My worst moment: ‘Gossip Girl’ star Laura Benanti on revealing more than she intended on the Broadway stage
Laura Benanti stars in the new “Gossip Girl” reboot from HBO Max, but her role on the show has been shrouded in secrecy. What can she say about her character? “Literally nothing. The words I’m allowed to say are: ‘I’m so thrilled to be a part of this.’”
But it wasn’t daunting to step into a project that aims to reimagine a series that already had such an entrenched pop cultural footprint. “I’ve done a lot of revivals of shows on stage and this feels like that to me,” Benanti said, “so I’ve been in this position before. It’s not my job to be exactly like the people before me.”
On screen, Benanti’s credits include “Law & Order: SVU,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Nashville” and “Younger.” She’s also known for her recurring turn as Melania Trump on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” But Benanti is a Broadway actor at heart, with the Tony nominations and a win in 2008 for “Gypsy” to prove it.
When asked about a worst moment in her career, of course it would be a memory from her time on stage. “I have so many stories,” she said. “One is just too sad to talk about: I broke my neck on stage while I was doing ‘Into the Woods’ (in 2002). And there was the time my microphone was on and I was complaining about the audience. That’s pretty cringey.” But an especially embarrassing memory, she said, was from a performance on Broadway in a show called “Swing.”
My worst moment …
“This was in 2001. I was 19 years old. It was my second Broadway show and my first Tony nomination, but this story I’m about to tell you happened before I was nominated. In the show, I had a trick dress, meaning: What appeared to be a cape around my shoulders, when I tugged on it, it actually opened up and became a long flowing sexy dress. So initially it looked like I was covered in this matronly dress, and then I unclipped it and it became this sexy dress.
“And the way it was constructed, the bra was built into it. So it started out as a cape and a skirt and it became a long gown with a beaded bodice and a very low sweetheart neckline. And every night I would do it and the audience would go, ‘Oooh!’
“But one night I did it and the audience was like, ‘Gasp!’ And I was thinking: Oh, I must look good! And I kept singing. And then I looked down and my boob was out. It was just me, alone on stage, doing a solo. I was like: Well, everybody’s seen my boob. I mean, I heard their reaction, they definitely saw.
“So I quickly put it back in there, the audience sort of laughed, and then I kept going. But I was just mortified for the entire rest of the show because I had always been really self-conscious about my boobs; I developed so early on that it was something I always tried to hide. So it was showing people my most mortifying secret. I was just deeply self-conscious about my body, and I was in a show with all swing dancers who had 0% body fat.
“I was sobbing hysterically when I went backstage and one of the most seasoned dancers, she was a big Fosse dancer, she was like: ‘Listen, this happens to all of us. It’s just something that happens — we’ve got you and we love you.’ She wasn’t like, ‘Ah, shake it off.’ She was like, ‘It’s hard when that happens,’ and she validated my feelings and assured me that I would be fine. And I was. I was able to let it go.
“But when I came out of the stage door afterward to get lunch — because it was a matinee — a boy who was like 10 said to me, ‘This was my first time seeing a Broadway show and I loved it.’ (Laughs) I was like, ‘Got it.’
“I had to do another show that night, and I was extremely nervous before that number and was just quadruple-checking that everything was where it was supposed to be. And that became my new ritual.”
Would she ever do a project that required nudity?
“No, I avoid it. I barely want to see myself nude. I’m not one of those people who’s like (sings) body positivity! My husband will be like, ‘Are you covering yourself up while you change?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know. I don’t know why.’ I’m just a very prudish person (laughs).”
The takeaway …
“I think up until then I had a very limited ability to withstand embarrassment and discomfort, and that experience hedged me toward being more able to shake things off. It was a really good lesson in: You just have to keep going.
“Especially in musical theater, I think we’re taught not to fail. Perfection is a big part of it and that doesn’t really serve you as an artist. So it wasn’t until I really started allowing myself to loosen up, for lack of a better term, and allow myself to fail and not make the perfect choice, that I felt like I came into my own as an actor.
“So yes, this was an incredibly embarrassing moment — probably one of the most embarrassing things that could happen to someone — but it didn’t kill me, you know? It helped increase my bandwidth for discomfort.”
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