Tony Award Winner Leslie Odom Jr. of 'Hamilton' on His Road to Stardom
— -- Last night Leslie Odom Jr. took home the big award, winning best actor in a musical. Much to the surprise of many, Odom beat out his co-star, "Hamilton" show creator Lin-Manual Miranda. Odom won the award for his portrayal of Alexander Hamilton's longtime rival Aaron Burr. Here's Odom's interview with ABC earlier this month about the Tony Awards and his road to stardom.
“I’m so excited that I get to be in that room with so many of my brothers and sisters in the show,” Odom, 34, told ABC News. “That’s the best and I’ll say this for right now anyway, I’ve never been through it before."
"For right now, we all get to be winners," he continued. "We’re so excited about that. There are five people in each category, five shows in the category.”
“'Hamilton,' this show, has re-prioritized and reordered my life,” Odom added. “Because when you talk about winners and losers and failures, you really have to spend time defining what that means to you. You can’t let that come from the outside. When you sit with yourself and you go, ‘Is that what I really want? Or is that something that somebody told me that I wanted?"
He emphasized how the cast took a chance on the production. "We made $790 a week at the Public Theater for six months to do this show. All of us made the same amount. So this was not a money grab, us wanting to be a part of this show. This was us walking towards just some art that we believed in, something that we wanted to be a part of.”
It’s been an amazing run for Odom and the entire cast, especially considering it’s been less than a year since the show launched on Broadway. But Odom almost missed the opportunity to be a part of the cast.
“I had a television show for NBC that I was contracted to do called, 'State of Affairs' with Katherine Heigl. I was very lucky to get the job. It’s shot in New York. Last minute, production moves to L.A. So I can’t do both. I have to choose between two jobs,” explained Odom.
He chose "Hamilton" and then negotiated to be released from his television contract.
“I begged them to let me out of the contract, but there were people who told me I was nuts,” Odom said.
The move paid off. “Hamilton” has been sold out since the show hit Broadway.
“I was kind of like a fanboy for 'Hamilton' and a fanboy for Lin in the room,” Odom told Peter Travers. “It took me a little while before I realized, 'OK I should kind of focus on my guy,' so I could give Lin something to play off of. So I needed to be equally as compelling for the story to be told in the best way.”
And compelling he is. Odom has earned standing ovations for his mid-act rousing performances.
“When we come out on that stage, it is our job to be as full of life as they are, to be as rowdy and rambunctious and sex-obsessed, so that there’s no distance,” Odom said.
"Hamilton" is playing at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York.
