Interview: Nathan Lee Graham Lives the Glamorous Life On, Off Stage and Screen
By: Matt Tamanini Feb. 15, 2016
To millions of fans around the world, Nathan Lee Graham is known for playing a man very comfortable in the fabulous clothes; whether that is as Wardrobe Supervisor Peter, opposite Lisa Kudrow in the first season of THE COMEBACK; as Reese Witherspoon's fashion mentor Frederick Montana in SWEET HOME ALABAMA; or as designer Jacobim Mugatu's latte-fetching assistant Todd in the ZOOLANDER films. While Graham's real life does not involve serving at the pleasure of a demented, homicidal fashion designer he does lead an existence filled with fashion and excitement.
Last week, when talking about everything that he had to do before leaving on a cruise the following day, Graham off-handedly said, "I also have a meeting, and another thing, and another thing, but hey, hi-ho the glamorous life."
Photo Credit: THE VINEYARD Theatre | nathanleegraham.com
Graham's glamorous life involves his memorable turns on screen, and over 15 years as part of the New York theatre and cabaret scene. After a handful of film roles as a child, including THE BAD NEWS BEARS GO TO JAPAN, it was his work on stage that brought him back to the big screen in 2001.
Graham made his Broadway debut as Phil D'Armano in 2000's star-studded Michael John LaChiusa musical THE WILD PARTY. While the show only ran for three months, it was the Closing Night performance that led to his film return. The musical, based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March, was produced by Paramount Pictures and Scott Rudin. At that point, Rudin and Paramount were in the very early stages working on a new comedy set in the world of high fashion from Ben Stiller, who accompanied Rudin to THE WILD PARTY's final performance.
"The very next day (after THE WILD PARTY closed), (Stiller) called me into his office in Tribeca," Graham said. "I show up, looking rather fashionable, and he goes, 'Listen, I'm doing this movie called ZOOLANDER, it's based upon a character that I do on VH1. I'm not sure what the movie's gonna be about yet, and I'm not sure what I want you to do in it. All I know is that I want you to play a character, and I want his name to be Todd. Do you want to do it?'
"And I'm like, 'My show just closed yesterday, absolutely. Absolutely I want to be a part of a movie that I have no idea what it's about.'
Over the years, Graham has asked what it was about his performance in THE WILD PARTY that made Stiller believe that he was right for the film, but the ZOOLANDER creator has never been able to put his finger on it, saying that he just felt like Graham would fit.
"I still don't get it, but I'm thrilled," Graham said.
The film, which opened nationwide just two and a half weeks after September 11th, 2001, became a silly distraction in the aftermath of the tragedies. In the 15 years since, ZOOLANDER has gone on to be one of the most beloved comedies of a generation, something that Graham says no one involved foresaw.
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
"This is the absolute truth, and if anyone tells you differently, they're lying;" he said, "we had no idea that this would happen; not a clue. And then to add on top of that the tragedy of September 11th, we thought this certainly is going to tank, and then slowly, but surely, it became this sort of cult thing, so it's pretty amazing."
With the film's immediate popularity, fans have been clamoring for a sequel nearly since Day One. Despite the fact that Stiller kept in touch with Graham's representation for a decade and a half, even he began to give up hope of having Will Ferrell throw another scalding hot latte at him.
"When we came up to a decade later, I thought, 'You know what, nevermind,'" Graham admitted. "Occasionally (Stiller and I) would see each other on the street or going to a movie, and I'd be like, 'How are the kids? How is Christine (Taylor, Stiller's wife and ZOOLANDER co-star)? And, are we doing ZOOLANDER 2?'
And he'd be like, 'Yep, yep, we're gonna do it.' But around 2010, I thought, 'Nah, this ain't gonna happen.'"
(Check out Matt Tamanini's review of the delightfully, stupid ZOOLANDER 2)
Graham, and nearly all of the original ZOOLANDER's stars are back for the sequel, but, without spoiling too much about the new movie, Graham said that this might not be the last that we see of his ZOOLANDER character.
"Todd may be doing some more things later, we'll see; we'll put a little question mark on that," he said. "There was another scene that was cut that might be in the outtakes (on the DVD), but (Todd) asks all of the designers (who appear in the film's climactic scene) if they need an assistant; it was rather funny. They might have something else in store for Todd, let's just say."
Graham admitted that nearly every day, someone comes up to him and mentions ZOOLANDER, usually the infamous foamy latte scene.
In 2008, after a performance of his Off-Broadway show WIG OUT!, Graham was on the train heading to Grand Central Station to meet his mentor and THE WILD PARTY co-star Eartha Kitt. While waiting for his stop, Graham was exhausted and resting his head in his hands.
"Two, for lack of a better word, 'jocks' get on the train," he recalled. "They put their arms on the bar above me, and they are reciting the 'foamy latte scene' from the original ZOOLANDER, word for word. And they get to the end of it and they start cracking up at each other, and I'm sitting right below them. And, because it was such a special moment, I didn't want to ruin it for them, and I just wanted to keep it for myself. That's a prime example of just how far reaching the whole ZOOLANDER thing has gotten. One thing about my life is that I don't have to exaggerate."
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
Over the last year or so, around filming ZOOLANDER 2 in Rome, Graham, who also played Miss Understanding in the Original Broadway Cast of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT, has been at work on a handful of new musicals in various stages of development, including playing Leonardo Da Vinci in Ned Massey's THE BATTLES, The Lady Chablis in Alfred Uhry's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, and in next month's workshop of THE VIEW UPSTAIRS.
"I love mixing it up," Graham said. "I love that I can have my foot in everything, and it's been such a pleasure to go in and out of all of the mediums, even classical work."
While his years of experience have afforded him opportunities to work many different mediums, and often avoiding the audition process, which he abhors, Graham still picks his projects carefully.
"My thing is that it's always the material," he said. "I've got my go-to things, and I have my certain slants, the Nathan Lee Graham way of doing stuff, but I really care about the material itself. Is it genuinely weird? Is it genuinely funny? Is there pathos in this? Is it meaningful in some kind of way? Will I look fabulous?"
For one month in 2000, Graham and his THE WILD PARTY co-stars, including Kitt, Mandy Patinkin, Tonya Pinkins, Marc Kudisch, Norm Lewis, and Toni Collette were performing LaChiusa's show on Broadway, while at New York City Center, a cast including Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Brian d'Arcy James, Steven Pasquale, Julia Murney, and Jennifer Cody were performing a completely different musical by Andrew Lippa based on the same poem, and also called THE WILD PARTY.
"I guess it would have been a lot more fun for the press to think we had an actual rivalry," Graham said, "but we had just the opposite. We thought that this was so cool that we have the same source material, and you have these wonderful composers that hear this piece in different ways. It was amazing actually."
Photo Credit: Max Vernon | nathanleegraham.com
Graham said that along with a number of other performers that ended up in one of the iterations, he auditioned for both versions.
"We absolutely loved it. We were all friends, we went to see each other's shows. During the rehearsal process, we would run and see someone's dress rehearsal, or someone's preview if they had the night off. We absolutely loved it. I knew everyone in the Lippa version, and (they) knew everyone in the LaChiusa version. It was just an embarrassment of riches for us."
Now, after a decade and a half away from ZOOLANDER's ridiculous world of dim-witter models and villainous designers, Graham recognizes why so many people love the ZOOLANDER movies.
"It's just about a silly old laugh," he said. "You can put it on at any time, and you can be under any influence you want, and still enjoy this film."
Are you hoping to see Todd get another latte in the face? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. If you want to follow along with my "366 in 366" articles, you can check out #BWW366in366 on Twitter.
Banner Image: Nathan Lee Graham. Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
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