The star of one of Hollywood’s biggest female comedies and now appearing in a beloved satire on Broadway, actress ROSE BYRNE is standing out for all the right reasons. She talks to ALISON PRATO about why she can’t stop laughing.
“I tend to laugh easily,” says Rose Byrne, taking a sip of water and settling into our booth at an Italian restaurant in New York’s West Village. The Australian actress, best known for her roles in the hit comedies Bridesmaids and this year’s Bad Neighbours, is sharing rehearsal stories for her first Broadway play, the classic comedy You Can’t Take It With You, also starring the much-loved James Earl Jones. “The other night, one of the actors slipped and I started laughing, and I couldn’t stop,” she says. “I just had to leave the stage. There was a whole paragraph I was supposed to say, but I just nodded and left!”
Byrne has a relaxed, self-assured air about her when she arrives at the restaurant, a little late, dressed in casual black pants from Topshop and a Madewell tank. Her slight tardiness is understandable: the 35-year-old is appearing in eight shows a week, plus rehearsals – a grueling schedule that means when she isn’t on stage, she’s rushing between her home in the East Village and the Longacre Theater in Midtown.
With her Broadway debut garnering favorable reviews and an upcoming role in the much-hyped remake of the musical Annie – as Grace, advisor to tycoon Will Stacks (the updated Daddy Warbucks role, played by Jamie Foxx) who takes in orphan Annie (Quvenzhané Wallis) – the actress’ star is no longer simply ‘rising’ but has finally reached its zenith. Her years of hard work, which began at the age of 13 when she appeared in Dallas Doll alongside Sandra Bernhard, are paying off with the type of strong roles she deserves.
Byrne’s appeal is undeniable, whether it’s her comedic flair – brilliantly on display in Bridesmaids as Kristen Wiig’s competitive rival Helen – or her standout performance in riveting TV legal thriller Damages, which won her two Emmy nods. Her path to leading lady may have been long, but it was also illustrious. From working alongside Natalie Portman in Star Wars Episode II (2002) and Brad Pitt in Troy (2004), not to mention being directed by Sofia Coppola in Marie Antoinette (2006), Byrne has continuously delivered impressive performances. But the actress is stoic about her experiences. “It’s hard, especially in this business and especially for women,” she says. “I hate to be a broken record about it, but if I compared my career to my male contemporaries, I feel like they get a lot more opportunities to play lead roles and have a potential story in something, whereas women’s roles as the wife or the mother are limited. It’s a harder thing for women to navigate.”
Byrne’s approach has been to never stop working. “I’ve always felt the need to prove [myself] again and again, and that can take its toll,” she says. “On a frustrating day, it’s like, ‘Ugh, I want to do something else.’ But I know essentially it’s what I love to do the most, even when there are times that it’s hard.
“I really admire people who wait, who have the wherewithal to say, ‘I’m not going to just do anything, I’m going to wait for something I love, whether it’s big or small.’ I think there’s a bravery in that, which I have probably lacked.”
One thing Byrne certainly doesn’t lack is an objective view on her industry. She credits her Damages co-star Glenn Close, whom she describes as “more of a friend than a mentor”, as having been integral in helping her cope with the intense pressure on actresses to subscribe to a specific version of aging and appearance.
“We talk about how [acting] is a completely different game now,” Byrne says of her conversations with Close. “There wasn’t as much scrutiny and it wasn’t such a beauty pageant [before].” So how does she cope with living under a microscope? “I look to people I admire, like Glenn or Julianne Moore or Meryl Streep,” she says. “Women who have incredible careers and lives and who look like women who are aging normally. That’s really inspiring to me.”
Byrne’s new survival philosophy is decidedly down to earth – she balances work with valuable, if rare, downtime. “You definitely need those times when you’re not working to replenish,” she says. This summer, for instance, she and her partner of more than two years, Blue Jasmine actor Bobby Cannavale, stayed in Manhattan, riding CitiBikes and subways, seeing live theater, visiting art galleries and museums (the recent Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art was “incredible”, she says), and calling in at her favorite local restaurants for dinner and drinks. “I find the city so inspiring,” says the actress. “It’s not for everybody, as it’s such an urban jungle, but I guess I’m a city mouse, not a country mouse.”
In keeping with her self-deprecating manner, Byrne’s aesthetic is subtle rather than statement. “My style is pretty functional,” she agrees. For red-carpet outings, she turns to Hollywood stylist Penny Lovell (whose other clients have included Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway and Taylor Schilling). “[Penny and I] have good chemistry and a good back-and-forth. She’ll suggest things that I wouldn’t necessarily gravitate towards,” explains Byrne. “I think a trap with a stylist is that you can end up not looking like yourself, and that’s not my desire; I still want to feel like me. My priority is my work, not the red carpet, so I have fun with it. It’s like a Cinderella moment anyway, because by 12am you’re putting everything back in the bag and dragging it down to the concierge [to return it].”
Byrne takes a last bite of a crostini and checks the time on her phone. It’s almost time for curtain up – again. “I’m a workhorse. I love to work; I love to keep busy. I think all work is noble, but saying that, it’s also good to wait for something that you really are passionate about,” she says with a smile. “I take my work seriously, but I don’t take myself too seriously.”
Rose Byrne stars in You Can’t Take It With You at Longacre Theater until 22 February, 2015.
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