The busy stage and screen actor Cheyenne Jackson is giving fans plenty to look forward to lately. In addition to his new album, “Renaissance” (based on his acclaimed concert Music of the Mad Men Era), fans can enjoy Jackson in the upcoming season of “American Horror Story” (premiering Sept. 14), and the much-anticipated, star-studded film adaptation of Michael John LaChiusa’s “Hello Again,” in which he sings opposite Audra McDonald. We checked in with Jackson about his career, advice, and forgetting the lyrics to “Being Alive.”
How did you get your Equity and/or SAG-AFTRA card?
Equity was “Babes in Arms” at the Village Theater in Ithaca, Washington. They had an apprentice program where you could earn points or your could just be offered an Equity contract. I think I was 25. It felt very legitimate, and it was helpful to have that before coming to New York. And then SAG, it was for “United 93.”
READ: How to Join SAG-AFTRA
What advice would you give your younger self?
Relax. Just fucking relax. Take a breath. It’s all going to be OK. I think of all the consternation and all the worry and what does this mean and will they like me and is this what they want? Always trying to fit into what they want of you—I really got caught up in that after having a little modicum of success in New York. And you start to veer further away from what you are. When kids come up and say, “What should I do?” I say, “Be yourself. Don’t try to do it like a CW show you’re watching. Just literally be yourself.”
What was your most memorable survival job?
The first to pop in my mind: I worked at a paper mill. An actual mill, a pulp mill that made paper in Iowa. I worked at a really gross place called Grizzly Pizza Drive-in and Ribs. I was a bank teller. I ran childcare at a health club, and people thought I was just one of the dads. And then tons of food service.
How do you typically prepare for an audition?
I just try to get as much info about the project as possible, about all the people involved, about any incarnations of the project in the past. And then of course the character. What can I do to bring this person to life? Every time you think you’re going into the room with a fresh perspective, and then you go and there’s nine guys who have the same shirt as you and they all have black hair and blue eyes and you feel like a cow in a long line of cattle. The thing that will set me apart is just when I truly bring myself into it. And it takes people a while to figure out what their thing is. It took me a while to realize that I’m not a “Law and Order” lawyer type. There are certain things that don’t come easily to me. It’s just not right for me. I just have too much of a weird vein running through me. I don’t know if it’s just from starting on “30 Rock” or the way I see the world. But my first instinct with a line is what I need to go with. It’s easy to do the basic thing and you get scared and you go beige and give the most blah choices, but then you blend in with everyone else. And then you pretend that never happened and you get a coffee.
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What’s your go-to audition song?
Back in the day I did “On the Street Where You Live.” I used to do “Ordinary World” by the Goo Goo Dolls, which got me a few jobs because it was just different.
What is your worst audition story?
The one that pops into my mind always is when I was auditioning to be Hugh Jackman’s standby in “Boy From Oz.” I’d done the Elvis musical [“All Shook Up”] and I had a little bit of buzz around me, so they thought, Oh, this’ll be a good fit. I’d worked on the material and I had some confidence, [but then] they wanted me to sing from my book and, as you know, there’s a lot of shit in your book you don’t look at for months. And they said, “Why don’t you sing ‘Being Alive?’” And I had forgotten it was in there! My heart was racing and my face was flushed, and I started. “Somebody…” And I started it again. “Somebody…” OK? So I went and looked at the lyrics and they’re all exchanging looks and whispering shit to one another, and for the third time, I go, “Somebody…” And everybody behind the desk went, “Hold me too close!” They all sang it for me. And that was it.
What movie should every actor see?
You could go so many different ways with this. I like “Waiting for Guffman” or “Soap Dish.” I like things that are farcical but are about show business because it shows what a crock it all is
What was your first headshot like?
I’m imaging it right now. It was very, my gosh, it was so blown out you could barely see my nose. And for some reason, I had lots of makeup on but not on the deep bags under my eyes I was born with. So I had all this white cake-y makeup on my nose and forehead but under my eyes I had these really big bags.
Keep your own audition book up-to-date with advice from the video below!