In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast

Constance Wu joins In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast to tell us about playing her dream role of Audrey in the Off-Broadway revival of “Little Shop of Horrors.” Wu also dives deep into her life in the theater, as well as the mindset that got her to where she is. “The second that I think ‘this is my process and this is how I do it,’ that’s the second that I know I’m in trouble,” she says. --- Bac...

Yuri Lowenthal joins ‘In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast’ to tell us how he’s racked up more than 200 video game voice acting credits, including his biggest role: Sony and Insomniac’s Spider-Man. Yuri also details why, even with the ups and downs of the industry, his voiceover career has given him longevity as a performer. “You want to be a working actor,” he says. “You don't want to just be kno...

On this episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, Odom Jr. takes us behind the scenes of his Broadway homecoming in “Purlie Victorious,” the Tony winner’s first time on stage since “Hamilton.” “Theater as a whole really is fighting for its place on the American stage, for its usefulness and its value to us. But it feels as necessary and as valuable as ever before to me,” Odom Jr. says. “So...

In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast” is looking back at one of our favorite guests—Emmy nominee and the MCU’s Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan. (Originally released April 2022) -- Backstage has been the #1 resource for actors and talent-seekers for 60 years. In the Envelope, Backstage’s podcast, features intimate, in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy film, television, and the...

Casting director Eric Dawson is almost as responsible for Ryan Murphy’s vast TV empire as, well, Ryan Murphy himself. Along with his partners Robert J. Ulrich and Carol Kritze at Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting, Dawson has been in the audition room with Murphy since the late 1990s; he’s cast “Glee,” every season of “American Horror Story,” and, most recently, ‘Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Stor...

Alex Brigthman is no stranger to diving headfirst into Broadway shows based on beloved titles—after all, he’s a two-time Tony nominee for leading roles in “School of Rock” and “Beetlejuice.” But his latest project is in a bigger boat altogether. “The Shark Is Broken,” a new play that opened August 10th, captures the behind-the-scenes turmoil of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster, “Jaws.” Co-written by...

*This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike* Ayo Edebiri is everywhere in 2023, a year that includes five film roles, appearances in eight TV series, and her first ever Emmy nomination for playing sous-chef Sydney in Hulu’s “The Bear.” So it’s taken a bit to get used to the downtime she’s in now, thanks to careful planning (plus concurrent strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA). Either...

On this episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, Byrne guides us through her acting career, from getting rejected from drama school to her busy 2023, which includes two Apple TV+ series—Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller’s “Platonic” and Season 3 of Annie Weisman’s “Physical,” premiering August 2—plus a return to horror in Patrick Wilson’s “Insidious: The Red Door.” Editor’s note: Thi...

Ben Platt really loves live theater—and now, that passion for the stage is on full display in “Theater Camp,” the Christopher Guest-inspired mockumentary Platt co-wrote with longtime friends and collaborators Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Noah Galvin. Platt also co-stars alongside Gordon, who also co-directed with Lieberman. The film is a real labor of love, with its spotlight shining directly...

Jessica Williams found her dream job in the Apple TV+ dramedy “Shrinking”—and now she wants to ensure the next generation of performers has that same opportunity. “When I'm acting, and I'm doing a good scene, and I feel like I'm in my bag, quote unquote, it feels like flying,” Williams tells us. “I feel very comfortable when I'm acting on a really good job. I'm like, oh, I'm so lucky, this is why...

Natasha Lyonne has generative AI on the mind. “I would say almost at all times,” the star and executive producer of Rian Johnson’s “Poker Face” tells us. “I am agog that that is not the headline conversation on everyone's minds, considering it's so obviously about to change the world so radically for all of us, in all of our fields, so quickly.” In this episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podc...

Bella Ramsey is quickly becoming a household name talent thanks to hits like “Game of Thrones” and “The Last of Us.” It was only recently, though, that they admitted they might just be able to make a career out of this. “I used to say to people when they asked what I did, I'd say, ‘Oh I do acting,’” Ramsey tells us. “That eventually shifted to me saying, ‘I'm an actor.’ It's such a tiny little cha...

Jodie Comer scored a Tony nomination for Suzie Miller’s ‘Prima Facie,’ the one-woman show in which she plays a barrister, Tessa, whose sense of self is upended by a sexual assault. It’s an astonishing, 100-minute whirlwind where Comer doesn’t leave the stage once. To watch her take audiences on that journey night after night, it’s easy to forget that Comer—best known for TV thriller “Killing Eve”...

Haley Lu Richardson, best known for playing Gen Z poster-child Portia in “The White Lotus” season 2, has been angling to dance in a musical for at least 12 years. “I've been putting this out into the universe since I was 16. That's my biggest dream, for sure,” Richardson tells us. (She’s currently “talking to people about it,” she adds. There are “ideas circulating.”) That desire isn’t just a thro...

Charlie Day is the co-creator of TV’s longest-running live-action sitcom, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” the voice of Luigi in the box office hit “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” and writer-director of the star-studded new comedy “Fool’s Paradise.” And he wants any creatives looking to emulate that success know that the doubt never goes away—you just have to use it. "You're gonna be filled wit...

The role of intimacy coordinator is a relatively new one in the entertainment industry; at its core, it's designed to make sex scenes on set and stage safer and more comfortable for the actors involved. While the professionals shaping this position come from different backgrounds and have adopted their own unique approaches, the origins of intimacy coordination lie in a desperate need that went un...

How did Jessie Mei Li go from teaching assistant to West End alum and lead of Netflix’s “Shadow & Bone” in just a few short years? Besides a bundle of talent (always helps!), the young actor comes equipped with a laser focus on what they want. “When I feel like I'm on the right path, it's almost like you're not going to stop me from doing it,” Li tells us. “When I got the part in 'Shadow & Bone,'...

Stephanie Hsu is a newly minted Oscar nominee—one of 11 historic nods for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the madcap multiverse epic with a primarily AAPI cast. But for the NYU Tisch graduate, this recognition from the Academy is far more than a personal milestone. “Ever since I was coming up in New York, I was taught that anytime you have a voice, you have to use it for good,” she says. “Tha...

Brendan Fraser was never really that far away—but when you’re as beloved as he was, any retreat at all feels like a loss. Luckily, the actor is back in a major way with Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” a role that earned him his first Oscar nomination, and a renewed sense of self. “I know how wanting this profession can make people become… it can really change your brain chemistry to turn you into...

Anyone familiar with Paul Walter Hauser from lighthearted romps like “Cobra Kai” and “Cruella” might be surprised to learn his performance in the Apple TV+ true crime series “Black Bird'' is genuinely one of the most unnerving in recent history. But for Hauser, taking on the role of serial killer Larry Hall—which has earned him Golden Globes and Critics Choice wins to go with a SAG nomination—was...

Ke Huy Quan found instant success as a child actor with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies”—and then he stepped away for decades, unsure if he’d ever return. Now? Quan is an Oscar nominee for the role of Waymond Wang in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” just one of 11 nominations for the universe-hopping A24 action-comedy. "I've waited more than 30 years for this. Don't giv...

Barry Keoghan woke up the morning after his first Golden Globes ceremony—where his latest project, “The Banshees of Inisherin,” took home three wins—to learn that “Banshees'' had also nabbed five Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, including a supporting actor nod for himself. But even as a newly crowned awards season favorite, the native of Summerhill, Dublin always seeks to remember his root...

Olivia Cooke just had the biggest year of her career, thanks to HBO’s hit “Game of Thrones” spinoff, “House of the Dragon.” Part of creating her standout performance as Alicent Hightower was accepting not every part of her process would line up exactly with the massive amount of fan expectations surrounding the show. “Whatever layers I try to give the character in order to make a more nuanced perf...

Austin Butler is building Oscars buzz for his lead performance in “Elvis”—the peak of an inspiring journey that started with background and one-line roles in children’s TV. "I look back on Nickelodeon shows or Disney things that I did, and... even though my skill wasn't there, I still had a mentality of wanting to give the energy of if I was gonna go make ‘Raging Bull,’ '' he says. “I just kept th...

Eddie Redmayne is an Oscar, Tony, SAG, and Olivier Award winner because he puts in the work. Whether it’s a “Cabaret” revival, the massive “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, or quiet true crime character studies like “The Good Nurse,” the actor always finds his character in the preparation. “The more you can go and just gain insight into what [the role] is, the more ideas you can come with on the day,”...