Actor Michael Urie brings his past movie, WTC View, back to life this month with new distribution. Originally released in 2005, the film tells the story of gay photographer Eric—who has an apartment with a view of the World Trade Center—searching for a roommate in the weeks following 9/11.
Known from his breakout role on Ugly Betty as Marc St. James, Urie has gone on to Broadway and various television projects. His live performance in the Barbra Streisand's basement-inspired fictional show Buyer & Cellar won a Clarence Derwent Award.
After talking with him previously about that project, WCT caught up to him on the phone about WTC.
Windy City Times: Hi, Michael. Good to talk to you again. How was your stay in Chicago during the run of Buyer & Cellar?
Michael Urie: I had the best time. Chicago is so cool. I am dying to go back. I tried to go back a few times for a quick trip since then but I haven't been able to. I loved doing the play there. I had the best steak of my life there and I'm from Texas. We love beef!
I loved being surrounded by those amazing buildings and the theater scene is so exciting.
WCT: So was WTC View your first movie ever?
MU: Yes, aside from movies that my friends made on our camcorders! Technically, I was in a movie called Uptown Girls with Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning, but they cut my part out. I was only in one scene. I filmed a movie but had actually never been in one before that.
WTC View was my first play I got out of school. Nine months later, we made the film.
WCT: You have to carry this film on your shoulders, so that must have been intimidating.
MU: I learned a lot. I feel like it was a 12-day shoot and I was in every frame. I was in every scene and had to be there all day, every day. I loved every minute of it, don't get me wrong, but is usually not the norm when you acting in something unless you are the star you won't be there all the time.
It was a good experience but a trial by fire. This is how you act in a movie and go!
WCT: How was transforming it from a play in 2003 to a movie two years later?
MU: What I now know it is impossible to be prepared for a film or television shoot as we were for WTC View because the entire cast had done the play. We had already spent seven weeks with the play and had weeks of intense discussion and rehearsal. We knew it inside and out so by the time we got on set that was the easiest part. We knew the words and the characters so well.
This was very helpful on 12-day shoot. Normally, it is not possible to rehearse at all. We really had a huge leg up as far as the storytelling and the characters. Usually you meet your co-star on the day of the shoot, at least that has been my experience, sometimes you get a little rehearsal, like maybe a day for an entire movie.
WCT: Did you relate to this movie with having bad roommates?
MU: Not a lot but I have definitely spent time talking to strangers about potentially living together. That is a unique conversation. Not only are you getting to know someone for the first time but you are trying to decide if you can share your life with them. Sharing a bathroom with someone is such a personal thing. I did know that feeling and those kinds of conversations. I was in New York after 9/11 so I also know how often we found ourselves talking to strangers in that time.
In New York people don't talk to strangers very often. You coexist and if you need to you will talk to each other but you don't strike up conversations very often on the subways. That was happening all the time after 9/11. People were venting, and talking about it constantly. We were brought together in a tragic and sad way but it was beautiful. It went back to normal after a while but it was special.
Those conversations we had in the movie were so authentic. They really feel like a normal occurrence in those times. At the time that was what was happening. We were talking to strangers, telling our stories, and crying in front of each other. We were helping each other.
The play is really a great microcosm of New York during the second half of 2001.
WCT: Your character is very traumatized by 9/11.
MU: Yeah; it really hit him very hard. Part of that was because he watched it happen—not on television but from his window. He would always have that view everyday. He couldn't put it out of his mind or even to the back of his mind. It overwhelms him.
WCT: How does it feel watching WTC View 10 years later? Is it like the movie Boyhood for you?
MU: [Laughs] Well, you know I am now the right age for the guy. I was 10 years too young for the part when we did it. I should be doing it now because you learn a lot in 10 years. Brian Sloan, the director of the movie, and also Andrew Volkoff, the director of the play, were the right age for the character. The writing was so strong back then. There were no great mysteries, they were so well thought out. If if I didn't know what the feelings were I could still experience them. Brian and Andrew would help me find them. The cast was so good.
I remember it being a hard play to execute because it was so emotional but I don't remember it being hard to figure out. It was a great rehearsal process and shoot. It worked really well. In hindsight, I feel I would be a lot better now.
WCT: How are you finishing out this year with your career?
MU: On Tuesday, I go to London to do Buyer & Cellar at the Menier Chocolate Factory. I will do that for two months there. I saw you at the beginning of my tour so that tour lasted until fall and since then I have spent a lot of time working on my web series called What's Your Emergency. It is available now on Stage17. I directed it, and my partner Ryan Spahn and Halley Feiffer wrote it.
I have been back and forth to LA to do some scenes in Modern Family and the hilarious Comedy Central show Workaholics.
When I come back from Buyer & Cellar then I do a play at Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone.
WCT: You are busy.
MU: It has been a nice stretch. It is all because of you, really, and our first interview. Before that, I had nothing going on...
WCT: [Laughs] I got you some publicity! Patti did an anniversary show here at the Auditorium Theatre recently, by the way.
MU: She is really good. She played my mom on Ugly Betty. We have been friendly ever since. She has been so supportive of me. I totally love her. Jerry Zaks is directing it and it's a new play by Douglas Cater Beane called Shows For Days.
WCT: Do you know how many gay people are jealous of you because of knowing her?
MU: Actually, I do!
Look for Urie's View, released digitally on iTunes for the first time, with availability on DVD at TLA Video.
