Video: Audra McDonald Shares Advice For Young Actors on Making Characters 'Likable'

Audra McDonald recently took to Instagram to post a video of herself backstage at Gypsy to share some advice for young actors. In the video, she was seen in her dressing room, getting herself ready for a two-show day.

"Someone came to my show and said 'I just didn't like the character, I didn't like her,' talking about Rose," McDonald shared. "I said, 'Well, that's perfectly valid, she is who she is.' The younger actor in me would have gone home and fretted about that and thought, 'How can I make myself more likable? I want the audience to like me.'"

She went on to share that, as she progressed as a performer, she received advice from fellow performer and friend, Zoe Caldwell, during a production of Medea, which was "Stop trying to make the audience like you. The audience does not like Medea, and it's not your job to make them like you. It's your job to do what Medea has to do and to perhaps make the audience understand."

Check out the full video!

Audra McDonald is currently starring in Gypsy on Broadway alongside Tony Award Winner Danny Burstein, Joy Woods, Jordan Tyson, Kevin Csolak, Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita, Lili Thomas, Mylinda Hull, Jacob Ming-Trent, Kyleigh Vickers, Marley Lianne Gomes & Jade Smith, Natalie Wachen and Tryphena Wade. 

GYPSY, suggested by the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, is Broadway’s ultimate tale of mothers and daughters, ambition and fame, and the lengths we’ll go in pursuit of the American dream.  

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