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[0:13] Robert Bannon: Welcome to the Roundtable, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeart. We're everywhere. We're taking over the world. Taking over. You know why I'm taking over? Because we get to talk to some of the greatest artists and actors and singers and all that stuff that's out here. I don't know how to describe our next guest. He is a voice, he is a singer, he is a Broadway baby, he is an actor. I don't, he's been in so many commercials, video games, TV shows. IMDB says like 60 something, 68. I don't know. Maybe that's a lie. Maybe it's even more. But we're gonna go in a deep dive. We're gonna find out the scoop. Michael Leon Wooley is here. He he's been everything from an alligator to the in the Music Man. You know, that's what we're talking about. Michael, welcome to the show.

[1:06] Michael Leon Wooley: Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be here.

[1:08] Robert Bannon: You have such a fun career.

[1:12] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes.

[1:14] Robert Bannon: Oh sure.

[1:15] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes.

[1:15] Robert Bannon: I mean, there's not many people who have been in Grand Theft Auto and a Disney movie.

[1:23] Michael Leon Wooley: That's true. That's true. I played everything from cockroaches to alligators.

[1:28] Robert Bannon: So see, there you go. That's called range, people. It's got a range. Yeah. When you were growing up in Virginia, did you what was the original goal? What was the dream?

[1:39] Michael Leon Wooley: Well, I started off playing piano. I started playing piano when I was five years old. And um, you know, I used to play the neighbor's piano or bang on it, as they would say. My mother would say playing it. And they suggested that I get piano lessons. So my mother and my parents got a piano and I began piano lessons at five years old. For 10, 12 years I thought I was gonna be a concert pianist to study classically for a long time but I ended up playing in a orchestra pit for a community theater production of 1776 and I remember looking up through the pit on stage and decided I'd rather be upstage in the light rather than down here in the dark and that kind of began my musical theater career.

[2:30] Robert Bannon: Your musical theater and theater career I read on your bio if it's true because you never know on the internet.

[2:30] Michael Leon Wooley: You never know.

[2:37] Robert Bannon: You never that you you decided not to study classical music. You went to AMDA and you know what's funny when we talk about Maxi Low, you know, I feel like all the best drag queens came from AMDA.

[2:48] Michael Leon Wooley: They all, there's a lot yes that is hilarious. I think AMDA is putting out the good actors and the good drag queens.

[2:58] Robert Bannon: Amazing. I did not know that. And then Broadway you you came to New York and then Broadway was kind of the first calling the first big um uh yes uh well tell you that the um I went to AMDA I got a scholarship to AMDA but um I uh I wasn't asked back for the second year I was listening I was new to New York I was partying a lot I was um you know and plus I thought I knew everything young and dumb and um so I went out to break out on my own and I thought, I'll stay in New York and show them. And then I went to like a hundred and seven auditions before I got my first job and uh yeah, and then it started. I think it was a national tour of the musical Pearly. I was in the chorus, 300 bucks a week. And um, you could not tell me I had not arrived. That's just them up there singing love, love, love.

[3:53] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes!

[3:55] Robert Bannon: A great, great show.

[3:57] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes.

[3:58] Robert Bannon: And you did not only did you do Pearly, you you did The Wiz with Stephanie Mills on tour.

[4:03] Michael Leon Wooley: I did. I did that for a few months, you know. Uh yeah, that was great. I was um I understudied The Lion, and um, I was in the chorus of that, and that was a great time. That was a great time.

[4:14] Robert Bannon: Yeah. I mean, you can't make these gigs up when you read your list, they're just fun.

[4:19] Michael Leon Wooley: I know it's a time and a place. Like there ain't nothing like Ain't Misbehaving with the Pointer Sisters. I mean, you have been on the road.

[4:26] Robert Bannon: Listen, I was on a road for the a year with the Pointer Sisters, and that might have been one of my favorite jobs. It was my favorite time on stage. Um, you know, touring is rough, but those two hours on stage, I loved every minute of it. And um, yeah.

[4:45] Michael Leon Wooley: I wish I could have got a ticket to see the Pointer Sisters. You know what's funny? I always tell this um when in my little show, like my parents were not stage parents at all, and I told them I wanted to sing, and they took me to an audition for a regional production of Ain't Misbehaving. And I was like, not not I got typed out of that role real quick. That's the kind of one of the most iconic shows of all time. And uh see you, you and the Pointer Sisters do it is perfect. So when Broadway came, what did it feel like for you, you know um to do that?

[5:19] Michael Leon Wooley: I was just talking about this the other day, you know again I Five Guys came out, it was my first show, and um I uh remembered my final audition for that um I had auditioned and I got a call back and um I was given you know 10 a.m and the address was 230 West 47th Street and I'm like off to like a rehearsal studio or you know where they hold auditions and I get to 230 and it's just an address on the door and it is backstage at the Eugene O'Neill Theater and the auditions were held on stage on the Broadway stage the callbacks with um all the seats in the house covered in plastic except for this one little section that had a table with the director and the producers and it was you know they don't do things like that anymore but um we were there all day and singing and dancing and they put us through the ringer and um yes and actually um I was I started off as a cover for two of the Mo's and um I shared a dressing room with another actor who covered the three other roles and that was Billy Porter and um so me and Billy shared a dressing room for a year.

[6:32] Michael Leon Wooley: Um I love Billy and you know Billy's extra Billy is extra extra you know but I love him even I don't know about that hair did you see recently oh I did I was like little Richard called and he wants his hair back um but um but I love Billy and I think he there's even a he wrote a section in his book is about me I didn't read it but um I get texts every occasionally like Billy there's a story about you in the book.

[7:05] Robert Bannon: There sure there sure is, and the book is great. And I hope you know and and Broadway then became a a thing for you for a while. Like the like Music Man, and I mean you were the voice of Audrey II in the Little Shop Revival. I remember seeing it and loving it. And um, it's iconic. Um, when did voice work become a thing?

[7:26] Michael Leon Wooley: How my gosh. Um that was not your original because there are actors out here, the Rob Paulsons and the people out here who do, I am a voiceover actor. That's what I do.

[7:29] Robert Bannon: That was not your original plan.

[7:41] Michael Leon Wooley: It was not, but it was my side gig, my side hustle to um make money. Um and uh I it approached I I can't remember how exactly, but I was approached about it, and um, I think it was at an agent that said um oh uh CD Oscar agency, they signed me, and they also had a voiceover department and a commercial department, and it started there, and then I was in with everyone, J. Michael Bloom and ICM. Um, but uh yeah, I would do commercials, you know, and um uh it subsidized my living. Um but I can I never thought of it as a voiceover actor, I was just an actor. It was like one of the things I did, um, not until you know now I'm a voiceover actor.

[8:30] Michael Leon Wooley: Yeah, dozens and dozens and dozens of characters and movies, like movies and and and your voice pops up all over them and commercials, and commercials, and you know, how about this? Not many people know this, and it's not public at all, but um you go to AMC movie theaters, you'll hear me say, Um, welcome to AMC. Don't talk, don't text, don't ruin the movie. Are you an AMC Stubbs A list rewards member? A very special? Thanks to you. That is me.

[9:02] Robert Bannon: That is you?

[9:04] Michael Leon Wooley: Me.

[9:05] Robert Bannon: That is you right before Nicole Kidman comes with the Yes.

[9:09] Michael Leon Wooley: I call Nicole Kidman my work wife. I'm like, Nicole's leaving tuna fish in the refrigerator again. You know.

[9:16] Robert Bannon: I always feel bad because I'm usually texting while you tell me to stop texting.

[9:21] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes. Well, I'm usually going to the bathroom, so it's all good.

[9:24] Robert Bannon: Well, when I go see Superman this weekend, I'm gonna say, Michael, leave me alone.

[9:31] Michael Leon Wooley: I have a lot of people I know that talk like, hi Michael, or um, I get some text messages. I mean, I I don't know where they're from. That's a text message with just their videoing the screen and hearing my voice just out of the blue sometimes at two o'clock in the afternoon, you know.

[9:49] Robert Bannon: Well, I'm gonna send you one tomorrow when I'm at the movies.

[9:53] Michael Leon Wooley: Go for it, go for it. And besides this voiceover work, I just want people to see. I mean, you are you do show up in in Dream Girls.

[9:57] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes.

[9:57] Robert Bannon: You do show up in AJ and the Queen.

[10:04] Michael Leon Wooley: I sure do.

[10:05] Robert Bannon: You you have built a career of stage voice and on screen. And how do you manage? Is it as the jobs come? Do you tell your team like let's make money and work? Or do you say today I'm an actor, tomorrow I'm a voiceover? How does it work?

[10:20] Michael Leon Wooley: Well, um, I uh, you know, I take the work as I get it. Um, I'm fortunate enough to be my um my my career has taken a big change in the last couple of years. Uh uh I can talk about it a little bit, but I am voiceover is kind of my mainstay, and it allows me kind of to pick and choose and do what I want to do. Like I don't have to do a gig. I don't want to do um, but uh yeah, I just like working, and um as jobs come, um yeah, I uh do them and it's good. Uh I will say that I took a transition to writing, and um that's been kind of my thing now. I write movies and screenplays, and um I kind of quit acting, except for animation and voiceover and cartoons. I will do cartoons to, you know, they'll have to drag me into a casket to stop me from doing cartoons.

Um I was working on two last week. So I do love that, but the other acting stuff I just kind of have on hold now because I'm writing, and um I started writing a few years ago, and I wrote a script and it garnered a lot of attention, and um, and uh UTA approached me wanting to package it into a movie, and then a few months later, A24 called wanting to do a development deal, and they optioned my first script. And um, that you know, I think I quit acting that day. I was like, I'm good, I'm good.

[11:54] Robert Bannon: I quit acting for you.

[11:54] Michael Leon Wooley: That sounds pretty damn amazing to me. And and I have a second script that now is in production. Well, now we're starting a pre production with Kevin and Kevin Hart's company, Heartbeat and Macro. It's a big comedy, and we just um I can I guess I could say because we finalized her contract um just yesterday or two days ago, um for our lead in the movie, and that is it's still crazy to even say this, Kiki Palmer. Um, so yeah, that's an I'm a producer on that movie as well. So most of my days are like kind of spent. I know. By the way, you looking around is what I do all the time in the past few weeks. Like, who am I? Where am I? What is happening? Kiki Palmer. My movie. And then the other A24. A24. That's just you. Why are you here? I'm I don't do interviews anymore.

[12:56] Robert Bannon: What are you doing here?

[13:01] Michael Leon Wooley: Well, I'm trying to stay humble. That's why I did it. I like well thank I appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, well, we could follow you uh on social media.

[13:09] Michael Leon Wooley: Yeah, ML Woolley, I think I'm ML Wooly everywhere.

[13:12] Robert Bannon: ML Wooly, we could follow you so we could see up to date on all of the work that's to come. And the movies, apparently, your your voice will play before your movie plays.

[13:23] Michael Leon Wooley: Wait, can't wait. There will be no talking to me. There will be no interviews. I will tell I tell my friends, you will have to talk to my assistant to say hello to me. You know, you think that back when you were at AMDA, you thought you knew everything. Just wait. Just wait. Yeah. Just wait. Um, while we're here, I you can hear his voice right now, and there's there's a brand new movie that's out called Maxi Lowell, Drag Super-Shero, which is so much fun, which is available on demand with some of the biggest drag queens in the entire world.

[13:55] Michael Leon Wooley: I don't know, maybe some went to Amda. And um and uh it's streaming, and you can find all the information out at maxi.com. I'm I shouldn't say this because I'm married now. I might have dated one of them for a moment. Okay, you know, listen, we all have a past. I have my own cigarette out for this film. It's so good. The voices are so good. Everybody is so good. It's a lot of fun. It's really great. And you're you play the bad guy, girl.

[14:24] Michael Leon Wooley: Uh, I don't know if I'm the bad guy. I mean, I'm thinking I'm uh uh more of a uh a fairy godmother. Okay. Um literally. Oh, Taryn is the bad guy, yeah, yeah. I can help him on his journey to finding himself and performing in drag. Um I love it. This is so much fun. I'm I need to check it out. I I'm going to watch it this weekend because we love drag, we love this representation for the drag community in the world right now. We need all the love for our queer brothers and sisters and people and and this and getting the love out that is dragged out to the world. So much fun.

[15:01] Robert Bannon: What is it like for you to work for the mouse?

[15:03] Michael Leon Wooley: And now you you have a new generation of people who hear like my godson Sam, he couldn't care if if Bernadette Peters was on this show. He couldn't care when I have you know great singers on. But if I say that this is on the show, I'm a superstar. I mean, yeah, there's Lewis. I love Lewis. Um, he is great. And I I'm so we're all so honored that the movie has had a kind of resurgence over the past few years, and um it is very popular. And now with the ride at Disneyland and Disney World, which I have uh been on both, um, and they're both great.

[15:46] Michael Leon Wooley: I will say, you're gonna get wet. You will get wet. Um, but it's great. It's and it's you know, it's so funny. People always were asking me, how does it feel to be you know immortalized in this ride? And I was like, that's great, but you know, the movie I feel kind of is the thing. But I'll say the ride is pretty cool. And um, especially since um, you know, the the ride is a story of Lewis and Tiana take you on a journey to find musicians, and um they have built eight animatronic Lewises that are like eight feet tall that are along the ride, and it's very it's amazing and very surreal for me.

[16:38] Michael Leon Wooley: It's very um, I remember I went to Disney Imagineering and they showed me the um, which is all over the internet, they showed me um the first Lewis that they had built that moved and all this stuff. I'm 6'4, and he was like taller than me. Um, and uh it's thrilling, it's thrilling when I first ride, you know, and then you keep going, and there's another Lewis, and you know, there's one stuck in a log. And um uh it's really really thrilling. But I'm just so honored to play Lewis and the impact it's had um to people and kids, especially people young kids of color.

[17:19] Michael Leon Wooley: Um, I was in the grocery store uh a few weeks ago, and um I turned the corner, and this kid, he might have been about 22, walking with his father toward me, and he just goes, you know, and um I knew exactly, and I I knew it was about Lewis, and um I said hi, and he took pictures with him. He was so excited, he was like, You're such a big part of my childhood, you know. Yeah, you know, can't top that stuff.

[17:49] Michael Leon Wooley: Okay, I thought I taught 22 musical theater children last summer in New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, all young actresses of color. And when it came to be like, 'What song are we gonna sing for the recital? ' They were like, almost there, almost there, almost there. Oh Tiana and and this movie and the representation that that movie has shown um is is is gonna live forever. Yeah, I mean, young black girls when they find out I'm Lewis can sometimes burst into tears. You know, it's uh it's a very powerful thing.

[18:23] Michael Leon Wooley: So I like that movie. I love that movie. We all do. I am so your career is the coolest career ever. I'm just obsessed.

[18:32] Robert Bannon: I'm obsessed with the new chapter.

[18:34] Michael Leon Wooley: Um look, he's like, I've done it already. Now I'm gonna just sit back and be an executive, just mail me my check.

[18:40] Robert Bannon: Oh, I'm here for it. This is yeah, it's um it's a ride.

[18:45] Michael Leon Wooley: It's a ride, and um, I think any most careers in show business, uh, you know, uh, I say it's like a roller coaster, and it goes up and it goes down, but just enjoy the ride.

[18:58] Robert Bannon: Do you look back now at the journey and and you see things that didn't work out or ways the heartbreak of certain things, and now it all makes sense? Is there a certain sense of yeah?

[19:09] Michael Leon Wooley: I yes, I'll tell you one thing. I um uh I did one of the first workshops of Book of Mormon. Uh, I actually, you know, did originate that role of uh the general. Um, if I can say I think it's butt fucking naked, it was me who came up with the patch over the eye. I was like, um, I would like to have a patch because I think it's funny. And um that um did that workshop, and they were gonna do another workshop right before going to Broadway, the pre-Broadway workshop.

[19:46] Michael Leon Wooley: And um uh it was at the same time that the Princess in the Frog was nominated for an Oscar. And I had this window of a few weeks to go to meet LA and take all these meetings off the crest of um uh Princess and the Frog, but it was at the same time as the um workshop for Book of Mormon. And um, and they weren't offering rights of first refusal. Do you know what that is?

[20:16] Michael Leon Wooley: A write of first refusal, where if you do the workshop, they have to offer it to you first to refuse um before they take it out. And um Scott Rudin, I think it was at the time, was in only to the two leads were they giving rights of first refusal to no one else, and it was a hard, hard decision, and um partially on principle, but partially it was so big. I chose to go to LA and take those meetings as opposed to doing the pre-Broadway workshop.

[20:47] Michael Leon Wooley: And I went to LA, took all these meetings, it was great, and then of course the show opened, and it's a huge fat, sloppy hit. And there were days. Oh God. When I would go onto a subway car by myself, and it's all just Book of Mormon. And I remember like uh not looking around, it's on every billboard, every news cover, every, you know, everywhere. But it was fine. Things happen for a reason.

[21:19] Michael Leon Wooley: And um, um, but I will say, and the head of my agency taught tells this um because that decision um was a good decision because it that those meetings laid the groundwork for the career that I have today. Um, and um I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for those meetings that I took. Those meetings really started my career in Los Angeles.

[21:45] Robert Bannon: What a great, what a great lesson that it is. It's all happens the way it's kind of supposed to be.

[21:50] Michael Leon Wooley: And in the moment it may not, but it it'll panned out. In the moment it can suck.

[21:57] Robert Bannon: There's no way, there's no way to sugarcoat it. It can suck.

[22:01] Michael Leon Wooley: But um, but yeah. Have you always been fun with voices?

[22:06] Robert Bannon: Like, were you a kid making voices?

[22:08] Michael Leon Wooley: No. Um, and I am not a um, I think it's called ancillary voices. Like, I don't have like a hundred different voices. Um, I have kind of a niche, I have a my voice is so it's funny because I on some cartoons they sometimes ask me to do other characters, small insular characters, but my voice is so I always sound like Michael Leon Wooley no matter what I'm doing, no matter how I change my voice.

[22:37] Michael Leon Wooley: It's like, well, it still sounds like him. I know I still might um I'm not Hank Azaria or anything, but um I do like um, yeah, I'm good behind a microphone, and especially acting. I think it's a lot of my theater background, you know. You know, uh, and you just gotta go in and play, you know, and uh that is the most fun.

[23:01] Michael Leon Wooley: I I had to do a cartoon the other day. I look forward to going in. It was like, what is it? What is it? Yeah.

[23:09] Robert Bannon: That's so much fun.

[23:10] Michael Leon Wooley: I'm obsessed with the idea of you getting to do your work and do your art, but do it in a recording studio, and you don't have to worry about hair and makeup and tra like you you get to just go have fun, do the fun part.

[23:21] Michael Leon Wooley: Sometimes they're lucky if I brush my teeth and put on shoes. You know, and you don't have to memorize lines, read them right up. That is the best. I can't memorize anything anymore.

[23:34] Michael Leon Wooley: That is it's right, and it's and it's done. And I get to do crazy stuff. And I'm working on a uh uh a project now. Um, also we never I now it's mostly by ourselves. Like in the past, we would get together the whole cast and do cartoons, the best days ever. Um, but now we do it a lot by ourselves since COVID.

[23:54] Michael Leon Wooley: And um, I was working on a cartoon, and uh another actor was coming out as I was leaving, uh not coming leaving the studio as I was going into the studio, and I got a chance to say hello and chat, someone I hadn't seen in a long time, and uh we're working on didn't realize we were both working on the same cartoon.

[24:11] Michael Leon Wooley: We're actually playing brothers, but it was um Leslie Odom Jr. Oh and uh so it was great.

[24:24] Robert Bannon: We love Leslie.

[24:25] Michael Leon Wooley: We love Leslie. Um all the Broadway babies who go on to be big stars like you, Michael.

[24:32] Robert Bannon: Um, uh we we like all of the chops from doing eight shows a week, and I think that makes a huge difference.

[24:38] Michael Leon Wooley: Absolutely. Uh it is, you know, I always say, you know, like uh, especially like TV and film, every people can be a little delicate. Like, you know, if you ask someone who's just started a race through doing TV and film, someone says, could you jump on that box? They're like, I don't know.

[24:59] Michael Leon Wooley: But theater people, like, sure. What jump on the box? Where is it? You know. Let's go. Let's do this, you know. Like, what do you want?

[25:12] Robert Bannon: See, that's that attitude, and that's what keeps you working.

[25:14] Michael Leon Wooley: Uh well, maxi.com is where you can get the new the new film, and then we can go to Instagram and follow. So the projects, the writing, we can look for the future, more announcements to come, more writing to come.

[25:26] Michael Leon Wooley: Yes, there are announcements will be coming soon on projects. My Instagram is right now, it's just crazy with me posting the most ridiculous things. Do not judge me by what you see. There's a flood of there's now a flood of videos from the uh Jet 2 holiday.

[25:44] Robert Bannon: I love it.

[25:45] Michael Leon Wooley: I'm following, I'm following right now. I want to say thank you to you because your career has given a lot of joy. The voices that you've made, the music that you've sung, the the the screen time that you've given us on and on stage has given a lot of joy.

[25:59] Michael Leon Wooley: I know there are millions and millions of people who are out here smiling when they get to see what you do and hear what you've done. And um, we're so lucky and grateful that we got to spend some time with you.

[26:09] Michael Leon Wooley: Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for, you know, I forget about some of the things you mentioned a lot. So reminding me. I am, you know, listen, I'm the biggest thing is I'm grateful. I'm full of gratitude today. Um, you know, no matter how my life is, to say I'm living a life beyond my wildest dreams is an insult to wildest dreams.

[26:31] Robert Bannon: Oh, I love that.

[26:33] Michael Leon Wooley: When his phone rings, it could be Brad Pitt at 824 at any moment. And you don't even know.

[26:37] Robert Bannon: Yeah, I can't talk.

[26:38] Michael Leon Wooley: I had a call the other day about two stars that I just I I mean, I was just like, what is happening? You know, so it's um it's an exciting time.

[26:49] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[26:49] Michael Leon Wooley: Well, we're hanging on with you. We're sending you all good vibes. We're excited, we're rooting for you. We're we're Team Michael, and we're here for it.

[26:55] Robert Bannon: We're here for the whole thing.

[26:57] Michael Leon Wooley: Uh everybody, make sure you follow, make sure you check out the movie. And um, and next time you go to AMC, uh that's it.

[27:03] Michael Leon Wooley: Yeah, I'm gonna be here this weekend. I'll say this. Enjoy the show.

[27:08] Michael Leon Wooley: Enjoy it.

[27:09] Robert Bannon: Ah, I love it so much. I'm sending you a video of this.

[27:13] Michael Leon Wooley: I'm gonna be a basic bitch and send a video this weekend.

[27:16] Robert Bannon: I did. Thank you so much for being here. My show's your show anytime.

[27:22] Michael Leon Wooley: Done. Anytime call me.