From Stage to Screen: A Conversation with Condola Rashad

Ever wonder what your favorite Broadway stars are doing when they aren’t on the stage under bright lights? Some are taking a much deserved break after those long eight shows a week for countless months. Some are refilling their emotional wells by enjoying time with family and friends. But some are simply blessing us through a different medium! For those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to call New York City home, being able to catch our favorites on television once a week is a gift from the thespian gods!

Condola Rashad– brown skinned goddess? Yes! But let us focus on her gift. From being nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her role in Ruined (directly out of college) to back-to-back Tony Award nominations for her work in Stick Fly and The Trip to Bountiful (alongside Mother Cicely Tyson!) to “Juliet” in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet– she is KILLING the game!

Last year Condola took a break from the stage to work on some major projects. One of them being Showtime’s new drama, “Billions”.

“Billions” is “about power politics in the world of New York high finance…the stakes are in the billions in this timely, provocative series”.

I was able to catch Condola on her way to a table read for the high energy drama to talk about her character, her process and even a word on a couple of other projects set to release next year!

A: Start by telling me a little bit about your character, Kate Zacker.
C: Well, Kate Zacker is one of the youngest assistant attorneys in the US Attorney’s Office for the district of New York. She is a quietly confident character- very ambitious. She’s one of those characters that whenever there is a missing puzzle piece she always seems to have it! She has big dreams in terms of where in office she’s going to end up. She comes from money and she knows it, but also she doesn’t take it for granted and every step of her way she has worked for it because she’s known that she’s had to work for it. There’s a level of seriousness to her. She’s a little bit more serious than I am! Yea, it’s really fun to play.
At first it was hard to see where the role was going. Now, we’re working on episode 105 and we’re seeing all of the different dynamics in the office and where the show is going. There’s two teams. Team Chuck Rhoades and Team Bobby Axelrod. Chuck Rhoades is the US Attorney and Axelrod is the hedge funder. I’m working for Chuck Rhoades. I’m basically like third in line there. It’s been amazing.

A: What drew you to the role? Did you audition for it?
C: Yea, yea, I auditioned for it! Yea, it was given to me and I read the script. It was very smart and quick. I had to read it a few times. It’s one of those shows where something happens and you need to have a little background, you know what I mean. It’s a show that you should just watch! It’s one of those shows where you have to watch every single thing that happens, because it you miss one second you don’t even know what the story’s about. It’s a very intelligent script, you know? It’s because of the world that it’s put in. It’s a certain intellectual level to the lens that we’re looking at it through, if that makes sense.

A: I know this isn’t your first television spot. You were on NBC’s “SMASH” a few years ago. Tell me what the biggest difference is for you between the stage and television.
C: One of the biggest differences for me is rehearsal time. You don’t really have it on television! There some directors who will be like, “Hey, let’s run through this scene a few times”- and that’s cool. But, in theatre, you don’t run through the scenes a few times! You rehearse for about a month! We go in and we do the scene about sixty times before we show it to anybody! So, what happens with me is, because of the world that I come from, I have learned on this project- and I’ve only just learned it, because I think for the longest I was just thinking, “ Ok, that’s just not what television is. You just say a couple words and then it’s time to go”, so watching some of my work in the past on the screen I can see that I’ve gotten better, because I know what my process is and my process is the theatre process! I need rehearsal time. So, what I have learned to do – and it’s not necessarily the easiest thing, because you still want to be able to be open in the moment because the camera catches every single thing. It’s all about not thinking, because your thinking shows up. So, it’s all about being open for that. To kind of move and change with the actual person- but what I’ve learned is that what I have to do and what I’ve been doing is when I get the next script, I rehearse a lot on my own. I think it’s from theatre. Because when they say action, that’s the performance, you know what I mean. What happens is running through the scene a few times is the same thing as me running through my lines for Romeo and Juliet like three days before we open! That takes a lot of preparation and in order for me to break the rules, I have to know what they are! But if I don’t have my footing, then I’m kind of all over the place. I have to feel confident and grounded in my character. I’ve realized that I have to repeat words. I have to say them a lot so I can figure out where they land in my understanding. Where they land in my body and in my voice, you know what I mean? So, what I’ve been doing is- because it’s for camera, that’s a whole different element- I’ve been rehearsing by myself on camera! It’s the little technical things. I’m not a very technical person, but I can look back and see different angles and how to tilt my face. You know my face is a whole bunch of eyeballs! So there are some angles where, if I turn my face this way, but I look that way, all you’re gonna see is eye whites! You’re just gonna see a whole lot of eye whites! It doesn’t really matter. It’s not the main focus of the scene, but it does help me to know and have a little of an understanding of what’s going on on the other side of the camera. Because without it, I’m over here looking crazy! Looking at my mark and all over the place!

A: While we’re talking about the stage, are you open to juggling both stage and screen?
C: Oh, of course! The goal is to do both! It’s just that right now, in this moment, my focus is television and film because I’m at a point now where I’m starting to knock on that door so I’m kind of riding it. Just to get that going, you know what I mean? When you’re doing a play that’s what you’re doing! The one thing about film that I do love is that you work on it for a month and it’s there forever. So you can just knock it out and then it’s done. So with the two films that I have worked on- the one in April and then this. I know “Money Monster” (another financial drama/ thriller starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney) comes out next Winter as well. So, every thing that I’ve been working on this year will be coming out next year. I’ve been kind of quiet this year because I’ve been working!

We, here at Broadway Black, can not WAIT to see all of the upcoming projects Condola has in store! Make sure to tune into “Billions” on Showtime Sunday, January 17, 2016! I know we will!

Check it out!

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