“Robert Towne came to see ‘Wicked’ and he saw me as this character,” recalls Menzel. “He had to fight rather hard to get the studio to let me do it. So, I took my two week vacation, and I went to South Africa and hung out with Colin Farrell.”
Menzel confesses to being a little star struck when she first met Irish hottie, Farrell. “It was amazing. I’m a little star struck by him so it took me a minute to get over that, but that was good for my character, obviously, because she’s got to be sort of intimidated by him and she looks up to him so much. He’s a gentleman and he’s the consummate professional, really. …He knows everyone’s lines. He knows his own lines and your lines. It doesn’t matter how late he stays up the night before, he’s there on time. He was great, and he was really generous and made me feel comfortable.”
Although Farrell promised to come see her in “Wicked,” Menzel hasn’t seen Farrell since they finished “Ask the Dust.” “When I came back from there, I was so excited about my experience,” said Menzel. “He actually had told me how much he really loves musical theater, which you would never know. And he could sing ‘Rent’ songs to me, and everything. So he said, ‘When I’m in town, I’m definitely going to come see ‘Wicked’ and support you in it.’ So, I went back and told everybody.
I never like to know when celebrities are in the audience because it totally f**ks with my head. I always told my dresser, ‘When they’re here, make sure I have something good to wear.’ It would take me 15 minutes in the shower, for that show, to get the make-up off. I’ve met the coolest celebrities with green-stained skin because they want to leave, and I had to stick my head out the door. It was horrible. So I was like, ‘Make sure I have a nice outfit because he’ll want to go out for drinks after.’ Every day I was like, ‘Is Colin here?,’ and he never came. That’s okay, I’m married to Taye Diggs.”
Was there anything that surprised her about Farrell? Menzel said, “I didn’t expect him to be better looking than I thought he would be. He had a lot more tattoos than I thought.”
Idina Menzel Explains Her Attraction to “Ask the Dust:” “Well, first of all, Robert. Anything that Robert Towne’s doing, you want to be involved in. First, I just read the script, and it was an amazing character. …She’s incredible - her dynamics and her soul. And then I got to read the actual novel, which I fell in love with. That just gave it even more colors, and more stuff, as an actor, that fueled my imagination. But it was definitely Robert and the story, and Colin and Salma [Hayek]. This is my first movie.”
Moving from Stage to Screen: “It’s not as much of a transition as you would think. Your volume changes, really. But you’re always trying to be as honest as you can and just talk to the person in front of you. I’m finding it’s not that different. With ‘Rent,’ it was easier to talk about the differences because the juxtaposition of that was so exact for me. That was about singing and when you’re singing, it’s sort of sensationalized when you’re on stage. And then when you’re singing in a movie, how big do you do that? They told me my mouth was too big and you could see my cavities, so even though I was singing the loudest, highest notes, that I could never sing unless my mouth was so wide and my eyes were squeezed, they were like, ‘Just pretend, on this particular shot because you’re not going to like the way it looks.’”
Menzel said she worked hard on finding the exact tone for Vera – not too big yet big enough to suit the character. “I worked on that a lot, and she goes from extremes. She goes from these vulnerable places to, all of a sudden, explosive. I just tried to understand where she was coming from, and her desperation. I didn’t worry about it so much.
I’ve started to see some things I’ve done on camera - whether it be television or little stuff - and I’m starting to trust that my big is not ‘theater big’. I have a good sense of what’s needed. I’m not going to look like I’m crazy-eyed just because I come from the theater. I think I have good instincts in being somewhat natural, in that realm. And then, it’s the 1930s and it is somewhat old fashion, so you can be a little bit more melodramatic. It has that whole film noir thing.”
