom. She's uh worked very, very hard all of her life and has always supported me so much. So I love her, and it's so great to have uh chance to share what I'm experiencing with her. Uh, so yeah, it was a it was a good week. It was really, really great. Um, but yeah, this is my interview with Alex. He's awesome and enjoy.

[2:50] Alex Wyse: Um, what if you weren't wearing those headphones the whole time and actually you were just like listening to music and not listening to people?

[2:58] Rory O'Malley: Like I'm sorry. I'm in the middle, I'm in the middle of my podcast.

[3:01] Alex Wyse: I mean this.

[3:02] Rory O'Malley: And then Spring Awakening and then what?

[3:04] Alex Wyse: And then I died inside.

[3:06] Rory O'Malley: No, I'm just listening to it because I have never heard it in the room before.

[3:09] Alex Wyse: Okay.

[3:10] Rory O'Malley: It feels really good.

[3:12] Alex Wyse: Yeah, you're getting the hum of the refrigerator.

[3:14] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, okay, but that'll keep us like okay, you know, on pitch.

[3:18] Alex Wyse: Totally, that'll be like our neutral.

[3:21] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, it's like when they play.

[3:23] Alex Wyse: I heard about this, like their concerts or something, or I'm just totally speaking out with school about something I don't know anything about, but they play some kind of like undertone of what the melody is.

[3:33] Rory O'Malley: Maybe for like those.

[3:34] Alex Wyse: I heard it about like the live NBC broadcast of musicals.

[3:37] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, this could be a total lie, but they play some kind of like low frequency of the melody or something, so you stay on.

[3:46] Alex Wyse: Um, I mean, I'm not like saying that like people on NBC broadcast can't like stand pitch.

[3:51] Rory O'Malley: No, no, but there's some kind of thing that I think they're able to do.

[3:56] Alex Wyse: I'm not saying they do it, but where they play some kind of like low frequency um version of like the music to like keep people on top of it.

[4:05] Rory O'Malley: Really?

[4:05] Alex Wyse: I don't know if that's real or not.

[4:08] Rory O'Malley: You just came up with it?

[4:09] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I think I made it up for the sake of the podcast.

[4:11] Rory O'Malley: No, I know no.

[4:13] Alex Wyse: It is a real thing.

[4:14] Rory O'Malley: I I've heard about that I don't know, uh I have no idea.

[4:17] Alex Wyse: So great.

[4:18] Rory O'Malley: So we're gonna fact check that.

[4:20] Alex Wyse: This is a political season, and I'm gonna get on my fact checkers to see everything you say is gonna be fact checked.

[4:28] Rory O'Malley: That's fine on HillaryClinton.com.

[4:30] Alex Wyse: Sure.

[4:31] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[4:31] Alex Wyse: And if you just visit my website.

[4:34] Rory O'Malley: Uh, the debate was last night, the second debate, so uh, so needless to say, Rory and I are both going through it.

[4:43] Alex Wyse: Yes, we are.

[4:45] Rory O'Malley: But hey, let's not talk about politics. Let's talk about being an actor, something so much more relaxing.

[4:52] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it really is.

[4:53] Rory O'Malley: And uh stressful.

[4:55] Alex Wyse: It's not stressful, it's very even keeled.

[4:57] Rory O'Malley: I have had no ups and downs.

[4:59] Alex Wyse: Oh, this is gonna be a real quick talk.

[5:02] Rory O'Malley: Interview over.

[5:03] Alex Wyse: Done.

[5:04] Rory O'Malley: And scene.

[5:05] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it's been a really uh low key time in my life.

[5:09] Rory O'Malley: So we have a we have similar stories. I haven't known you for very long, but I feel like I really know you because we're both from Cleveland.

[5:19] Alex Wyse: You're East Sider, I'm West Sider, but so it's very like sharks and jets.

[5:23] Rory O'Malley: Yes.

[5:24] Alex Wyse: People who aren't from Cleveland have no idea what that means, but people from Cleveland are like, oh, so they're like from different cities.

[5:31] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, it's different cities.

[5:33] Alex Wyse: So different.

[5:34] Rory O'Malley: It's even more divided than what New York feels like between East Side and West Side.

[5:37] Alex Wyse: Oh, for sure.

[5:38] Rory O'Malley: And those feel like they can feel like two different camps sometimes, especially Upper West and Upper East, I think.

[5:43] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[5:43] Rory O'Malley: Um, but this is really but also anytime I meet somebody from Cleveland, outside of Cleveland in New York, Los Angeles, or anywhere, they're always from the East Side.

[5:53] Alex Wyse: Really?

[5:53] Rory O'Malley: Yes.

[5:54] Alex Wyse: You meet a lot of Westsiders.

[5:56] Rory O'Malley: You know, I guess I don't.

[5:58] Alex Wyse: No.

[5:59] Rory O'Malley: All the Eastsiders are the ones who like move to New York and what does that say though about the East Side?

[6:04] Alex Wyse: Everyone wanted to get out.

[6:06] Rory O'Malley: I don't know.

[6:07] Alex Wyse: Or maybe it's like that we I don't know, maybe there was more theater and it inspired people to get out.

[6:12] Rory O'Malley: If you're um, well, we have some theater.

[6:15] Alex Wyse: We have on the west side.

[6:16] Rory O'Malley: Alright, we'll look at it.

[6:18] Alex Wyse: Yeah, no, right away.

[6:19] Rory O'Malley: Right away.

[6:20] Alex Wyse: I'm already offended by this East Sider.

[6:22] Rory O'Malley: Good.

[6:23] Alex Wyse: A little bit more.

[6:24] Rory O'Malley: When I meet people from Cleveland, it's like, well, where are you from? Eastsider West Oh, the West Side.

[6:27] Alex Wyse: Okay.

[6:28] Rory O'Malley: Okay.

[6:28] Alex Wyse: Moving along.

[6:29] Rory O'Malley: Oh great.

[6:30] Alex Wyse: Great.

[6:30] Rory O'Malley: It was really a pleasure to meet you.

[6:31] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[6:32] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[6:33] Alex Wyse: No, and I mean, we wouldn't go to things if they were on the east side because we're like, oh.

[6:37] Rory O'Malley: Serious?

[6:38] Alex Wyse: It's all the way on the east side.

[6:40] Rory O'Malley: That's at least 20 to 30 minutes of a drive.

[6:43] Alex Wyse: Well, for me, it felt like when I started driving when I was 16, and it felt like, oh, it's on the west side.

[6:48] Rory O'Malley: Yes, an adventure.

[6:50] Alex Wyse: You know, so there's a sense of adventure, but yeah.

[6:52] Rory O'Malley: I mean, and and they're very but I guess you have like I have more adventure in my heart, you've more hatred in your heart.

[6:56] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[6:57] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, exactly.

[7:00] Alex Wyse: It's true, that's what's kept me on the west side.

[7:02] Rory O'Malley: Totally.

[7:03] Alex Wyse: Um but uh you grew up in Beachwood.

[7:07] Rory O'Malley: That's right.

[7:08] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[7:08] Rory O'Malley: Alright.

[7:08] Alex Wyse: And I was on I was in uh West Park at Bay Village.

[7:13] Rory O'Malley: That's like actually Cleveland.

[7:15] Alex Wyse: Beachwood's uh suburb, like ten, twenty minutes outside.

[7:18] Rory O'Malley: Is that true?

[7:19] Alex Wyse: I didn't know that.

[7:20] Rory O'Malley: What?

[7:20] Alex Wyse: That West Park.

[7:22] Rory O'Malley: That West Park is actually considered Cleveland proper.

[7:24] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[7:24] Rory O'Malley: Oh I didn't I didn't realize that.

[7:26] Alex Wyse: Okay.

[7:27] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, yeah.

[7:27] Alex Wyse: I'm from a suburb of Cleveland.

[7:29] Rory O'Malley: It was um very uh suburban.

[7:32] Alex Wyse: Yeah and uh it was uh it was a good place to grow up though.

[7:35] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[7:35] Alex Wyse: And I went to kind of a small high school with a small arts program.

[7:40] Rory O'Malley: But the reason I first heard your name is because of my drama teacher in high school, Sheila Hayman.

[7:46] Alex Wyse: Oh yeah, Sheila!

[7:48] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[7:48] Alex Wyse: Oh my gosh.

[7:49] Rory O'Malley: Just loves you and would talk about you.

[7:52] Alex Wyse: That's right.

[7:52] Rory O'Malley: And that's I forgot that she taught there.

[7:54] Alex Wyse: Yeah, so she was a wonderful drama teacher.

[7:57] Rory O'Malley: She no longer teaches there, but we're still in touch on Facebook and stuff and she was so good to me and gave me great opportunities.

[8:03] Alex Wyse: And but she would talk about you, and that's where my awareness of you first happened.

[8:08] Rory O'Malley: That's so crazy.

[8:09] Alex Wyse: Yeah, she was our improv teacher.

[8:12] Rory O'Malley: Oh great.

[8:13] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I took uh summer studio courses at Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, and I took like an intensive course with her on improv.

[8:23] Rory O'Malley: She taught me how to yes and it was like the most fun thing ever, and we started like an improv troupe.

[8:29] Alex Wyse: My buddies in high school, so yeah, she's great.

[8:32] Rory O'Malley: That's awesome.

[8:32] Alex Wyse: Yeah, yeah, she really is great.

[8:35] Rory O'Malley: So then you graduated.

[8:35] Alex Wyse: I graduated.

[8:39] Rory O'Malley: And you wanted to go into acting.

[8:42] Alex Wyse: Yeah, uh there's I think there was never any doubt that I was gonna be in theater.

[8:47] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[8:48] Alex Wyse: I was always doing other things in the arts too. When I was a kid, I was really into painting and drawing, and for a while I thought, okay, maybe I can be a set designer.

[8:56] Rory O'Malley: I think I kept coming up with these um alternate um careers though, because everybody I I kept getting uh reinforced the message of like, well, you gotta have your fallback.

[8:56] Alex Wyse: Right.

[8:56] Rory O'Malley: You gotta have your fallback.

[9:10] Alex Wyse: Right.

[9:10] Rory O'Malley: So I uh that's a very Midwest thing.

[9:13] Alex Wyse: It is a very it's every parent or everyone wants to tell you you have to have a fallback.

[9:18] Rory O'Malley: And I understand now that I think it was people trying to look out for me, but I think it uh felt more destructive than productive in its time because I think I really started to believe, I think for a long time I believed, oh okay, um I won't make it.

[9:34] Alex Wyse: I understand that's how it works, and I'm not gonna make it, and I just have to be okay with that.

[9:39] Rory O'Malley: So I think I I went through high school um thinking, well, I probably won't get into drama school because no one people don't make it.

[9:47] Alex Wyse: I'm not gonna make it, why would I make it?

[9:49] Rory O'Malley: And then I did get into theater school.

[9:51] Alex Wyse: I went to Boston University for um for acting and theater arts, which was um a big experience.

[9:58] Rory O'Malley: But I remember then out of Boston University, I thought, well, I probably won't get an agent and I'm probably not gonna make it.

[10:03] Alex Wyse: Um, I just had no self-esteem.

[10:05] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[10:06] Alex Wyse: I believed in myself so little, and um a lot of that was my own undoing.

[10:06] Rory O'Malley: A lot of that was just um a lot of messages that I got growing up of like have your fallback and um people thinking I was, you know, the weird kid uh for you know being the theater one.

[10:24] Alex Wyse: Um, I just I think I was just shocked when I got to New York and I and I got to work.

[10:30] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[10:30] Alex Wyse: I think it was a shocking experience.

[10:32] Rory O'Malley: Because you were so prepared to fail.

[10:36] Alex Wyse: Yes.

[10:36] Rory O'Malley: I actually wrote I wrote a college essay.

[10:39] Alex Wyse: I applied when I When you were applying.

[10:41] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, when I was applying to uh Northwestern, and I think I wrote an entire essay about preparing to be homeless.

[10:48] Alex Wyse: What?

[10:48] Rory O'Malley: I know.

[10:49] Alex Wyse: I was like really really affected by this.

[10:52] Rory O'Malley: I was I felt extremely low.

[10:54] Alex Wyse: Oh my gosh, I want to read this essay.

[10:59] Rory O'Malley: Because you were gonna be an actor.

[11:01] Alex Wyse: Yeah, yeah.

[11:01] Rory O'Malley: And I I I remember I was um oh the only part of it I remember, and it was all kind of like tinged with comedy, you know, to like self-effacing as best I could.

[11:12] Alex Wyse: Needless to say, I did not get into Northwestern, by the way.

[11:15] Rory O'Malley: Oh, and I neither.

[11:16] Alex Wyse: Yeah, good.

[11:16] Rory O'Malley: There we go.

[11:17] Alex Wyse: We have so much.

[11:17] Rory O'Malley: We don't need them.

[11:18] Alex Wyse: We don't need them.

[11:20] Rory O'Malley: Um, I I wrote the only the only part I remember is um uh I I'm gonna probably something like I'm gonna eat food out of shoes, and not even nice shoes, but Keds.

[11:36] Alex Wyse: That's the only part of it I remember.

[11:38] Rory O'Malley: So I think I was always just you know, uh blossomelogy.

[11:43] Alex Wyse: I remember the family joke with me.

[11:46] Rory O'Malley: My family I feel was very supportive.

[11:48] Alex Wyse: My mom, a single uh mother who was in the accounting business for 41 years until she retired, same company.

[11:57] Rory O'Malley: It was very foreign to her to have a child who wanted to be an actor.

[12:02] Alex Wyse: So I think she was as supportive as she could be.

[12:04] Rory O'Malley: But she used to joke always like, oh, I'm raising I'm sending him to college to become a bartender to become a waiter.

[12:11] Alex Wyse: But I I had that same joke, you know.

[12:14] Rory O'Malley: Like to me, I was like, yeah, of course.

[12:16] Alex Wyse: I don't think that I was as sure that it wasn't going to work out.

[12:21] Rory O'Malley: I think I was I was so dark, you know, I was so depressed.

[12:25] Alex Wyse: No, I mean I'm not saying I didn't go there.

[12:26] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[12:27] Alex Wyse: You know, that I wasn't like unsure I was sure of myself, but I definitely I think it's it it's funny because I always look back at the people who told me it was gonna be really, really hard, and I'm so appreciative of interesting and the people who were like, you are going to be amazing, you're gonna get it get, you know, whatever you want when you get to New York, you know, who really didn't who had never maybe ever been to New York or even seen a Broadway show or saying things like that.

[12:55] Rory O'Malley: I look at uh the people who were as honest as they could be about how difficult it was, probably from experience of their own, and was appreciative when it was so hard, and I realized that it wasn't just me, this was just the experience of being an actor and trying to make it in the city.

[13:16] Alex Wyse: You know what I'm saying?

[13:17] Rory O'Malley: I do, yeah.

[13:18] Alex Wyse: But there's something um more optimistic about your approach and something a little more Jewish about my approach.

[13:24] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[13:24] Alex Wyse: I think like I think I was always bracing myself for the worst.

[13:27] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[13:28] Alex Wyse: And that's just maybe in my DNA.

[13:30] Rory O'Malley: Well, I'm I guess my Irish Catholic upbringing just doesn't rival your Jewish upbringing in that, and I've I've tried, you know, I've tried to be neurotic about things.

[13:43] Alex Wyse: You seem appropriately neurotic.

[13:44] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, yeah, appropriately um neurotic and anxious about things. But did you you do have support from your family?

[13:53] Alex Wyse: Absolutely. That's one thing I've always been um lucky about is I have a great family, yeah, and they from the time I did my first play when I was six years old, and my parents were always driving me to and from rehearsal. And uh Cleveland had a really great theater scene, as you know, and I was doing at some at one point I was in like four shows a year. Yeah, it was just like nonstop.

[14:12] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[14:14] Alex Wyse: Um and uh and and my parents um thankfully love the arts and and now they live in New York which is really awesome.

[14:23] Rory O'Malley: That's amazing.

[14:24] Alex Wyse: I know right I love that. About what was it like when I was in college or I think it was when my when my younger sister went to college and my parents were empty nesters in Cleveland and decided well let's just be like young and fabulous again and move sell our house in Cleveland and move to New York City. And they did amazing and how's it going for them?

[14:43] Rory O'Malley: Oh awesome wow yeah my parents are so great they're great people yeah um and they see everything I'm in and are very very supportive and and they also have been learning about this business alongside me which sometimes works to my benefit and sometimes it does not like they they know they understand what's going on and like how things work but I have to um you know speaking to like how difficult the life of an actor can be I have to keep reminding my mom sometimes um no it goes up and down it's okay if I don't have auditions these past few weeks you know it's okay and and like look at look at look at what I've done and this is also me talking to myself and reminding myself like I'm okay it's okay if it's not uh great this month um or if I'm just scraping by right now you know I I have things to be proud of and I can I can move forward in in a positive way and I really work hard to do that right uh even when it's tough.

[15:40] Alex Wyse: But my mother who um is also a neurotic Jew who I get this from is like, oh gosh, well, have you talked to your manager? Have you called your manager? And I you know, and I have to explain to her and um and and then um in turn myself um that no matter how many times I call my manager, I can't control this business.

[15:49] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[15:49] Alex Wyse: No matter how many times I uh try to like break into the breakdowns and check out the auditions myself, I still can't control what's happening around me. What I can control is um how I carry myself as a person and the ways that I try to stay creative between all of these projects. Like what you're doing with this podcast is a way to like talk these things out and stay creative and have some kind of an outlet.

[16:25] Rory O'Malley: That's amazing.

[16:26] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it's way cheaper than therapy too.

[16:28] Rory O'Malley: This is really just for me.

[16:30] Alex Wyse: Yeah, yeah. But no, it's it's that's I was having these conversations without recording them and realizing how valuable they were to me and uh the kind of conversation that I would want us all to start having with each other because I think that we all we put on a really good front about you know how everything's going at all times, and you know, I think it's this is a way to have kind of a uh more candid real conversation between actors and you know, I mean, I appreciate your candor about that because it is it's it is a struggle. You do have to figure out ways to you you you have to go through years of being in this business to know that it it when it's when it rains it pours, and when there's nothing it's dry as a bone, and that there will the rain will come again.

[17:22] Rory O'Malley: And the the peaks in the valleys of this of this industry can feel so lonely, and you feel like no one else is ever been this scared that nothing's ever gonna come come their way, whether it's an audition or a job or a phone call, you know, and and uh it just takes a lot a lot of time of being around to to be more comfortable to know that it will that things you know if you if you stick to what you're doing and keep keep going.

[17:56] Alex Wyse: Yeah, that's something I'm still not good at. When you said waiting for the phone, that uh just like gutted me when I just said that. That's still the hardest part for me is you know, when I feel like I'm close to something, yeah. I feel like, oh gosh, what direction is my life about to turn? Yeah, and I'm waiting for my phone to ring and I'm waiting for a week.

[18:13] Rory O'Malley: You're you're talking specifically about an audition. Let's talk about that for a second.

[18:18] Alex Wyse: We'll go back to Boston University and usually in school. But since you brought it up, so when you let's go through the whole process of when you get the email from your agent that you have an audition.

[18:29] Rory O'Malley: Okay.

[18:30] Alex Wyse: So what I can tell you several stories about that. I can tell you one that happened a few days ago that I was um um yeah, I think I can say this and and not sound like a piece of shit. Um I just got an audition for something that's uh a Broadway show.

[18:47] Rory O'Malley: I don't want to say what it is.

[18:48] Alex Wyse: Sure. And I had an immediately I knew that it was wrong for me.

[18:52] Rory O'Malley: Sure.

[18:52] Alex Wyse: And I knew I should not be playing that role. And I knew that if I were to do it, it probably wouldn't make me happy. Okay. And I want to make sure that I um something that I'm I'm working on balancing is like uh on one hand I want to work, I want to have jobs, I want to be a part of things, I want to be on a team, and on the other hand, I want to be on the right team. I want to play the right roles for me. I want to, you know, do things that will um either open me up creatively or um help me out financially, maybe, or give me stability. I don't know. But there are all these things I'm trying to balance. Uh I just got uh an audition for something that would be uh a great opportunity, but I knew it was wrong for me. And even though it was a Broadway show, I had to say, uh and I had a long talk with my manager, I don't think I can audition for this. I need to make room for someone for whom this is right.

[19:47] Rory O'Malley: That's a really that was a hard thing to do.

[19:50] Alex Wyse: Right. Because I I mean I just certainly do not do that lightly. I don't like say I don't want to be in a Broadway show lightly. Right. You know, there are times I was like, you know, I would have like held up a convenience store to be in a Broadway show. Right. And uh and and um I guess the challenge I've been having uh in the past couple of years, which is a really good challenge to have, is um trying to balance out um uh doing the right things with doing things.

[20:18] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[20:19] Alex Wyse: Um so anyway, that's it. I don't know if that is of course. So you get it, but when you get that, let's say you take the audition.

[20:27] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[20:28] Alex Wyse: So what what do you do right away? Like your feelings, what process do you go through? You see you see the character description. You said for this one, you were like, this isn't for me. Um I'm not gonna so let's say it it is for you.

[20:43] Rory O'Malley: Okay, well I'll I'll tell you um two contrasting stories, and I think these I I hope show how I've grown. Um and what I'm working on, and it takes a lot of work. Um, but when I started off in this business about um like a year in, or I'm even like six months in, I got an audition for a character who was like it was like a new cool off-Broadway play. The script was amazing.

[21:10] Alex Wyse: He was like a it was just it was everything that I was and it was so specific to me it was like a kid who wanted to be in theater and he was Jewish and he was coming out and he was like all of these things that are really oh my god this is my life on the page and and I just self-destructed out of that I I I or or rather I sabotaged myself in in the process I went in for that first audition and gave one of the best auditions of my life because it was so heartfelt and real for me and I just you know I had it just and it and it made it all the more difficult and it made it all the more painful when I kept telling myself like those those teenage demons I was talking about um were really haunting me and saying you're not gonna get this part you can't get this you don't have any credits who the hell are you you're you're you're not anybody and like why would they give this to you? You can't have this part.

[22:16] Rory O'Malley: Well I I I got a call back and then I was even closer to it.

[22:20] Alex Wyse: Right. And so I was like I'm not gonna get this part I I and and the more those demons came up for me and sabotaged me it affected me and my callback was like kind of weak and I wasn't as prepared as I as I should have been because I instead of spending time preparing I I uh spent time putting myself down and uh in the end I uh I didn't get the role, but I uh I was the runner-up.

[22:49] Rory O'Malley: I did find out.

[22:51] Alex Wyse: Um but I wonder what my life would look like, you know, the roads he didn't take, as uh Sandheim said. Uh I wonder what my life would look like if I had been able to um talk to those demons and and not let them overtake me. Um more recently, I just had an audition for another character. Um this was like just a month ago, this all happened. Um I went in for a new show, and I was like, hell yeah, this is me, and I can do this.

[23:20] Rory O'Malley: And I spent so much time preparing for the audition, and so much time, and and I tried not to spend too much time thinking about what my life would look like if I actually got it, but that's a trap that we fall into, isn't it?

[23:35] Alex Wyse: Um we'll talk about that though, because it's a fine line, I think, that you have to give yourself enough confidence and and uh enough imagination to picture yourself getting it and doing it so that you will actually throw yourself into the work of what it takes a lot of work.

[23:55] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, but then to do a scene, but if you do too much, you take one step over and your dreams can get crushed.

[24:00] Alex Wyse: Yes, and we and since you are so used to your dreams getting crushed, you get used to protecting yourself, which is exactly what you were doing in that other audition.

[24:09] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, and it's like how do you simultaneously protect yourself and open yourself up when you're auditioning? It's really hard.

[24:16] Alex Wyse: But this and this was I think is one of the first times I've done this where I was like, okay, I might not get this part, I don't really care, but I'm gonna do everything I can to dive into this and have the best time. And in the end, I I know I got close, um, but I didn't get it. But in my head and my heart, I think to myself, no one can ever say I didn't play this role or I didn't get to do this. Because for those 10 minutes, each time I went in, I did. And I played it with with all my heart and all of my um care and thought. And and uh and it meant something to me. So I got to go through that process, not getting the job, but feeling like I had an experience that was mine and that I took ownership of.

[25:00] Alex Wyse: Um a friend of mine um said to me recently um that he likes to think of auditions as a one-act play that is directed by and starring you, and the people behind the table have no choice but to watch it.

[25:15] Rory O'Malley: So I'm trying to take the power in that of just like, you know what? I’m gonna do my my little play. I’m gonna do my little play, and it’s gonna be mine. And maybe that’s how we get through all of this stuff.

[25:28] Alex Wyse: Yeah. We can’t control what kind of show they want to put on. I can’t control how they see this character. Maybe they saw him taller or um, you know, older, or uh or um a different race, or um, so many other things that that are so uh completely out of my control. So all I can do is like do the best one-act play that’s that’s in my heart.

[25:53] Rory O'Malley: That’s that’s a huge revelation that I think it takes a lot of auditions to come to. Because it’s so hard not to just want to go in there and say, I have to get this. This is great for me, or this would do so much for me. This would do X, Y, and Z for me, and the getting this, the results of that would be wonderful financially, and this or that. But truthfully, if you look at anyone’s career, the amount of time they spend in an audition room is the the majority of their acting is done auditioning.

[26:28] Alex Wyse: Like our craft is mostly done in these sm rooms for a small amount of people. So why not turn that into actually art?

[26:36] Rory O'Malley: So yes, it’s not and don’t, you know.

[26:38] Alex Wyse: Yeah, and I think that it makes you a better auditioner because you’re going in there to do what you do rather than to hopefully get the chance to do what you do. Like, no, you are you’re doing it.

[26:51] Rory O'Malley: Yes, and I I really like that.

[26:52] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I mean that’s what that’s that’s what you are saying, and I think that it’s a very mature and uh level headed way to look at auditioning that I think it takes a long time to actually put into practice, which it takes a long time to realize, and then you have to keep working to do it, because every single audition that you get can set off the spiral of you know the anxiety.

[27:20] Alex Wyse: I what I always do with an audition, whenever I see it, whatever I'm you know, even offered a reading or anything, I think, oh they must not know about this guy, this other guy would be so good for this. I recast it so quickly, and there I know I could give the casting director a dozen other guys who would be better than me. And I'm like, I mean, I'm sure they just haven't thought of this person. And I never think, oh, well, maybe they want you for a certain reason. Like it doesn't cross my mind. So I always have to kind of put that away when I see the breakdown when I see it. Like I'm sure I know a better person. That's a different way of self-sabotaging.

[27:59] Rory O'Malley: Exactly.

[28:00] Alex Wyse: Yeah, exactly. Oh, there's so many, so many ways for us to do it. Okay, so you were in Boston University, you had a really positive experience there.

[28:09] Alex Wyse: Well, sure, it's tough. Going to a conservatory for acting, you don't come out with some battle scars.

[28:17] Rory O'Malley: Oh, yeah, I have a lot of scars from that.

[28:19] Alex Wyse: Sure. Um, but I'm not saying that BU isn't a great school because it is a great school.

[28:23] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[28:24] Alex Wyse: And uh I had a lot of good experiences there too. But I think no matter where you go, you're gonna um I mean it's artists teaching artists. And everybody has their own like everybody's crazy in their own way. And I think uh I mean I am too, and so are my teachers. And sometimes our crazy mixes well, and sometimes it doesn't.

[28:44] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[28:45] Alex Wyse: And I certainly made mistakes, and uh I certainly learned.

[28:49] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[28:49] Alex Wyse: Uh but I did learn a lot there. More um, I think just as much as a person as an artist. I think those really go hand in hand, especially when you're in something that intense. Uh but BU was great because I did a lot of writing.

[29:03] Alex Wyse: That's where um like I started writing at the end of high school. I kind of realized like, oh, this is fun, but I never took it seriously. I was just like, um I think writing things like as a joke, even maybe that was um a protective shield I put up. Um but then when I was in college, they really encouraged us to um open up that part of our brain, and uh and it did wonders for me.

[29:26] Alex Wyse: And I wrote plays and I wrote songs and um and it made me so happy. It gave me another outlet, and I still work hard on that today. So that's I think the main thing I'm thankful for about BU. It's like the acting training was great, but then the training I got um as a well-rounded theater artist was was A plus.

[29:45] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[29:46] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[29:46] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[29:47] Alex Wyse: That's the other thing we have in common, because I went to Boston University's theater Institute when I was in high school.

[29:54] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[29:55] Alex Wyse: I was only there for six weeks, but and it was called booty.

[29:58] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[29:58] Alex Wyse: They changed it to Busty.

[30:00] Rory O'Malley: Busty.

[30:01] Alex Wyse: They changed it from B-U-T-I, Boston University Theater Institute to Boston University.

[30:07] Alex Wyse: Booty to Busty.

[30:08] Rory O'Malley: Busty's a little nicer to hear.

[30:11] Alex Wyse: I mean not much, but like a little bit.

[30:14] Rory O'Malley: Do you think they changed it because of that?

[30:17] Alex Wyse: Well, the Summer Theater Institute title is a little more specific.

[30:20] Rory O'Malley: Sure.

[30:21] Alex Wyse: So I'll give them that.

[30:22] Rory O'Malley: Sure.

[30:22] Alex Wyse: And then maybe there was that like, you know, that thing that made their whole twitch about hearing booty over and over.

[30:29] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[30:29] Alex Wyse: Might as well go with the bust.

[30:31] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, I guess so.

[30:32] Alex Wyse: I just like a little bit.

[30:34] Rory O'Malley: Booty or busty.

[30:36] Alex Wyse: Oh my god. Um yeah, and and then um, and you went to Carnegie Mellon.

[30:41] Rory O'Malley: Yes, I went to the Carnegie Mellon Theater Institute.

[30:44] Alex Wyse: That's so funny.

[30:45] Rory O'Malley: I know.

[30:45] Alex Wyse: That's so funny.

[30:46] Rory O'Malley: Well, I mean, both programs are really good for high schoolers.

[30:50] Alex Wyse: Um, and when I when I went to uh Boston University, it was I wasn't sure if I was gonna go into uh conservatory if I if I wanted to major in theater, but as soon as I left there, I was like, oh yeah, this is this is what I'm gonna do.

[31:07] Alex Wyse: This is definitely it. So I think if it's a good way for young people to see what a program like that is all about and if it's for them.

[31:20] Rory O'Malley: Um because it's so intense, and there's just you know, you are so insulated from so many other things that if you if you go there and you want a regular college experience, you're not gonna have it.

[31:36] Alex Wyse: That's not that's that's not what those places are for.

[31:40] Rory O'Malley: And it's okay to want a regular college experience and still be an actor.

[31:45] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I know a lot of people.

[31:47] Rory O'Malley: Yes, and that's amazing.

[31:49] Alex Wyse: It's phenomenal. Um there's a lot of great schools out there that aren't conservatories that you can still major in theater too and and get a more well-rounded education.

[32:00] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, and I mean and on that, there's so many ways to be in this business, to be an actor. There's not one route, there's not one like method to success.

[32:10] Alex Wyse: Everyone has their own weird roundabout story of how they found themselves where they did.

[32:16] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[32:16] Alex Wyse: And sometimes that involves a conservatory, and sometimes that involves like dropping out of governor school. Like you you know, you just have to like keep following your gut in all of this.

[32:25] Rory O'Malley: So when you got out of BU, what what happened?

[32:28] Alex Wyse: Well, I I um got um I got an agent at the showcase.

[32:35] Alex Wyse: Um, and that was it just blew my mind.

[32:40] Rory O'Malley: In New York City.

[32:41] Alex Wyse: In New York City, yeah. Um and uh so I I moved here, I actually skipped my graduation and moved here the day that I graduated.

[32:51] Rory O'Malley: Wow.

[32:51] Alex Wyse: Um I was just like running running for the exit.

[32:54] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, yeah, I was so ready.

[32:56] Alex Wyse: And uh I came here, I lived on the upper east side because I didn't know where to live.

[33:03] Alex Wyse: I mean it's a fine place, but it was really inconvenient for where my life was, you know.

[33:08] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[33:08] Alex Wyse: All I did was like switch trains.

[33:10] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, like all the time.

[33:12] Alex Wyse: Right. Excuse me. Um and uh and I uh the first thing I did out of school was that summer, I was in a workshop of um of a new musical called Mrs. Sharp by Ryan Scott Oliver and um Kirsten Gunther and Michael Grife directed it as a player in Horizons.

[33:34] Rory O'Malley: So that was just um That was your first summer here.

[33:36] Alex Wyse: Yeah, so I think it was a few weeks out of like after moving here, maybe a month after moving here.

[33:40] Rory O'Malley: And how did that come about?

[33:41] Alex Wyse: I auditioned.

[33:42] Rory O'Malley: You just auditioned.

[33:43] Alex Wyse: Yeah, my agent sent me Michael Gray.

[33:45] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[33:45] Alex Wyse: There you are.

[33:46] Alex Wyse: And there I was. And I did it with there's so many cool people. Jane Gurkowski was the lead. Like I could not believe the company I was in.

[33:53] Alex Wyse: I gave me my equity card. And it was a two-week workshop, I think.

[33:57] Rory O'Malley: And how did that come about?

[33:57] Alex Wyse: I did it with Ally Stroker, who I just did Spring Awakening with, so I've known Allie for years.

[34:02] Alex Wyse: And I made one of my best friends, um, Preston Sadler. We did that together.

[34:05] Alex Wyse: That's how we met.

[34:07] Rory O'Malley: Wow.

[34:07] Alex Wyse: Um so many other cool people were in that. Like uh Kurt Hansen and Kyle Harris and uh um um many many more.

[34:15] Alex Wyse: There's just wonderful people. Marlon Mandel, Jeff, Jeff Hiller.

[34:18] Rory O'Malley: Wow.

[34:19] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it was like such a such a great group of people, and that was um the very first thing I did that kind of plopped me right into the middle of the musical theater scene.

[34:28] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[34:29] Alex Wyse: And was that different because Boston University isn't uh musical theater school, but you I mean it's an it's an acting school, but I'm sure you studied voice throughout, you know, your whole life.

[34:40] Alex Wyse: But yeah, I mean for for like for me in my journey, um I always felt like I was always doing musicals growing up, and I and then I started doing more plays as I got into high school and that and I kind of realized um um for me it would be more useful to go to an acting school than a musical theater school.

[34:57] Alex Wyse: I hated dancing, right? I still do, sure.

[35:00] Alex Wyse: Um and uh I I was uh uh a good singer and and I knew I wanted to really focus on um the theater arts. I thought like in B, and there were a couple of places I auditioned for musical theater, but it felt like B U with its like well-rounded theater acting education just felt like the best route for me.

[35:23] Alex Wyse: I was never gonna stop singing.

[35:24] Rory O'Malley: Right and I never did.

[35:25] Alex Wyse: I incorporated music into like all of my like my my senior project at B was I wrote and started a musical.

[35:31] Rory O'Malley: Wow.

[35:32] Alex Wyse: That was a big undertaking.

[35:34] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[35:34] Alex Wyse: I was a little maybe a little in over my head.

[35:37] Alex Wyse: But it was um so ambitious and I was really fearless and sometimes I wonder what happened to that kid.

[35:42] Rory O'Malley: You know?

[35:43] Alex Wyse: Yeah, well, I mean he you know, it being naive is a wonderful, wonderful tool.

[35:49] Rory O'Malley: Isn't it when we're young for sure.

[35:51] Alex Wyse: I mean, I don't think that we would you would start this journey or this path if you knew how many obstacles you were gonna have to overcome, the specific obstacles.

[36:04] Rory O'Malley: So it's it's a great thing being naive.

[36:08] Alex Wyse: You know. When I was young and naive, I was like twelve years old and I was my family would go on cruises over Christmas and um sorry over Hanukkah.

[36:17] Alex Wyse: And um and and I would always perform in the cruise ship talent show.

[36:22] Rory O'Malley: Oh my god.

[36:23] Alex Wyse: And let me just tell you, when I was twelve I sang the greatest love of all on um there's got a I don't know if there is.

[36:30] Alex Wyse: If anyone out there like works for Carnival Cruise, I there's no video I've ever found that we ever had because my parents they weren't into filming.

[36:40] Rory O'Malley: Um is that don't you think that that's really actually a benefit of growing up the time we did?

[36:46] Alex Wyse: I know you're a little bit younger than I am, but the fact that iPhones record everything a child does now.

[36:52] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[36:52] Alex Wyse: That would be the death of me.

[36:55] Rory O'Malley: Well I'm kinda thankful that a lot of my awkward years have been lost to the sands of time.

[36:59] Alex Wyse: I I don't need them all documented.

[37:02] Alex Wyse: And uh I don't know, I think if Twitter were around when I was growing up, like I would definitely be dead now.

[37:07] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[37:08] Alex Wyse: I would have like found my way to some strange parking lot with the promise of like, you know, ten or two songs and I just like would have been dead in a ditch.

[37:16] Rory O'Malley: So okay, yeah.

[37:18] Alex Wyse: No, I mean it's it's hard to handle now.

[37:21] Rory O'Malley: I don't know how kids.

[37:21] Alex Wyse: Yeah I mean I have trouble yeah I have trouble handling it now.

[37:25] Rory O'Malley: I try to have fun on social media and like entertaining as best I can't so funny.

[37:29] Alex Wyse: You gotta follow Alex on Twitter.

[37:31] Rory O'Malley: Oh very funny go on.

[37:33] Alex Wyse: Um but but it's very challenging.

[37:36] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[37:37] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[37:37] Rory O'Malley: There's a lot of like crap that comes along with it.

[37:39] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[37:39] Rory O'Malley: We can talk about that later too.

[37:41] Alex Wyse: So you get so going back to when you got to New York you do the show, it's really great.

[37:45] Alex Wyse: Yeah you meet a lot of good people you get your equity card first job out of school that's pretty amazing.

[37:52] Alex Wyse: So was it just one show after another after that or um I was I think I've been working pretty consistently.

[38:00] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[38:01] Alex Wyse: Um and I've had I've had breaks of um several months where I I wouldn't work but I've been so lucky that that's the longest I've gone.

[38:10] Alex Wyse: It's like four or five months is the longest I've gone without doing anything.

[38:13] Alex Wyse: Um I I've been extremely fortunate.

[38:16] Rory O'Malley: That does not um I don't take that for granted.

[38:19] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[38:20] Alex Wyse: Um and some of the first things I did uh out of school I was in a a mini tour of Lost in Yonkers that I did at Papermill Playhouse and a few other um uh regional theaters and um I did um some commercials.

[38:35] Alex Wyse: I started working commercials right away.

[38:37] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[38:38] Alex Wyse: Um and a year in I got my first T V job.

[38:42] Alex Wyse: Um it was just um things were happening.

[38:44] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[38:45] Alex Wyse: And um yeah, I mean and plenty of heartbreak too, you know.

[38:52] Rory O'Malley: Sure.

[38:52] Alex Wyse: Um but you were you start you started doing commercials, and what is that like?

[38:57] Alex Wyse: Oh god, I was so uncomfortable.

[39:00] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[39:00] Alex Wyse: Um I'm still I still feel like I'm learning about how to be on camera.

[39:05] Alex Wyse: And I've been uh the past few years for me in TV have been really good, and I've I've done a bunch of jobs that I'm proud of, and but each job I'm learning a little bit more about how that world works and what is expected of me and what um and what uh like how much acting I do or like um how big and how small and how how much the camera picks up.

[39:26] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, oh my god, I remember my first one of my first jobs in LA, uh my first TV jobs, I was doing a scene with a girl, and uh we were on opposite sides of the room, and she said the line, and it was like crazy and I was like, wait, what? I cannot hear her.

[39:42] Alex Wyse: Like I don't know when to you know, and I've had I've had to kind of relearn how to um uh be in that mode and still deliver something that feels fully lived and specific and all that.

[39:57] Alex Wyse: Um but yeah, I I I think I started off um getting things because I had a quirky look.

[40:03] Alex Wyse: I think that's why it and 'cause I was funny and commercials is a place to be funny.

[40:08] Alex Wyse: Um but I was very uncomfortable when a camera was on me and I just felt like shrinking and dying.

[40:14] Alex Wyse: And I even had I had a makeup artist on this.

[40:18] Alex Wyse: I did a Starbucks commercial.

[40:20] Rory O'Malley: Oh there's like one summer.

[40:22] Alex Wyse: They don't do Starbucks commercials.

[40:24] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[40:24] Alex Wyse: Yeah, there was one summer they did Frappuccino commercials and I was in them, and I remember makeup artist uh she said to me, she I sat down in the chair, and she goes, she takes a look in my face and goes, Oh gosh.

[40:39] Alex Wyse: Oh wow, well, this is a problem.

[40:41] Alex Wyse: Ugh, they're gonna do a close-up of you.

[40:43] Alex Wyse: Okay, well, let me give you the name of a good facialist.

[40:47] Rory O'Malley: Oh, and uh, great.

[40:49] Alex Wyse: What?

[40:50] Rory O'Malley: And she kept saying things like that to me, like, I don't know why they're gonna do a close-up of you.

[40:54] Alex Wyse: Well, needless to say, I was awful in the commercial, and they all but cut me out, and I was lucky I had one, like I had a like a half a second frame in there, so I so I got paid.

[41:03] Rory O'Malley: Oh my god.

[41:04] Alex Wyse: But um that's terrible.

[41:06] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, that's what yeah, that that that did a number on me.

[41:10] Alex Wyse: Um of feeling unattracted. It's funny because it doesn't take much when you go into a situation for somebody to throw you off so that all you can think of is I can't do this because the woman in charge of makeup says I can't.

[41:27] Rory O'Malley: So it's it's very easy to feel powerless and less than when you walk into a new situation.

[41:36] Alex Wyse: And so if it's not on a stage, you know, if it was somebody if it was somebody doing makeup or hair backstage at a theater, you would be like, that was inappropriate and move on.

[41:47] Rory O'Malley: But there's something about being on a set that one of the challenging things for me about being on a set is you show up and you're the new guy.

[41:53] Alex Wyse: Right.

[41:54] Rory O'Malley: You know?

[41:54] Alex Wyse: Yeah, you're the stranger.

[41:55] Rory O'Malley: You're the stranger and you have to immediately be acclimated and like know where things are.

[42:00] Alex Wyse: I've gotten a little bit better at that.

[42:02] Rory O'Malley: About also about being okay with the fact that I like don't know where things are.

[42:06] Alex Wyse: Right.

[42:07] Rory O'Malley: Not being afraid to ask.

[42:08] Alex Wyse: Right.

[42:09] Rory O'Malley: And just kind of focusing on like, oh, okay, what are here's my dressing room, and I have to just figure out what I have to do.

[42:15] Alex Wyse: I don't, you know.

[42:18] Rory O'Malley: You're not gonna be, no matter what happens, you're not gonna be like being a guest on one day.

[42:23] Alex Wyse: You're not gonna have the knowledge of the set that the series regular has.

[42:27] Rory O'Malley: Sure.

[42:27] Alex Wyse: And it's not the same as walking into a theater where when the new cast member comes into a theater, everyone's like, let's all gather around and greet the new, you know, in a in a on a set, everyone is in and out the door all the time.

[42:43] Rory O'Malley: So the turnover is you know between every scene.

[42:45] Alex Wyse: It's new people coming in and out.

[42:47] Rory O'Malley: So it's not like we all, you know, do a prayer circle before every every shoot.

[42:54] Alex Wyse: I just went to a rap party for a um a TV show I was filming this summer, and I knew three people.

[43:01] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[43:02] Alex Wyse: There were 200 people at the party.

[43:03] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[43:05] Alex Wyse: What show was it?

[43:06] Rory O'Malley: I think I'm like legally not allowed to say.

[43:09] Alex Wyse: Oh but I already that's fun.

[43:11] Rory O'Malley: I know, but I already accidentally did in like my bio.

[43:14] Alex Wyse: Oh, that's okay.

[43:15] Rory O'Malley: But then they kind of everyone just Google it, look for it, and that'll be a little mystery in in this podcast.

[43:21] Alex Wyse: Yeah, I I can't no, no, don't don't Okay, I won't say more exciting either.

[43:27] Rory O'Malley: I already screwed it up and like kind of said, because they were very confusing about it, and they said I could add it to my IMDB.

[43:34] Alex Wyse: Uh but then I did add it to my IMDB and they rejected it.

[43:38] Rory O'Malley: I don't know.

[43:40] Alex Wyse: And then they told me I'm not allowed to talk about it, so it's all very confusing.

[43:43] Rory O'Malley: Let's just not talk about it.

[43:44] Alex Wyse: Let's not talk about it.

[43:45] Rory O'Malley: It's exciting, but it's really cool.

[43:46] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it's gonna come out next year.

[43:49] Rory O'Malley: It's really cool.

[43:50] Alex Wyse: On March 17th.

[43:50] Rory O'Malley: I know what it is.

[43:51] Alex Wyse: It's gonna come out on March 17th.

[43:53] Rory O'Malley: March 17th, St.

[43:54] Alex Wyse: Patrick's Day.

[43:55] Rory O'Malley: Is it?

[43:55] Alex Wyse: Yes, you know, like you're such an East Sider.

[43:58] Rory O'Malley: Ah you don't know St.

[44:00] Alex Wyse: Patrick's Day.

[44:01] Rory O'Malley: Is it always on March 17th?

[44:02] Alex Wyse: Yes.

[44:02] Rory O'Malley: Oh, okay.

[44:03] Alex Wyse: Okay.

[44:04] Rory O'Malley: Great.

[44:04] Alex Wyse: It's not like the Tony's it falls on like the first Sunday or no, it's not like the Tony's.

[44:09] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, it's March 17th.

[44:09] Alex Wyse: If it's not like the Tony's, I don't know anything about it.

[44:11] Rory O'Malley: It's true.

[44:13] Alex Wyse: Okay.

[44:13] Rory O'Malley: And we both sip our water.

[44:15] Alex Wyse: Both have our water.

[44:17] Rory O'Malley: Um, so where were we?

[44:19] Alex Wyse: I don't know.

[44:20] Rory O'Malley: We were talking about um being on set.

[44:22] Alex Wyse: I wanted to tell you about being on set.

[44:24] Alex Wyse: Is that I did an episode of a TV show that will remain unnamed.

[44:28] Rory O'Malley: Okay.

[44:29] Alex Wyse: You know, one scene, and it was two weeks before my wedding.

[44:33] Rory O'Malley: So I was like really in the in my in my dressing room just going over like plans for the wedding.

[44:39] Alex Wyse: Yeah, picking out like I was there, but I wasn't really there, and I was kind of like distracted.

[44:44] Rory O'Malley: They they bring me in to do um my makeup, do the makeup, and they're like, oh hair isn't here yet, so go back in.

[44:52] Alex Wyse: So I go back into my dressing room, do a little more emailing and planning of flowers and napkins, and then I go back in, and the uh the person, the woman doing the hair says, um, your hair isn't anywhere near dark enough.

[45:10] Rory O'Malley: I was like, what?

[45:12] Alex Wyse: And she said, You you must have told them you had darker hair.

[45:17] Rory O'Malley: And I said, No.

[45:18] Alex Wyse: And I'm playing like Joe Schmo.

[45:21] Rory O'Malley: Like, there's no reason for me to have any specific kind of hair color whatsoever.

[45:27] Alex Wyse: And she goes, This is gonna be a major problem.

[45:29] Rory O'Malley: What?

[45:30] Alex Wyse: Is your head shot? She said, Did you does your headshot look darker than your your hair is?

[45:36] Rory O'Malley: And I'm and I'm sitting there panicking, like, well, no.

[45:39] Alex Wyse: I was like, I have my hair look is exactly the way it does in my head shot.

[45:43] Rory O'Malley: They saw me in person when they hired me, and she goes, I don't know if this is gonna work out.

[45:48] Alex Wyse: You might have to go.

[45:50] Rory O'Malley: And I was like, What am I gonna get fired in the in the hair room for having like lighter reddish hair?

[45:58] Alex Wyse: And I start to joke, you know.

[46:01] Rory O'Malley: I go, Well, you know, we'll just have to spray paint my hair black, and I'm joking, and she goes, Well, maybe.

[46:10] Alex Wyse: And I I so she she walks out of the room, and I start going nuts, thinking, Well, I'm not spray painting my hair.

[46:18] Rory O'Malley: I'm getting married in like two weeks, and you know, and I'm thinking this is crazy, and I can't, you know, they never they didn't tell me that I had to have dark hair for this for the the this like one scene that has no reason that needs to have dark hair.

[46:30] Alex Wyse: She comes back in and she's like, Yeah, you know what, it's not gonna work out, you're gonna have to go.

[46:35] Rory O'Malley: I was like, Are you kidding me?

[46:37] Alex Wyse: I said, I am playing so-and-so, and there's no reason for that person to have dark hair.

[46:43] Rory O'Malley: And she goes, Oh, wait, you're playing so-and-so?

[46:47] Alex Wyse: I thought you were an extra.

[46:48] Rory O'Malley: Oh my and you were just standing in for someone on camera.

[46:53] Alex Wyse: Oh my god.

[46:54] Rory O'Malley: And I said, No, and then all of a sudden she got like so embarrassed that she Good is it happening?

[47:02] Alex Wyse: And I was like, No, I'm playing this part.

[47:04] Rory O'Malley: And for like 20 minutes there, while she's out of the room, comes in and fires me.

[47:09] Alex Wyse: I was like, Great, this is like the the mo the the biggest waste of time ever.

[47:15] Rory O'Malley: But I let somebody who I felt was like more in charge there, because you know, that's their place.

[47:21] Alex Wyse: Because she's there every day.

[47:22] Rory O'Malley: She's there every day.

[47:23] Alex Wyse: What do I know?

[47:24] Rory O'Malley: Other than the fact that I know what part I'm playing, which is a pretty big part of that discussion we were having.

[47:31] Alex Wyse: Like I kind of let her lead that discussion and didn't really say anything because I didn't want to like overstep.

[47:38] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[47:39] Alex Wyse: But you know, you you have to not let yourself get run over when you're on a set just because it's not your place or or a stage or anywhere in this business.

[47:52] Rory O'Malley: If you know what you're doing and why you're there, you know, don't let uh someone in hair fire you as I almost like I literally was like ready to pack my bag, you know, be like, well, that's just odd.

[48:04] Alex Wyse: You know, because I'm from Ohio.

[48:09] Rory O'Malley: And you know, like you don't want to.

[48:12] Alex Wyse: It's hard to walk into a place where you don't know a single person and like have a strong sense of self and be like, this is who I am.

[48:19] Rory O'Malley: This is what it's like, it's very hard to do that.

[48:22] Alex Wyse: You kind of tiptoe in and you're like, where do I go?

[48:24] Rory O'Malley: And especially as an actor, you're always trying to fit into the mold that they already have.

[48:29] Alex Wyse: You're like, I'm not right, but I'll try to figure it out so that I can make this job work.

[48:35] Rory O'Malley: You know, like that's how you try you try to become a character.

[48:39] Alex Wyse: You try to do whatever it is that they need, try to try to fit into the machine that's already going.

[48:44] Rory O'Malley: And so I was like, well, I really made a decision.

[48:48] Alex Wyse: I was like, I'm not gonna let them dye my hair for one scene in this TV show when I'm getting married in two weeks.

[48:54] Rory O'Malley: I'm ready to go.

[48:56] Alex Wyse: While she was out of the room.

[48:57] Rory O'Malley: Good for you for having the the like the what's the word?

[49:02] Alex Wyse: I mean, good for you for not letting them like thwart your wedding pictures for like one scene on a show that is ultimately of no consequence to you when your wedding is like your wedding.

[49:12] Rory O'Malley: My wedding.

[49:13] Alex Wyse: That's the event of the year.

[49:15] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[49:15] Alex Wyse: Right, which is you know what?

[49:16] Alex Wyse: It's funny because it's hard to remember that early on.

[49:23] Rory O'Malley: There's so many decisions when I first got into this business where I made the choice to be available for an audition, be available, or to give myself over to whatever I needed to for the business instead of the life choice of being at a family event, being at um a lot of things.

[49:48] Alex Wyse: And sometimes I'm I'm st I still make that choice, you know, when I have to.

[49:52] Rory O'Malley: I don't think we'll stop making that choice.

[49:53] Alex Wyse: No, there's a lot of sacrifices that happen, but there are the ones that you you need to uh realize what's really important in the bigger picture, you know.

[50:06] Rory O'Malley: And I think that's you it's like it's your life, you know.

[50:09] Alex Wyse: I had a show tell me that I couldn't go to my sister's wedding.

[50:12] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[50:12] Alex Wyse: I would have had to miss one day.

[50:14] Rory O'Malley: It was during tech week.

[50:15] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[50:15] Rory O'Malley: Um, but I would have had to miss one day, and they were like, no, we're not letting you off.

[50:19] Alex Wyse: And so I said, okay, bye.

[50:21] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[50:22] Alex Wyse: Goodbye.

[50:22] Rory O'Malley: Right.

[50:23] Alex Wyse: You're not more important than than my own sister getting married.

[50:27] Rory O'Malley: You are not more important.

[50:29] Alex Wyse: Right.

[50:29] Rory O'Malley: And thankfully I won in the end.

[50:31] Alex Wyse: But like, you have to stand up for yourself.

[50:34] Rory O'Malley: I could have just as easily been like, okay, anything for the business, which at times I've also done that, and it's made me sad.

[50:41] Alex Wyse: Right.

[50:42] Rory O'Malley: You need to set you need to set the boundaries for yourself because everyone's different.

[50:46] Alex Wyse: Um so you so um you've gotten to do a ton of stuff recent most recently, you did Spring Awakening.

[50:54] Rory O'Malley: Yeah, I did.

[50:55] Alex Wyse: And uh, how was that experience?

[50:57] Rory O'Malley: You started in LA, you were in I saw you do it in at the Wallace.

[51:01] Alex Wyse: Right, I remember seeing Los Angeles and I was blown away by it.

[51:05] Rory O'Malley: Thank you.

[51:06] Alex Wyse: Um it was uh that show changed my life.

[51:09] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[51:09] Alex Wyse: Um maybe more than any other show has.

[51:14] Rory O'Malley: Yeah.

[51:14] Alex Wyse: Any other job that I've done.

[51:16] Rory O'Malley: I've had jobs that felt big and important, but Spring Awakening, I felt like it changed my life.

[51:20] Alex Wyse: Um I guess so when I I've talked a little bit about this um before, but it's worth talking about again.

[51:29] Rory O'Malley: When I I was already in Los Angeles because I had just uh when I was in New York like three years ago, uh a little over three years ago, I just gotten off the wicked tour, which was a great time, and then I I uh was having so much trouble um adjusting to New York life again.

[51:50] Alex Wyse: And I was having I was putting so much pressure on myself for auditions and so much pressure on myself.

[51:57] Rory O'Malley: I gotta get the next thing, and I was upset.

[52:00] Alex Wyse: I felt like I maybe I'd killed my momentum by leaving.

[52:03] Rory O'Malley: I wasn't sure.

[52:04] Alex Wyse: I I didn't know.

[52:05] Rory O'Malley: I just felt like I was um not in a good place like with myself at that time.

[52:11] Alex Wyse: And I also got into a relationship, I got out of a relationship, and um I was just so sad.

[52:17] Rory O'Malley: And then uh the last straw for me, uh what when was this?

[52:22] Alex Wyse: 2013 now?

[52:23] Rory O'Malley: I like don't even know where the time was going.

[52:25] Alex Wyse: Yeah.

[52:26] Rory O'Malley: Um 13, I think, yeah, I think.

[52:28] Alex Wyse: Um uh I did the first um reading of a show that felt really important to me, and then was um informed shortly after that I was gonna be replaced.

[52:41] Rory O'Malley: Um so that was um hard to hear, but you know, what they needed to do when I needed to accept that.

[52:47] Alex Wyse: Um then I got um a job um off a tape um on Masters of Sex in LA and I was like, oh my god, finally my life is beginning again.

[53:00] Rory O'Malley: Um maybe I mixed up the timeline.

[53:03] Alex Wyse: I think I was replaced in the show after Masters of Sex.

[53:05] Rory O'Malley: But I did Masters, but anyway, after that, the point is I went to LA because I was so low in New York.

[53:11] Alex Wyse: I felt just like giving up, and I felt like I was at a place where I was like burning bridges, you know.

[53:17] Rory O'Malley: I was so angry.

[53:19] Alex Wyse: I remember I was walking into auditions, I was already mad.

[53:22] Rory O'Malley: I was already like giving up.

[53:24] Alex Wyse: I walked in to give up.

[53:26] Rory O'Malley: And I remember I think the my low point was um uh I walked into an audition and the director said, Alex, good to see you.

[53:33] Alex Wyse: And I said, Well, it's only okay to see you.

[53:36] Rory O'Malley: And I was like, Oh wow, Alex.

[53:40] Alex Wyse: Oh, this is not good.

[53:41] Rory O'Malley: So yeah, yeah.

[53:44] Alex Wyse: I was just so angry.

[53:45] Rory O'Malley: It wasn't I mean that director's an awesome guy.

[53:47] Alex Wyse: Yeah, it wasn't about him at all.

[53:49] Rory O'Malley: Um and so I thought, okay, I'm gonna go to LA for one month.

[53:54] Alex Wyse: I had such a fun time on Masters of Sex and being You were so good in that.

[53:58] Rory O'Malley: Thank you.

[53:59] Alex Wyse: I love doing that.

[53:59] Rory O'Malley: The Bell Boy.

[54:00] Alex Wyse: Yeah, yeah.

[54:01] Rory O'Malley: My God, thank you.

[54:02] Alex Wyse: Yeah, you were so good.

[54:03] Rory O'Malley: I'm always very s thank you.

[54:08] Alex Wyse: Um But I I was just so happy being in Los Angeles.

[54:12] Rory O'Malley: I think because it was new.

[54:13] Alex Wyse: I got to be the new kid in town.

[54:15] Rory O'Malley: I got to um I didn't feel like I was like it was like every street corner in New York had its own baggage to it.

[54:23] Alex Wyse: Oh, like, oh, that's where I found out about this. That's where this date happens, that's where this friend screamed at me, whatever it was. I just felt like everything was loaded with subtext, and I needed to start again or something. I went to LA and I was happy and I started working there. I started getting TV jobs, and I also felt like I had lost myself and I didn't know who I was, and I felt so I felt really, really lost. Um I'm literally getting emotional on your podcast right now. Um, and uh and I I kept working in television, thankfully, and then I found my way into a show called Um For the Record, which was a really fun um interactive show in LA and the Rockwell or not. The the same one that it was at a venue called DBA, but yes, that one.

And then because I was there doing that, and because Andy, who uh Mientis, who had been my friend for a long time, uh they needed someone to play Gay org in their production of Spring Awakening. Um, and so they just called me and said, Hey, you're here, do you want to do this? And I thought, okay, sure. I mean, I don't. You know what was so amazing about Spring Awakening is I think so many of us came into that show feeling like we were lost. Right, like uh I just felt so lost when I was doing it, and I know like I think about like what Krista was going through when she was doing it, she was going through chemo, you know, and everyone had their own story though of feeling like they were at some kind of turning point in their life, and I think that's why it felt so um big to all of us because we all kind of like were in this position of feeling like we had just lost something or we were searching for something, and we came together as this family, and we were all just like so out of our comfort zone and doing something we had never done before, and we had hearing people learning a new language, and we had deaf people learning a new language, and that was music, and they had to figure out what that meant for them, and we had to learn ASL, and it was all of us were just it was like we were all just like on the edge together, and then that our show came back to New York giving well, and you all were there doing that just for the art and the experience, certainly without Broadway ambitions, because it started and it was just a small production.

[56:54] Alex Wyse: You know, when I went into it, I had I had a feeling, yeah. I just had a feeling. I had seen the one at um at oh gosh, I'm terrible. I'm blanking on the name of the first venue where Spring Awakening played. Um Inner City Arts, that's what it was called. So they did a smaller one at Inner City Arts first, and I went to see it just to go support Andy and Michael, right? Um, because I was there in LA, and it was gorgeous, yeah. And then it was announced for this larger run, and they needed a replacement, and I already knew how good the show was. Right. And I just had a feeling like this could be I didn't know if it was gonna go to Broadway, but I just thought this could be really special. Sure.

Like they're putting more money into this thing that was already artistically just brilliant. Right. What they were doing was already uh just you know, and and Spring Awakening was a show that while I always respected during during the first round, it wasn't something I I felt like I connected to as much until I saw Michael's production. Sure. So then I got to be a part of that at this time in my life when I was low and looking for something, and then there I was going back to New York. Actually, wait a minute. I it had been almost a year that I was in Los Angeles. And I kind of felt like Spring Awakening had just finished, and I packed my bag and booked a flight back to New York. And I was like, you know what?

I just feel like maybe I'll come back for the fall. In fact, Ali Stroker and I were talking about rooming together. We were gonna like live together in LA. Um but I thought maybe I'll go back for the summer and just like be in New York for a little bit. That feels right. And when I was in line on on the line getting ready to board the plane, I got an alert on my phone. The article about Spring Awakening transferring to Broadway came out when I was boarding my plane to New York. I I I don't know. I just think about like all of that, that experience of those couple of years, um, and finding my way into that family. I think about um how it never would have happened if I hadn't been um if I hadn't gotten off the wicket tour and felt lost.

Sure. And if I hadn't blown all those auditions, and if I hadn't been replaced in that show, and if I hadn't been dumped, and all of these things that uh that made me feel so lost brought me into this place of um finding something greater than I could have imagined for myself.

[59:25] Alex Wyse: Right. So that's the context of me doing Spring Awakening, and I think why it meant so much to me. Yeah, on top of the fact that I was a stunning, beautiful, artistic reimagining of something that was already so loved, which is hard to do. Yeah, that is hard to do. Especially in a short period, you know, relatively short period of time. Um because the first production was in what 2000. 2006. Yeah, I think started six ten years ago or less, nine years prior. Um but yeah, it's it's really special and it it's nice to have been around the business for a an amount of a chunk of time to know how special that something like that is, so you can actually live in it. I'm sure there were a couple people, because there was a it was a really young cast who were like, Well, this is must be how how it always goes.

Oh boy. You you do a show, you know, in a small theater in LA, and all of a sudden you're on Broadway within a year. You know, I was lucky to have been I was in my first Broadway show was Alyssa Strata Jones, right? Which was a ton of fun, and that felt like you were great in that too. Thanks, Rory. Felt like like my dream coming true, and then my dream crashing down to the ground. That was that's maybe the hardest thing I've gone through in New York. Certainly one of them. I after that show closed. I sat on my couch every day for a week, wearing my Lissa Strada Jones sweatshirt and just cried. I was just I was heartbroken. It felt like a a death. It felt like I'd gone through a death. I didn't know what to do with myself.

I didn't know where to go. I felt really yeah, I was I I was recovering from that for a while because I just didn't know how to deal with that. Um but coming out of that experience, I was so much more appreciative of Spring Awakening, and also I understood that when this show ends, I bet it's gonna be hard for me. Right. I bet I'm gonna go through it a little bit. Um and have a um uh a little bit of time where I feel like I'm kind of floundering or um and I certainly did I had a really tough summer actually but uh uh but it's all um in service to finding the next thing right you know those rough times that we go through I think they help us so much as and you know and who was someone said to me recently um you have to live a little oh yeah it was my therapist um he said he said he was like you have to you have to live you have to have life experience and then you can bring something to your art but if you're just working and then you're working and then you're working you're not a person you know you have no life to um then express outward you you have to you have to live first.

[1:02:16] Alex Wyse: It's true. And and I and so I do my best to um to know that when I'm now when I'm going through those lulls when I'm going through those times like after spring awakening closed and I was it was it was a little bit tough and looking for the next job was not easy. I went through it was a long process of finding my next job um but uh but I I had an awareness at least this time okay this is t this is this is gonna turn me into a better person and I might not know how this challenging time is gonna serve me um but eventually it will serve me. Right. It's hard to realize it when you're in those when you're in those moments of unemployment or change or uncertainty but those are the most exciting parts of your career because anything is possible.

You know, I'm sitting in a I'm in a situation right now where I'm in a really, really good job at Hamilton and I love every single second of it. It's very easy to appreciate a great job like that. But I know what I'm doing every single day. I have to kind of figure out other ways, like having a podcast or doing other things to create some some other outlets and and the certainty is a beautiful thing, but when I have uncertainty, which is m a lot of the time maybe not most of the time, but a lot of the time, there's a huge amount of uncertainty where I don't know what what path I'm gonna take. Certainly if you if we were having this conversation back in January, I was living in Los Angeles with my husband.

I had no intention of being in New York in Hamilton, just a show I was listening to every time I went for a run in the streets of LA. So you can't uh you have to embrace those moments. And and they become less scary and more thrilling and exciting. Obviously, if you're looking for money to feed yourself, they're a lot more scary, and that's why a good side job is always something to hold on to. But um, you know, like you said, as you go in this career, they become life becomes this wonderful like moment and break for you to experience what it feels like to be a person and not just an actor.

[1:04:39] Alex Wyse: Yeah, you gotta be a person. You gotta be a person first. And we're the ones who have to live with ourselves every day. Yeah, you know. Yes. We are the ones who have to live with ourselves. Yeah, I wanna be as fully realized a person as I can be, and then I can be a better artist because of it too. But I can hopefully enjoy my life and figure out more creative, interesting ways to appreciate those down times or those hard times. Right. And you're in rehearsals right now for something. Can you talk about it? Or is that legally binary? No, no, they've been press releases. Okay, um, I'm in rehearsal for a show called Ride the Cyclone that's gonna be at the Lucil Hortel. It's being produced by MCC this fall.

Very exciting. It is a thrilling new musical. I'm in love with it. That's awesome. I know. When I first when you walked through the door and I asked you how you were doing, how rehearsals were going, it was a very enthusiastic, amazing. So you're not just saying it. No, I said to a couple friends, it was like, you guys, this is really good, and I don't say this about everything I'm in. Right. But it feels very special and very unique. And um uh I think people are gonna really like it. I think it's um life-affirming. It's about um six teenagers who die in a roller coaster accident, and so the show takes place after they all die, and they find out that one of them has the opportunity, they don't know which, one of them will get the opportunity to go back and live again, but they have to decide amongst themselves who it will be.

So the play is about them stepping forward one by one and kind of living out their hopes and dreams and what they wish to do. Yeah, making their case for why they should be alive, or talking about their fantasies for when they were alive and what their life was. And it's the whole show. It is quirky and weird and interesting, and it's about a life well lived. It's about what it means. It's like one part final destination five and like one part our town. Wow. Like that. It's so cool. That's amazing. It's so cool. It's so cool. I think it's a cool show. Yeah, that's right. Alright. Yeah, people please come see it. I think you'll you'll really like it.

[1:06:55] Alex Wyse: Well, thank you so much for talking. Oh, Rory, I'm so happy I did this with you. Good. You feel good about it? Yeah. Okay, you're good. [1:07:01] I think we covered all our grounds, right? Yeah, I mean, we could talk for many more hours. I know I don't want to kill people though, with like, I think this is long enough. No, this was this was good. Yeah, this was good. And you were very candid and vulnerable, and I really appreciate that because I think that we all should be more candid with each other. Thanks. If that makes sense. And I didn't sound like an asshole. Not at all. No. [1:07:25] Alex Wyse: Absolutely not. You can leave us on a copy of it. Until I find out what it is, and then after we're done recording, and then I'll be like very gently. No, no, no. Alright, thank you very much. Bye. Audition side job, swimming upstream. Believe it or not, you'll live in the dream.