Interview: Phillipa Soo Narrates New Rom Com Audiobook THE STAND-IN!

HAMILTON star and Tony nominee Phillipa Soo is making waves in the world of audiobooks.

She narrates Lily Chu's Audible Original summer romance release The Stand-In, which debuted yesterday, July 15 - listen here!

Set in present-day Toronto, The Stand-In, by debut author Lily Chu, is an Own Voices rom-com about a Chinese-Canadian woman named Gracie who is mistaken by paparazzi for a famous Chinese actress in town performing in a play.

This inciting incident leads to the actress hiring Gracie to be her double at public events, alongside her co-star and rumored real-life love interest. It seems like a perfect scheme until sparks fly between Gracie and the leading man. Over the course of this unputdownable story, worlds are turned upside-down, enemies become lovers, and the genre's most enduring tropes break out of their molds in the best way.

BroadwayWorld had the pleasure of speaking to Soo about her experience becoming the voice of a romance story.

Read the full interview below!

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How would you describe THE STAND-IN to someone who's encountering it for the first time?

So THE STAND-IN is an audio book - in this case, you can find it on Audible. But the book is a romantic comedy - it's based in Toronto. It follows a Chinese-Canadian woman named Gracie who is one day mistaken by paparazzi for a famous Chinese actress, and the famous Chinese actress hires her to double at public events alongside a rumored co-star and real-life love interest Sam Yao.

Sparks fly, as they say, but not necessarily in all good ways. The story is really about a woman who is trying to find her way in the world, and is put in a very strange position where she has to pretend to be this famous actress. But it's a story about love and loss. It really looks into the biracial experience, because she's a white and Asian woman and her mother is an immigrant from China. So it goes to a lot of different places, and it's a beautiful, fun, heartfelt story. I think it'll make you laugh and it'll make you cry.

This is such a cool project. How do you approach a job where you kind of have to become the voice of the story?

This project was very easy for me. It's narrated by our main character, Gracie, and I immediately connected to Gracie's character when I first read the story. I feel like we have a very similar way of speaking, a very similar sense of humor. It was really fun to sort of jump into her brain and tell her story and become her. It was made very easy for me in terms of process.

But in terms of all the other characters, there's a lot of technical aspects that go into it just because you're trying to tell a very clear story. So my job was to differentiate between characters, to find a voice that not only I could repeat and do again, but also make sure that it was something that felt true to the essence of this character. In a situation where you have multiple characters talking to each other, how can we make sure we can tell which character is which? Because it's all coming from me! So that was a really fun aspect. I love all of those technical elements to storytelling.

There's something very special about not only being the lead in a rom com, but getting to be the whole rom com.

Yeah! It was a breath of fresh air, because I love a good rom com, and this particular story was just so smart and witty. While it's heightened and very silly in some moments, in other moments it's very heartfelt and it goes pretty deep in examining some really hard questions and some issues that Gracie is grappling with. It's really got it all in terms of being entertaining but also being a really great story.

I know you've been doing pretty consistent voice acting recently - can you tell me what you love about voice work?

I think on a very fun and silly level, I love voice work because I can just show up! In my pajamas, if I want to - although I won't, I wouldn't do that. But sweatpants! And I can just play and do my work.

It's really such a playful process, I have found. It's really all about experimenting and trying different ways of saying things, or singing things, and seeing what's the best fit for the story. I love collaborating with the directors and the engineers to really hone in on the very specific little technical details so that we can find the perfect audio experience for this audiobook or a movie or a film. It's really fun.

And it goes back to the basics. I started out doing some funny voice stuff recording on Garage Band on my computer in my closet when I was a kid in high school, and it's sort of come full circle, because I basically recorded THE STAND-IN in my closet. So it's one of those moments where you're like, wow. It all comes from the same place, which is the creative mind and spirit and using your imagination and being game and playful and excited to tell a story, ultimately.

When you were playing around on Garage Band as a kid with funny voices, who was inspiring you? Do the same things that got your creative juices flowing back then still do that for you now?

You know, when I was a kid, when I was first starting to sing and discover that I could sing, it really just started with me listening to different artists and mimicking their voices, and really just seeing if I could somehow make myself sound like that and then trying a completely different voice and seeing how I could sound like that. And that was really the beginning of my exploration of finding my own voice.

But, ultimately, I was the kind of kid that always was playing different characters, and making little home movies with my friends. I had the storytelling bug quite early. And when you're out playing in your yard with your friends, and you're trying to reenact an entire movie, you have to play all the characters! So recording an audio book feels very similar to that, in that you're playing all the characters.

I feel like it exists in a similar place in the brain as being part of a theatre ensemble.

Definitely. I've been in a couple plays - especially in school - where you're playing multiple characters, and what's fun about that is you can really hone in on the specificities of each one because your job is to articulate the experiences of these very different characters. In a way, I think it stretches me to go further in terms of my character development, because they can't all sound like me. They have to be slightly different, or they have to have an essence that's maybe a little more heightened or high-strung, or maybe a little more relaxed than who I am as a person. That's really fun for me.

What's most special for you about being part of THE STAND IN?

I think the most special part of being in THE STAND-IN is how much I connect to the character of Gracie. I just see so much of myself in her, and the things that I don't see in myself in her, I really appreciate and love how she grapples with it, and embraces finding her own identity. I find that really inspiring.

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You can listen to the new audiobook here.