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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

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_ It’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato, and if you've been watching all week, 30th anniversary, the best of the best, some of the interviews that were not so great, we put them away so you don't see those.

We've talked to sports figures, you've seen people in government, authors, all kinds of fascinating people.

But tonight, which is at the final night of the five days of the best of 30 years of our programming, we talk to actors: people who've been in movies, television, the greatest of the greats on Broadway.

There's a New Jersey connection with some of them, but some of them are just iconic figures.

And they're not just great performers, great actors, but they're interesting, compelling, complex, complicated, and compelling interviews.

Let's check out some terrific actors.

(upbeat music) - When you start out as an actor, 'cause that's really what my first focus was, you have to be really deluded (Steve laughing) about your own talent.

- What's that mean?

- You have to think your talent is so special that you're gonna succeed in this business, that's virtually impossible to succeed in.

So you really do, because there's an enormous amount, for me and for a lot of my colleagues, an enormous amount of rejection in the beginning.

I went on audition after audition that you got in the trade newspapers, which I don't even know if they have today, for plays that didn't pay any money.

And you'd show up on a Saturday morning, there'd be 300 people there waiting to audition.

And you know, I did that for a long time.

And so you have to have a really kind of warped sense of your own worth (laughs) and ability, 'cause otherwise- - I have a thick skin.

- Very thick skin.

- Incredibly thick.

- Well, that's part of it.

So the thick skin comes because you have a real, you have to have a real strong belief in yourself.

- We saw some clips of you doing some pretty diverse things.

Playing some pretty diverse characters.

- [Daphne] Yeah.

- Do you ever feel pigeonholed, typecast, or the whole thing about, you know, she's a Latina so she does this, but you can't do that?

- Well, no, because you get what you focus on, which is a great, a great lesson.

Do you know, and I think, but when you said I play diverse characters, I agree with you, but I mean, you know, I'm a Latina and I played a junkie with AIDS, and I played a cop, and I play a domestic.

And, you know, I mean, Magenta in Rocky Horror is a domestic, you know.

She happens to be from another planet, but.

- [Steve] Minor detail.

- But she's an alien domestic.

So I think, you know, you know, it's always either like a maid, a dope fiend, or you know, a public, a civil servant or something.

But the truth is the limitations.

I have found that my limitations are my strengths.

- Talk to me a little bit about the visceral reaction you get from your audience.

What does it feel like for you?

- Well, it starts when I'm in my dressing room just finishing my makeup, and I can hear them gathering.

And you hear this noise of the people coming in.

(imitating chattering) And it gets louder and louder, and you think, "Oh boy, they're here to have a good time."

And we have this little contract we're gonna make in the dark.

We're gonna tell the story, and they're gonna listen to the story.

That's very exciting to me.

And I'm the daughter of a storyteller.

You know, my father was a nightclub comedian, so I'm very much into the storytelling of this.

- It's interesting.

People have no idea.

You know, you get nominated, right, for a Tony.

And you have a degree of success.

And you're doing these great things, people say things like, "I wanna do what you do."

- Right.

- They have no idea how you even got to be in a position to do some of the, right?

Do they have any idea what that means?

- No.

No.

- I don't mean to be.

- No, no, people always ask me, you know, "What advice will you give me, you know, getting into the business," and I just say, "Be true to who you are.

Know who you are."

Because you're gonna get a lot of rejection.

People are gonna say no, or gonna say that you're not right for something.

And you're gonna hopefully not take it personally, but you kinda do.

But just know who you are as a person, but always be prepared, you know, study.

- Jesse Tyler Ferguson from "Modern Family."

How much do you love that show?

- Oh, it's the greatest job I've ever had.

Not just because of the exposure it's given me, but it's just, I think culturally, it really has been important.

And it's certainly, it's a great platform for so many of the things that I care about.

- How quickly did you know that it would become the monster hit that it has ultimately become?

- Well, when I read the script, I knew it was very good.

Yeah, it was a strong pilot.

And I knew when we were shooting it that it felt like it was really crackling.

And, you know, a lot of it's about chemistry, and I felt like these actors that I was given this job with, we all had this kind of immediate chemistry, which is rare.

But, you know, having been in this business as long as I have, you know, you never know if, you know, the audiences are gonna show up or if the critics are gonna like it, or, you know, the ratings are gonna be what they need to be to keep the show on air.

And I've been disappointed by things in the past, so I really did not, it wasn't until like we won the Emmy for the second time that I was like, "Okay, I think we're all right."

- The standup thing for you.

How did you know that it was right for you?

If it wasn't right for Joe, how did you know it was right for you?

- I didn't know, you know, I was in college, going to college, and trying to fill up my class schedule and I found myself in a, in a public speaking class just to get some credits.

- [Steve] Where'd you go to school?

- At Cortland, Upstate State New York.

- [Steve] Where you played fullback - I played fullback.

- Great notoriety.

- Yeah, yeah.

I was real good.

When you're third string at a Division 3 school, it's time to look for other things.

- So the Jets were not.

- [Kevin] Yeah, it wasn't gonna happen.

- I'm sorry, public speaking.

I digress.

Go ahead.

- It's something I found that I tried to do, and I was scared to do, but I ended up doing it.

And you know, I got a reaction from my classmates and where they laughed a little bit, and it was just a feeling I've never really experienced, you know, except around my buddies.

And I loved doing that, so that's what I wanted to do.

And I just said it's like a drug.

You just wanna continue to do it.

So I joined an improv group.

I did some small community theater plays and just anything I could get out there and do.

And I just really did it, and that slowly evolved to standup.

- As a kid, when did you know, and what caused you to know, that acting was gonna be a big part of it, your professional life?

- Right, I always loved it.

I loved watching television.

I liked watching films.

I was a huge Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fan.

I don't know why.

- Yeah!

- Yeah.

I don't know why.

I would stay up late nights and watch.

Like, they're on an airplane and they're dancing.

I don't know what it was.

- Was it the dance?

- I was the dance, it was the singing, it was all of it.

I loved it.

I loved it.

I don't know what it was.

- But you were in "Dream Girls," 1989?

- Something like that.

(laughs) But I had no access to it.

I had no road to being at.

And my aunt went to Long Island University, and at Long Island University, they had a theater program for kids.

And she took me and my cousins and my brothers and all of us, and we all went in, and like, a light went on.

There I was.

I knew that I was gonna do this forever.

- Did you know you were part of history while you were doing it?

- Yes.

- How so?

- It's a feeling.

When theater is really good, you feel it in your gut.

And it just, it boils and it stirs, and there's nothing like it.

You know, good theater is good communion, you know?

Like, the power of theater is, it's power to bring people together.

And when you feel that energy that pushes people over the edge, 'cause it's collective.

If one person cries, everyone cries, and I love that.

- The shot of Frank with James Gandolfini on the set of "The Sopranos."

Look at that.

- [Frank] That's at Satriale's in Carney.

- [Steve] That's where we see the guys, the butcher shop.

- Yeah, Carney Avenue.

- [Steve] Tell me about him a little bit more.

- Prince among men.

Works very, very hard.

He works, if the show is 14, 15 days, he's working 10, 11.

He is dialoged up the wazoo.

He's got a lot of pressure.

He's carrying this whole show as a star.

It's easy to be, easier to be a character player.

I mean, he's, this whole thing revolves around him, and he's generous, and there's nothing bad I can say about Jim Gandolfini.

- You play Phil Leotardo.

- Yep.

- A lot of people say, some of our producers just said, that Phil, when they saw the scene where you're messing around with the car, the car is fine, it's askew.

You're being very difficult on purpose, - Yeah.

- for a lot of reasons.

Some people said, "He is the meanest guy I've ever seen on that show."

That means you're doing well.

(laughs) - That means they believe him.

They believe it.

You know, Steve, it's the way they write the show.

I'm not gonna say it makes it easy, but it's like poetry, to get the dialogue and to work it.

The direction is so well, this is a movie every week.

It's just not like a TV show that's on one of the networks.

This is a film.

I mean, they spend over a million dollars a show, and it's just, it's just great to work.

It's just real, real good work.

- You are the first African-American woman puppeteer to perform on Sesame Street.

Give us your version of that journey, not only why it took so long, but more importantly for you, some of the barriers that you had to overcome, please.

- I started puppetry and ventriloquism when I was 10 years old.

And I started off by performing for classmates at school.

I was trying to make new friends, and I thought being a ventriloquist would help me do that.

(laughs) Now that I'm older, I realize (Steve laughs) it's probably not how most people, (laughs) probably not how most people make friends, but my parents were very supportive and helped me find a puppet, and I started performing at school.

And it gave me so much joy to make other children laugh and smile.

So it became my passion.

And I started performing at other schools, at my church, other churches.

And it really became my outlet to opening up as a person and the journey to Sesame Street.

So I was first inspired to become a puppeteer and ventriloquist when I was introduced to female puppeteers and ventriloquists.

So seeing myself represented on stage made me wanna become a ventriloquist.

So now that I'm with Sesame Street, I know that my presence there, as an African American woman, is gonna inspire other young ladies and boys to pursue very unique career paths.

- By being the dad on "The Wonder Years," that didn't change your life?

- No, but I was very fortunate because my mentor is Charles Durning, who's still with us.

He's 89, and Jack Klugman, who's still with us, who's 91.

You know, and every time Charlie ever saw me in a play, he'd put his arm around me, and he'd say, "Another 20 years you'll be an actor."

(Steve laughs) And then a few years ago, he saw me in a play, was one of Jack Klugman's last plays.

We were really good.

And Charlie put his arm around me, and he said, "Alright, another 10 years."

So I've looked at him after all these years, and I said, "Are you an actor yet?"

And the great Charles Durning said, "I'm gettin' damn close."

- When you work on a play like this, and I've been workshopping this play for about two years, and finally got doing it now here at Lincoln Center, and you never know how it's gonna be, how an audience is gonna react.

- Which is, excuse me for interrupting.

You don't offer any answers, solutions.

- [Aasif] No, nothing.

- Lots of questions.

- It is, and that's what happens, people walk out in an incredibly thoughtful, provoked sort of place in terms of like what good theater can do, which is make you think and make you feel.

And people come out of the theater crying.

You know, I've had people come to me and say, I'm so incredibly sad and moved, and I don't exactly know why, but the sum of this experience has caused that.

And other people come out with their friends, and they're having a debate about the stuff that they just saw, you know?

And I think that's why, because it really presents, and it's a brave play.

It says things on stage that people don't hear.

You know, that people say behind closed doors, people don't say in mixed company.

- We've had a lot of very talented actors, actresses here, and sometimes I'll say that role was made for me.

I really feel very connected to that role, and others, it's not that, and you really have to work super hard to get connected.

How 'bout this role for you?

- I think there's a lot of similarities between Erin Reagan and me, and just obvious things like single mother, coming from an Irish Catholic family, working mother, so there's a lot of similarities.

And I tend to like to play by the rules, so I like lists and I like rules.

I like showing up on time, and I like values and morals and all that stuff, so there's a lot of things that I feel like we have similarities in.

But, you know, I certainly don't have that type of job.

And I find whenever we're doing work that has to do with being in the courtroom and different types of law, then it's something I have to brush up on and I really have to do my homework for.

- What happens when you sing places that people ask you to come and perform as a singer.

But I always felt sort of disingenuous, if that makes any sense.

As myself, if I went to sing, people kind of wanted it to be fun and to be funny, and that's really more comfortable for me, and- - Being funny.

- Yeah, to be fun, and not to be sort of this gal in an Ernest gown leaning against a grand piano.

Like, it just didn't feel like I can do it on stage if I'm in a part.

I played Elphaba in "Wicked" for a long time.

Very earnest and sincere role in many ways.

But when it's just me that people are coming to see, I tend to have a lot more levity.

And so I worked with a collaborator, Julian Fleischer, he's a sort of a, he's a downtown jazz singer.

He's amazing producer, and we just we're good friends.

And he kept saying like, "Why didn't you just sing the stuff that you like, the music that you like, the music that you play?"

And this kind of entertainers' era jazz that I live in, I call it kinda ridiculous jazz or silly jazz.

It's just such a natural fit for me.

It's improvisational.

It's what I listen to at home.

It's the great singers that inspired me, and that's really what the act is.

- Such as?

- Well, you know, Ella and Sarah Vaughn and Betty Hutton and I mean Danny Kay, kind of ridiculous, They're so ridiculous.

- Putting it all out there.

- Yeah, just having entertainment as a whole, not just as a vocalist or, you know, a storyteller's ability, which really existed more when you would go to like, a supper club or a nightclub, and sit down and have an evening of music.

- Have you ever done TV?

(laughs) I'm sorry.

- It's so crazy.

My first job in television was on the morning program on CBS at West 57th, - Get outta here!

- with Rolland Smith and Mariette Hartley.

- I worked with Rolland Smith over at My9 years ago.

Go ahead man.

- Great man.

- Good man.

- Great man.

- [Steve] What did you do?

- I was the sidekick, Mark McEwen was the weatherman, and I was the, they didn't know what to do with me.

Bob Shanks, who started "Good Morning America" hired me.

It was in 1987.

I was the third co-host, and they fired me after five months.

They said I was too hot for morning television.

I got to work one morning, and the my chair was gone.

That's when you know you're fired from television.

- And for you, not being recognized by so many, which was a key to this movie, what it was like?

- The design of it.

It was bizarre.

Well, we, we kind of made that decision early on.

First of all, we had no money.

So we were shooting, we had 21 days to shoot.

We had a lot of prep time, so we worked on a script.

We were very careful about what we were doing in the storytelling.

But it was a brand new kind of storytelling.

You've seen the film, so, you know, it's just, it's not like a TV movie.

It was a little scary when I went out there the first time, because we had totally hidden the footprint of the movie-makers.

The cameras were on roofs or in storefronts or under men-at-work tents, or anything to hide.

So it was basically, I was out there, and we had very long lenses.

I was in character.

I had the clothes on of the character.

No one paid any attention.

It was the most, one of the most bizarre, profound experiences of my life.

- Describe "Kong" physically, particularly in this highly technological age we live in.

- He is majestic.

- How big?

- He is 20 feet tall, and he is 2,000 pounds.

- [Steve] 2,000 pounds.

Put it all together, 'cause I'm looking at kinda.

(Christiani laughs) What was (sighs).

- He's magnificent.

He is truly, I mean, look, I look like a little pea compared to him.

- [Steve] The challenges working with that thing.

- You know, the challenge really is to not feel as though I have to be larger than life to compete with him.

Which was one thing I was nervous about, was that I had to sort of make big choices, and that's not the case.

I just had to sort of be myself.

And it's okay to be small compared to him, because the audience sort of leans in and everyone's watching the show like this to to see me, and see how I interact with him.

So the challenge really is just sort of staying truthfully little, and not being worried about being sort of overshadowed, or taken over by this majestic beast.

- Reva, the character.

And again, you said before, Kim, you've had a heck of a run here so far.

I mean, to be at the top of the game for so long, to have an A-character, Reva.

Now Greg was saying, our cameraman was saying, he asked you a question, have you ever died and come back, and your answer surprised me.

What is it?

- Three times.

(laughs) - Come on.

How does that work?

- Well, um.

- And you've been cloned, but that's another story, go ahead.

- Well, because I was presumed dead.

They thought I was dead, and my husband and I had- - Oh, of course, I'm sorry.

I missed that storyline.

- And I had put eggs aside in case we wanted to have more children.

I was too old to produce eggs, so we had frozen these eggs.

My husband remembered that I had frozen eggs.

And so I was cloned.

- We're on a roll.

Keep going.

- So he cloned me, because he missed me so much.

(laughs) - You've been cloned.

What else has happened to Reva?

- I've been Amish.

- Excuse me?

- That's another time I came back from the dead, Gregory, - Don't talk to Greg.

I'm over here.

Will you stop it?

(Kim laughing) - I came back Amish that time.

And the third time I was presumed dead and came back, I came back having been a princess on a (laughs) fictitional island.

- Wait, Kim, do you laugh, do you say to yourself, "I can't do this"?

- I never say I can't.

- Do you ever say, "Come on, you guys are the writers."

You say, "Listen, I know we have to keep stories fresh, but this is ridiculous.

I don't wanna do this."

Have you ever said that?

- No, no.

- Now at "Bronx Tale," the themes are so powerful.

Loyalty?

- Loyalty.

Yeah.

Respect.

- Neighborhood.

- The neighborhood, tolerance, I think, you know, is a big part of it.

Living in love or living in fear is certainly a predominant theme throughout.

- [Steve] Is it better to be loved?

- To be loved or to be feared, it depends on who you ask.

I think if you ask Sonny, his modus operandi is to, you know, manage things through fear, and he finds that he gets better results that way.

And he's at less risk, trusting as few people as he possibly can, nobody, if he has his way.

But, you know, I think the audience is left up to their own decision at the end of the piece as to, you know, what the best way to live is.

- When did you know that you had a gift from above to have this extraordinary voice?

When did you know?

- Four years old.

I sang my, four years old.

Four years old I sang my very first concert, and I actually bombed, 'cause I was so scared on stage.

I was phenomenal in rehearsals.

And once I got in stage in front of the audience, I was so terrified.

I got through the song, and vowed I would never be that scared again.

And then just a couple of years later, while I was in elementary school, I got the Sesame Street opportunity, and person after person, praise God for public school teachers.

It's a thankless job.

It's a difficult job.

But what they are able to speak into the lives of encouragement of kids, growing up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, again, knowing now some of my backstory of what my home environment was, there was a lot going on, and I was bullied.

So from the time I was young, it was spoken into me that I possessed something special.

And to try my best to tune out all the negative, destructive things, and focus on the things that made me special, including my name, which I always hated.

- Those who say, “I want to break in".

- Yeah.

- Your advice?

Yeah!

- I'd say the most important thing is go to school, man.

That’s all the great actors, all the great directors did, all the great writers, they studied.

You find the best acting teacher the best writing teacher, the best film teacher, and go to that person and let them mentor you, and I think that's a way to find a great craft.

- And deal with rejection with passion, right?

Well, if you're pursuing the thing you love rejection doesn't mean anything.

- How the heck do you keep the intensity, the passion, the stamina to do what you do in the way you do it, with such a powerfully dramatic play?

- Yeah, you know, doing Broadway's no joke.

You know, working in the New York theater.

And particularly in this play, it requires a tremendous amount of energy, but it's also just so much fun.

But you have to, you have to keep your act together.

You know, you have to protect your voice.

It's much like, - You must be fit.

- Yeah, you have to be fit.

- You work out.

- It's like being an athlete.

Really, it is.

- It really, no joke.

- It's doing a demanding show on Broadway eight times a week is like being an athlete.

And you have to be in shape.

You have to keep your voice in shape.

You have to get enough rest.

You have to eat properly, and keep your head in the game.

- Not only is Paul so talented as an actor, as a chef, sculptor.

Years ago, you don't remember this.

My colleague, Raphael Pi Roman and I, he's right here in that studio, does a great show, "Metro Focus", every night.

He and I interviewed you years ago.

You did something for us.

I don't know if you'll do it for us again.

You sang just a little bit for us.

I heard that you were singing downstairs.

- I was warming up the pipes.

I do a little bit.

(Paul singing in foreign language) (all applauding) - It never gets old.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The North Ward Center.

Rowan University.

Atlantic Health System.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The New Jersey Education Association.

And by PSEG Foundation.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Monthly.

NJBIZ, and by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

The North Ward Center continues to expand their services and outreach in Newark, from the childhood years to the golden years, Offering programs like preschool, youth leadership development, Casa Israel Adult Medical Day program our Family Success center, as well as a gymnasium.

And most recently Hope House, a permanent home for adults with autism, supporting and nurturing our autism community with Hope House 2 coming soon.

The North Ward Center.

We’re here when you need us.