There’s an art to establishing cross-over appeal in Hollywood. When an actor even slightly transitions from one genre to another, it becomes somewhat of a footnote on the trajectory of someone’s career. Considering how much pressure there is on performers to be versatile enough to move into different mediums, actress and singer Megan Hilty has seamlessly switched from one medium to the next and back again, while managing to keep a fresh perspective. The trick is thinking about longevity, and for Hilty it doesn’t exist in just one genre or the other.
While there’s a bit of luck involved, Hilty played to her strengths early on. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, the theater major scored a rather iconic role as Glinda in Broadway’s Wicked, following on the heels of Kristin Chenoweth’s performance. She stayed for a year and later reprised her role in the original Los Angeles production in 2007.
Hilty broke out in a big way by utilizing her strengths to springboard her career in a new and exciting direction in 2012 in NBC’s Smash. In the short-lived musical series, she played a competitive and misunderstood actress who possesses all the qualities of Marilyn Monroe, but doesn’t exude the wide-eyed ingénue spirit to break out in the coveted role for a fictionalized but fully realized Broadway show aptly titled Bombshell.
Now Hilty has added another line to her résumé: voice actress. In the role of China Princess in the animated film Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, Hilty not only shows off her comedic timing but also goes note to note while holding her own with other versatile talents like Lea Michele (Dorothy) and Hugh Dancy (Marshal Mallow).
Paste spoke with Hilty about the movie, the art of making transitions and her newest role yet—motherhood.
Paste: You’ve played all of these iconic roles in different mediums from Glinda in Wicked, to flirting with Marilyn in the TV series Smash, and now Legends of Oz. Is it ever intimidating?
Megan Hilty: Always. (laughs) Luckily, my first job ever was playing Glinda after Kristin Chenoweth played it, and she just set the bar so high. I really had to come to terms with the fact that I would never give that performance, and I wouldn’t do the amazing things people were expecting. I had to be really okay with what I brought to the table and so I kind of brought that to every other role since then, but it’s always daunting.
Paste: Do you pull in other people’s performances in to your research?
Hilty: Oh, absolutely. I try to do as much research as I can to see what’s done before, but I do make it a point to put my own stamp on it.
Paste: It’s a really exciting season for theater. The Tony nominations just came out. Since you just moved back to New York, is there a particular show you’re excited to see?
Hilty: I’m just so excited for all of them. I haven’t seen many of them because I’ve been living in LA ,but I just saw Bridges of Madison County last night, which didn’t get Best Musical but it was beautiful. Kelli O’Hara has a much deserved nomination. She was stunning in that role. It’s going to be a really great Tonys!
Paste: Did you see this kind of career for yourself, acting in both film and television?
Hilty: I never thought that I would even want to go into television or film. It wasn’t until I went out to Los Angeles with Wicked and started getting these little guest-starring roles that I thought, “Well, maybe I should branch out and do other things like all of my heroes have.” Maybe that’s the key to longevity in this business, is to do as many things as possible. On top of that, I always want to feel like I’m learning something new.
Paste: Who are some of your heroes who have made the transition from stage to screen?
Hilty: Audra McDonald and Kristin Chenoweth—any of the greats that have crossed over into film and television.
Paste: Some people say that the transition from theater to film is the easiest thing in the world, and others say it’s difficult. Where do you stand on that?
Hilty: It was a little difficult only in that a lot of people feel like theater people are “too big” for the camera, like we’re going to be doing “big Broadway acting.” So many people think that and then you start to believe it, too. You go in, and at first you give these awful performances because you think, “This is my ‘small camera’ acting.” It’s a little tough, but luckily people let me in the door to do all of these guest-starring roles and then my actual first TV series I got to sing.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
