Interview: HAMILTON's Jamael Westman – Giving His Best Shot On Two Continents

The highly anticipated, much delayed Los Angeles production of HAMILTON has finally opened to full houses of enthusiastic and appreciative audiences. London transplant Jamael Westman heads this cast currently at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre reprising his Olivier Award-nominated role of the titular Alexander Hamilton.

Had the chance to chat with Jamael (pronounced 'Jah-mel') a few hours before he headed to the Pantages for his Wednesday evening performance.

Common thread throughout our talk was family, being true to yourself and giving back.

I started by asking how he felt the first time performing for a live audience again.

"In taking into consideration everything that transpired over the past 18 months, there was just something comparably different, for sure. It meant so much more to be back in theater, I think there was a different level of appreciation, to be sharing, exploring the human experience, emotion, life, death, struggle, after the year of all of those things. And audience showed that in their response to being back in theater, to enjoy being entertained. So yeah! Oh, my God! Blew the roof off!"

For their dress rehearsal, family, friends and first responders were invited.

"To be able to give something back to each of those that carried us through this past 18 months was really special. I've got such a deep love for our company. So, in any moment when the audience are screaming and shouting, and having grown to know and love my company and everyone I've worked with, it feels really good for them to be celebrated and for the work that they do day-in, day-out; what they commit themselves to for the sake of their families in terms of what they're bringing home but, also for all those audience members. To hear thunderous applause for them is always really special when it's a privilege to be alongside them."

Jamael and his castmates were all set to perform their first preview at the Pantages March of 2020 when they were given the ominous lockdown notice.

"We've been rehearsing for four weeks, done the checks. It was the day of about three o'clock in the afternoon. We were all called in. We had a notion, a foreboding that the show wasn't going to happen. In the same way, we could have anticipated people being really up for it."

The HAMILTON cast never lost touch during the pandemic months Zooming regularly.

"We've all been in contact, staying in contact, and just being touchstones for each other. We all experienced the trauma, the separation anxiety from doing what we are so good at doing, what we love doing. We stayed in contact with Zoom meetings, updates, cocktail evenings, just catching up to spend time together. The musicians did the same thing celebrating birthdays and the like. It was reassuring to know that we all had each other's back and could relate to each other during that time. Coming back, it felt like a healing process. Yeah, I think we just carried with us, a much deeper appreciation for what we do. Things come into focus, and more priorities come into focus. Why we do what we are doing, who we're doing it with. Especially during the year after George Floyd's murder and raising awareness of the treatment of Black people in the United States and globally. It was also a deeper connection on that level as well because I've seen HAMILTON - much of its genius centers on Black culture and Black people. So that was further heightened in our minds and in our connections to one another."

Jamael has always been socially conscious. In his acceptance speech upon winning the Emerging Talent Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, he dedicated his award to the various youth clubs in hometown London.

"Those are the places that a younger me, a version of me who didn't really know what they wanted to do could express themselves, wanting to be themselves with confidence. Those are the spaces that I needed, other young people desperately need. They are the lowest priority when it comes to post-pandemic funding. It's paying back to places that have helped myself and others. I definitely, always will continue to have connections with them."

Jamael's most humble in discussing his Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

"It was a bit of a wordless experience. I was pretty speechless. My best kind of analogy for that is standing next to an incredible tree, a tree so big to see, you have to step back. Think about the individuals, historically, who have been nominated and go, 'Wow!' That takes a long time when you think about some incredible individuals that have been nominated for Oliviers. I continue to step back, as I continue to explore this responsibility as an actor as a person who shines a mirror on society, like what that takes. In terms of longevity and also the continual incredible art that continues to be produced is also a reflection. And you see how lucky I am to be a part of this industry, or at least among these incredible creative people."

Jamael describes his HAMILTON audition process for the London production as "maybe the most exhilarating audition process I've ever had! Exorcising my rap demon, alongside a rigorous acting training I had from my drama school RADA. That was my first audition, and that was me letting loose, especially with the lyrics and the sentiment of "My Shot" and not throwing it away, and you know self-actualizing becoming the best version of yourself and changing the world as you see it transcending the oppression was a struggle for sure. Oh, I fully celebrated that notion and that imaginative hope, journey, intention in my first audition. And going on from there, I had really positive feedback from the casting chain, which continued in all the songs that I sang. There was also a really, as this entire journey with HAMILTON has been, a very educational edifying experience, whether it be through the exploration of Hamilton, American history, and the narratives that have been portrayed about American history and still has to be interrogated about not only American but British history. It's been quite a ride. I've been edified, educated, instilled with a confidence, and I have been definitely since the beginning of rehearsals. I think that's what HAMILTON has done, sparked a flame of curiosity, kind of revolutionary notions of wanting change radically, as soon as possible. I guess I've always had that. HAMILTON certainly empowered that even more so in myself.

Coming back off the last 18 months of pandemic and what has transpired over the past 18 months with Black Lives Matter and George Floyd and other people who've lost their lives, had their lives taken from them, the words in "My Shot" have taking new meaning. My relationship to the language and the character has evolved. And of any great text, the words, almost, become not enough. Yet they still capture a feeling of wanting something more, greater specificity. "My Shot" definitely captures that feeling of wanting something more."

The rapid-fire deliveries of many of Alexander's songs are right in Jamael's wheelhouse. In fact, rapping acted as a balm to him and helped him not be intimidated stepping into the role Lin-Manuel put his stamp on.

"Rapping, hip hop growing up is part of my culture, my heritage. It's a mind state, that ethos for the longest time, so I felt empowered, I felt entrusted. Like a calling, so therefore I don't know if I felt fear. I even remember the first night we opened. I was really excited, but there was also that feeling created and nurtured based off of who I was sharing the experience with. I never thought, 'Oh, I'm doing this thing as one individual experience based on someone else's carrying guidance or someone else's experience.' We as a company, carry the baton. Lin-Manuel's a generous man. He passes the baton on, as did the entire original company. If one of us isn't on for whatever reason, it's always a generous, encouraging open passing on the baton. That's what it felt like then. That's why it's a waste. This person is filling shoes, it's never like that. I can testify that the individuals that I've shared the stage with, they are fully doing the best they do, and that's more than what the show asks of us to be, the best of who we are, and not trying to be like anyone else... and that's rap. Being a rapper's not trying to be like another rapper. Need to carve their own lane, their own identity. Definitely."

Jamael was originally offered the U.S. tour in such a casual aside that he put it out of his mind and continued performing on the Victoria Palace Theatre stage.

"It was just like, 'Oh, okay there might be a thing happening.' It was a 15-second moment of a 10-minute conversation. Then it came up again towards the end of the second year. 'This thing might be happening' and I was in two minds. Do I stick around for a third year in the UK? Is this thing possibly going to come up after? Then I was given the green light. I was all in! I was like, 'Oh, my God! Yeah, 100%!' I've loved everything I've done with HAMILTON. UK Audiences were sharing with how special it would be to do the show in America, with an American company to an American audience; and just get a deeper understanding of this show and create even greater and amazing bonds with more people that are part of it as well.

I definitely consider myself a very privileged individual in terms of being able to travel over from the UK to L.A. to work. The idea of stepping into another country, an immigrant on an immigrant visa as it were. Working with a sense of stepping into the very place where this show was concocted, where it was imagined, based off of the history of this country that isn't one I acquired. That was very apparent to me going to the U.S. Embassy to go over here. And nothing but welcoming. Just a lot of love in the company, which allowed me to give the best of myself to find more things to discover more things. Some people in the show know each other from other tours. But this combination of people has never happened before, and that's continues to be a really exciting prospect because there's just new things to discover in relationships that some of us have spent five years, having already explored in terms of their characters in terms of the roles within, whether it's principle, ensemble or any kind of iteration of the company; we find something new. And so therefore for all of us it's a new and exciting experience based off of what we each bring to the show."

In talking to Jamael, I hear a distinct British accent. I asked if dropping his native accent and doing an American accent was hard.

"Myself, I'm really impressionable. I've always been a little bit like this. Obviously, you always want to stand out, but it's also quite nice to fit in as well. To be understood, I find I definitely drop into an American accent as a means of being able to connect, to catch the same rhythms and wavelengths of my peers. I can't help it. I've always done this since I was young and it didn't necessarily have to be from another country, it could just be talking a little bit more like my friends. I think we all do it, to parents, your family and talking to your friends, and talking to professional in a networking event, talking to a priest in a church or to a child. Your accent and your behaviors change is definitely more markedly noticeable when I'm dropping into an American accent. Myself, I really enjoyed growing up on hip hop and R&B and so much American culture. Made me appreciate my own accent a little bit more and my own kind of identity and individuality. So, it kind of works in both ways. (In the London production) I was super excited to basically use the accent I kind of grown up with. When I think about all the rappers I listen to: Wu-Tang, Tupac, NWA. I was finally, I get to unleash this, this being that has existed inside me for so long, my alter ego. I was definitely exorcising some rap demons, and I've continued to do so. I'm just bouncing between my own accent and an American accent."

In settling into Los Angeles through at least January of next year, Jamael's first priority was finding "a place I can call home for the next however many months we're here. A place where I can lay my head, where I can relax, to play guitar. A place where I could go to the gym because now more than ever, health is paramount. You run as much, as often as possible, cardio, heart health. Making sure I can find good supermarkets to go to whether it's Trader Joe's or Pavilion's. Find a couple places where I can get a couple of things from home. And yes, spots where I can also be nurtured by a culture that I'm a part of. The other night there was a jazz evening. So I filled myself up with some amazing jazz. At least trying to get into a routine. That's gym, bed and rehearsals and steaming. Drinking plenty of water and making sure I can find good access to good food, especially.

Asked if he keeps any lucky charms on his dressing room table,

Jamael chuckles, "I have many lucky charms. I have many, many photos, a couple of rocks, little bits and bobs, a note from family."

Ended our conversation with a question on what lessons and values he learned from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts he graduated from.

Pause... "I just did it... Breathing. One of the most essential aspects of anything frankly to live is to breathe, high emphasis on that. Imagine that? Also being true to who you are and exploring that. We can explore the characters, but there has to be a rigorous continual understanding and knowing as thyself. Know thyself. That's like an ongoing thing. Interrogating who are, and what we do, and our habits. At the core of any of those things is curiosity. Always be curious. Because if that stops, everything stops. That includes when you're breathing, curious about how you breathe, why you're breathing in a certain way, hesitation in breathing, there's curiosity there. And also drink lots of water. Oh, my gosh! Oh, my God! Life demands you drink a lot of water. HAMILTON demands you drink more water than life demands."

Thank you again, Jamael! May you continue giving your best shot... and drinking lots of water!

For tickets and schedule of HAMILTON through January 2, 2022; log onto Pantages Theatre Tickets | PantagesLA-Theatre.org

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