It began its life in London’s West End at the Young Vic Theater back in February.
JEREMY POPE: Paul Bettany, what brought you toThe Collaboration,and why did you say yes?
And I said, “Absolutely not.
Jeremy Daniel
I don’t want to do that.
Then Denis sent me Warhol’s diaries.
I was surprised to find that they had all been dictated and he speaks in these long circuitous sentences.
Jeremy Daniel
I thought, “Okay, maybe.”
So I thought, well, what’s the danger in taking part in a script workshop?
BETTANY: What brought you to the project, Jeremy?
Jeremy Daniel
It truly is a collaboration between you, our producer, Denis, and Kwame Kwei-Armah, our director.
Investigating the souls and hearts of these individuals takes time.
We were given time to be able to take it to London and then make a film.
Jeremy Daniel
The more that we’ve done it, the more that I feel affirmed.
BETTANY: I can’t stress enough that this is our version of Warhol and Basquiat.
They are in the confines of this narrative that [playwright] Anthony McCarten has set up.
Jeremy Daniel
My version was so very much afraid that he changed the entire world into seeing him as a superstar.
He felt real relevancy and through that relevancy, real safety in the world.
He can feel his relevancy and his safety slipping away.
Jeremy Daniel
That must have been very frightening for him.
It was a more intimate approach.
I was able to go before we went to London.
And I went nine or 10 times over the past couple of months.
Any time we had a day off, I would fly to New York from shooting in Boston.
Every time I went, I challenged myself to find something new that they were giving.
It was an offering that they were giving to me.
I believe he had a very clear conscience from mind and heart to his canvas.
I don’t think there was a filter.
Whatever he was thinking and vibrating with went onto the canvas.
I allowed that to help inform the decisions I make as I portray him in our story.
BETTANY: You have to paint as Basquiat, so what was that learning process like?
POPE: Yeah, we recreate some art.
I’m not a painter.
Or I wasn’t until this point.
I feel like now I can claim it.
We had some people come in early on in the process to get me comfortable.
I would love some help or guidance.”
But everyone was very open to me interpreting whatever I felt.
I do more recreating, you do more filming of me recreating.
BETTANY: Yes because we catch Warhol at a point when he feels he’s done with painting.
Although we do end up painting together.
POPE: And it’s lovely.
POPE: We’ve done this in London and made the film.
What’s something different that you’re trying or wanting to bring to the table in New York?
BETTANY: So much has changed in all three iterations.
The movie changed an enormous amount.
The play in New York has been very much informed by things that we learned by doing the film.
But also we are bringing this story home.
This feels like a natural place for this story to be told.
It is a New York story about two New York legends.
The pressure of that, I really felt it.
But they say pressure makes diamonds.
So, I’ve still got my fingers crossed.
It’s got a laugh every night, and that never got a laugh or acknowledgement in London.
But it’s because we’re representing.
We are on the stomping grounds of where these two artists rose and claimed their fame.
It’s allowing each iteration to be different and playing and learning from that.
That sense of freedom helps it not feel stale.
Every night it feels like I’m recreating something new with you.
Even if we just rehearsed it during the day, it feels fresh.
It feels like we need to be on our toes and we need to be awake.
He’s kept an open, warm and loving, rehearsal environment.
People bring their stuff, and it pushes you in new directions.
We have new scenes in this play that we didn’t have in London.
That’s also great.
POPE: Paul, this is your Broadway debut.
What is that like coming into this arena with so much experience under your belt?
BETTANY: I don’t feel like I do.
I always feel like I’m starting fresh and different things are required of me.
It’s been 25 years since I’ve been on the stage, so that has been very new.
I haven’t done theater in a quarter of a century.
But as far as the Broadway debut of it, it feels really special to me.
Because it is a New York story and I’m getting to tell it in New York.
BETTANY: You took Broadway by storm the last time you were there.
How does this feel coming back to essentially your creative birthplace?
POPE: I feel very similar.
But it also feels like yesterday.
But to feel grounded and confident and comfortable in the art and in the project and with you.
I feel at ease because one, I’m with you and I’m soaring.
But I’m in a space that welcomes us and has welcomed me time and time again.
It’s life affirming.
I couldn’t see a way through it.
But now they’ve become incredibly helpful.
Part of the architecture of the performance is a reclaiming of all of that.
He’s quite an alienating person to look at.
You look at him and you think, “How do I get to that person?”
And the answer is, you just make it up [Laughs].
POPE: People ask us about the wigs and the hair and they’re very particular styles.
It’s free locs.
It took time getting it right.
I’d actually been more drawn to Basquiat because I was quite alienated from Warhol.
You look at his paintings now and they feel very familiar because they have been so influential.
Their collaboration wasn’t a huge success at the time.
It got poor reviews, and it added this extra pressure and strain to their relationship.
They didn’t speak and they both passed shortly after.
There was a harmony.
Each person influenced the other in a different way and with different magnitude.
Basquiat was such a truth seeker.
And it was right at the end of his life.
BETTANY: Is there something I did that helped you or inspired you throughout this?
POPE: You’re one of the most loving human beings that I know.
We’re both being very precious with our characters.
But we both came into this with no ego.
I felt like I found a partner who understands the way that I like to work.
You really need that on stage.
We spend hours together all day, every day and then do a show.
We’ve got to fall in love, fall out of love, fall back in love.
