“In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast” features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and Awards Editor Jack Smart for this guide on how to live the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
It was a rejection, following a promising audition, that pushed Charlotte Nicdao to commit to the life of an actor. While studying classical music at university and casually reading for acting gigs in her spare time, Nicdao found herself yearning for a particularly perfect on-camera part. “They gave the role to someone else and I was devastated,” she remembers. “I was like, how am I this upset about this thing that’s not even my job? I’ve never been this upset when I failed in music.... Maybe this is actually what I want to do.”
In her native Australia and with sights set on Hollywood, Nicdao then pursued the highs and lows of an acting career: weathering auditions of all kinds, growing her skillset as a comedic performer, and holding onto that early passion. Following in the footsteps of her father (Alfred Nicdao, “one of the first Asian actors on Australian screens,” she says), she starred on international series “A gURLs wURLd” at age 17, then appeared on “Camp,” “Please Like Me,” “Content,” and in short films, voiceover animation, and “Thor: Ragnarok.”
The actor-musician-podcaster now stars as video game engineer Poppy Li opposite Rob McElhenney on his hit Apple TV+ series “Mythic Quest,” a workplace comedy starring an hilariously cohesive ensemble including Ashly Burch, Jessie Ennis, Imani Hakim, David Hornsby, Danny Pudi, and F. Murray Abraham. “It is fun to get to embody this character that just has no insecurities,” says Nicdao of Poppy, a woman of color in the male-dominated gaming industry who nevertheless develops more than a few toxic work dynamics as co-creative director in the show’s second season.
Rob McElhenney Advises TV Creators to ‘Make What You Want to See’ Why is Poppy such a dream role? Because she’s a total mess, says Nicdao. “Often the stuff that makes people laugh,” she says—her fundamental objective as a comedic actor—“is seeing other people not have it together. And in a lot of ways, you can’t fake that. You kind of just have to go for it.
“There’s this really clear sign in comedy, whether you’re doing it good or not,” she explains. “If people laugh, good job. If people are stony-faced, you didn’t do it. And that is an incredibly scary space to inhabit!”
Fueled by trust and respect on a collaborative set, the actors and writers of “Mythic Quest” are in constant conversation about everything from overall character development to spur-of-the-moment improvisations. “When Rob and [co-creator Megan Ganz] trust us, we feel like we have the freedom to go different places with the performance on the day,” says Nicdao. “And when we trust them, then they have the freedom to write different things for us and take the characters officially in different directions because they believe that we can handle it.”
The reason Poppy is often flailing her arms about or using obscure Australian terms, she adds, is that the writers aren’t afraid to incorporate Nicdao herself directly into the character. “I love the idea of treating actors as part of the creation process, not just tools that come in once you’ve made the story that have to fit into a box that you’ve pre-made.”
That philosophy was reflected in McElhenney and the team’s casting process: at Nicdao’s original audition for Poppy, she was deemed too young for the part, and began reading for supporting characters instead. Nicdao remembers that weeks into the “Mythic Quest” casting—on what she thought might be her last visit to Los Angeles—she told McElhenney she was grateful for the opportunity to audition for the show, regardless of outcome. “And he was like, ‘Oh, you’re in the show! We don’t know which role we want to put you in yet. But you’re going to be working on the show.’
“And even after that point—I feel like a lot of people will relate to this—I was like, Sure, we’ll see,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’ve been burned so many times! In a lot of ways, I think that imposter syndrome is kind of a helpful thing to have as an actor. It’s the same as [how] nerves kind of give you energy: it pushes you a little, it makes you not take things for granted.”
Hear Nicdao’s interview in full at any of the podcast platforms below. Stay tuned for tips and leads for Australian actors looking to break through, courtesy of Backstage casting insider Christine McKenna-Tirella: a plus-sized pop girl group in Sydney, music video featuring contemporary dance in Sydney, and sci-fi-comedy web series in Melbourne are now casting via Backstage.
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