Press Index
Q & A with Laura Bell Bundy
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Laura Bell Bundy
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by Kathy Henderson (8/13/2007)
Don't let the blonde hair and sorority-rush smile fool you:
Laura Bell Bundy is one smart cookie, an actress and singer who gives
fresh meaning to the word "multitasking." As if eight shows a week
headlining the high-energy Broadway musical
Legally Blonde
(as fictional smart cookie Elle Woods) wasn't enough, Bundy is
moonlighting as a country singer/songwriter in support of her new CD
Longing for a Place Already Gone. Self-released under the name
"Laura Bell," the recording mixes torch songs, novelty songs (including
one about loving chocolate set to the tune of "Making Whoopee"), and
girl power anthems sung with a twang reminiscent of Bundy's hometown of
Lexington, Kentucky. Having spent 17 of her 26 years as a theater pro,
Bundy remains committed to stage acting and is still savoring her 2007
Best Actress Tony nomination for Legally Blonde. On a week in
which she sandwiched in a country concert on her day off, the always
quotable actress chatted about her life and career with Broadway.com.
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Let's talk about your new solo CD first, which has an "old-time"
country feeling. You were born in 1981. Did you really grow up listening
to Pasty Cline and Merle Haggard?
I did. I've always been fascinated with music from generations before I
was born, which is why I titled the album Longing for a Place Already
Gone. My grandfather was a radio DJ in the '50s and '60s, and
growing up, I was always listening to Rosemary Clooney, Patsy Cline,
Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. My mother listened to Dolly Parton. As I
got older, I loved Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin and also Loretta
Lynn and Johnny Cash. I like the clarity of the sound, and I like that
it felt honest. I was drawn to that as opposed to somebody who is trying
to make a hit on the radio. I'm very attracted to a sound that doesn't
sound over-produced.
Why did you drop Bundy and bill yourself simply as Laura Bell on
the country CD? Is it like a role you're playing?
I think so. I thought about going with just "Bell," but my producer was
like, "Well, Laura Bell sounds so southern, you should go with that
because that's who you are and everybody calls you that." Honestly, it
took a long time to make the decision. Bundy is so attached to me being
in the theater and in film, and I decided that Laura Bell felt more like
a friend that you're listening to. It's different from my acting career,
and that's what I wanted. Two different worlds.
So you can have fans of your singing who don't even know about your
Broadway career?
Probably. I mean, that may not be the best for me in terms of getting
noticed, but I just wanted to keep them separate. They're not separate
as a part of me, but because country is so very different from
musical theater, it makes sense to be two different people. And my
voices are different. I recently listened to the [country] album and I
didn't recognize my voice [laughs].
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Laura Bell Bundy in concert
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Your hair and style of dress certainly look different in the
concerts you've done of this material.
I was sort of trying to emulate the older country artists like Loretta
Lynn or Dolly Partonthat look.
I was thinking Tammy Wynette.
Oh, you know what? Somebody said Tammy Wynette too!
Are you trying to roll out the CD in a way that will attract
attention from traditional Nashville audiences?
I did it on my own label, Lab Records, and it's available on amazon.com
and my website and the digital music download places. I would love to be
able to get it out there in a major way, but I did it myself so that it
could be what I wanted it to be. I wanted to do something that felt
truthful and honest without someone pushing me in a direction to sell
records.
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It almost sounds like you did this CD to please yourself.
Totally. Absolutely. I'm at the point where singing my own music is
necessary for me. I can't live without it. I'm always going to come home
at night and feel the need to write a song, whether or not people buy
it. If it touches somebody, that's all the better, but it's something I
have to do. I was in a band a couple years ago with one of my best
friends and it was a lot of fun, but it got to that point where the main
goal was to get a record deal. As great as that is, when you start to
sell yourself and sing music you're not connected to, your heart starts
disappearing from it. My heart is in this.
Carrie Underwood has a song with an old-time sound, "Before He
Cheats," getting airplay on Z100. Wouldn't you love a commercial hit?
I actually think there are a couple songs that could connect with a wide
audience, and I would love that. "Designated Drunk" is a really
funny song. "I'll Make the Money, You Make the Love," is an anthem about
being true to yourself.
How long have you been writing songs?
I think I was 17 when I started, and I wasn't very good then [laughs].
How did you learn? Who were your mentors?
I didn't really have any at a young age. I was always writing poetry or
journaling, things like that. It became a more serious when I was 18 or
19, with my [performing] partner Amber [Rhodes], who was kind of a
mentor. I've worked with different songwriters over the last six to
eight years. Great people have come into my life, and I learn a little
bit from everybody. Willie Nelson is a huge influence because he has a
style that is almost jazz-meets-country. I write that sort of jazzy,
lounge-y, big-band sound too. But what's interesting is that when I
first started writing music, it all came out country.
Even the most successful Broadway
stars have had trouble crossing over into other areas of the
record business. Any theories about the reason for that?
As a Broadway performer I hate saying this, but I do think there
is a stigma. In some ways it's harder to take someone who's been
on Broadway seriously [as a pop musician]. You get on stage to
play characters, and your voice has this quality where every
consonant, every lyric is heard clearly. With rock stars, you
don't understand half of what they're saying. They get up and
play themselves, and they look half drunk or comatose. Those are
the people that teenagers idolize. Let's be honest: Broadway
isn't cool. A hipster going to see a rock show is like, "Uh, I
don't like musical theater," even though when they actually sit
down in those seats, they love seeing a story. On my day off, I
make it a point to go to concerts, and a lot of the time it
isn't as interesting to me as listening to the CD while I clean
my house. The art of what we do onstage is to take a song and
make everybody in the audience feel it. Country music is
actually similar to Broadway because it's about telling stories.
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Laura Bell Bundy in
Legally Blonde
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In addition to your solo CD, the Legally Blonde cast
recording has just come out. Are you happy with it?
I'm actually really happy with it. I haven't listened to it all
the way through; I hear the show every night, so the last thing
I want to do is spend an hour and a half listening to myself
sing!
How is the Broadway run going? Jerry Mitchell's production
seems like an enormous workout.
I feel like I do a half marathon every night! I really, really
love it, and I love being on stage for the whole time. I feel it
keeps me connected as an actress, and it's really, really fun.
The cast is great; they're such beautiful people, and I love the
way the writers have written Elle. She's a full character with a
great big heart and sense of humor and quirkiness. I'm
discovering new things about her every night, and I'm having a
great time.
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Don't you love looking out at all the young girls in the
audience?
It's like seeing Mini-Meslittle girls who remind me of myself
when I was going to see shows for the first time. I still
remember the people I saw in shows and looked up to when I was
little.Your Best Actress Tony nomination must
have been especially meaningful given the fact that female leads from
four major shows got left out! It was a big year for women in musicals.
I wasn't expecting it, honestly. I have to say that I worked
really, really hard on this role and this show, and the creative team
was open to my ideas. But in terms of the Tonys, I thought, "Well, I'll
be doing this forever and I'll get my chance one day." I was alone in my
house watching [the nominations on] TV, and I started running around and
screaming [laughs]. I was in shock. I wish there had been a
camera videotaping me, because the memory of it makes me laugh. What's
unfortunate is that you have to be compared with other people, because
everybody's work is so different. I saw a lot of great work this year by
women I truly admire and thought were deserving of a nomination.
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Laura Bell Bundy in a
scene with the original Broadway cast of Hairspray
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The Hairspray movie was great, but you and
Kerry Butler made a much stronger and funnier impression as
Amber and Penny on Broadway than the actresses who played the
parts in the film.
Thank you. Well, I can't comment on that, because [film Amber]
Brittany Snow and I did Guiding Light together for two
years. She played my niece, even though "niece" in soap opera
terms is only five years apart because you're related to
everybody. With her doing the role, it took away [the feeling
of] "I wanted to do that" and made it "Oh my god, it's like my
little sister doing it!" I actually thought that she did a
really good job.
You had moved to Los Angeles before getting the role in
Legally Blonde. Was it difficult to decide to come back to
New York for a year?
It was a no-brainer. Since the first reading in July of 2005, I
had such a feeling about this show and such a desire to do it. I
actually turned down a lot of stuff in TV for the possibility of
doing Legally Blonde. It was almost like "I have
to do this show!" I knew how great the story was, how great the
role was and what a great opportunity it would be for me to
originate a leading role on Broadway.
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Performing on stage is my passion, whether it's my music or
Broadway; I'm sure I'll grow to love other things the more I do them,
but I just feel so alive doing theater. It also helps all the other
aspects of your career. I'm in a different level in terms of TV and film
now than I was before Legally Blonde.
Let's go back to the very beginning of your career. Were
you a singer first, an actress or a dancer?
I started out doing dance classes when I was two-and-a-half or
three years old. I started to develop as a singer when I was 5
or 6, impersonating people like Judy Garland and Julie Andrews.
By the time I came to New York, I was a nine-year-old who could
dance like a 12-year-old, but singing was definitely the thing.
At a very young age, I was doing voices and accents and
imitating people I saw on the streets of New York, so I became
more of a comedian.
How did you decide to move to New York in the first place?
Well, when I was six, I got a modeling contract with Ford Model
Agency and my mom brought me to New York for the summers, then
I'd go back to Kentucky and go to school.
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Child model Laura Bell
Bundy
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Your mom sent the modeling agency
your picture from Kentucky?
I don't know; maybe she walked in there and was like, "I've sent
a picture, we're only here for two days and I want to see if you
can sit down with us." She's very ballsy, my mother [laughs].
They gave us a contract on the spot. I literally looked like
JonBenet [Ramsey]. I am not joking. It was 1986, '87, and I had
the big hair, the big polka dot outfiteverything was big. I remember
saying to my mom, "I don't want to go back to Kentucky! I want to stay
in New York!" I also remember missing home and missing my dog and all of
those things. Finally, when I was nine, I got the Christmas Spectacular
at Radio City, and we had no choice but to stay in New York. |
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Marvin Laird, the musical director of the Christmas
Spectacular, was writing a new musical based on The Bad Seed. That began the whole reading and
workshop process of Ruthless, and I did the show the
following the year. I was also what's called a size 10 in
modeling, which means I got a lot more work. I went to
Professional Children's School, and I guess we ended up staying
in New York for five years.
How would you describe your relationship with your mother,
Lorna Bell?
Co-dependent? [Laughs] I don't know. We're very close. My
mom is the reason that I am here today. Her belief in me is so
solid and so strong that it made me believe in myself. To her,
the sky wasn't the limit; it was outer space. My mom is a very
driven woman. She lives her life with passion and enthusiasm,
and I get that from her. I couldn't have made it through the
last couple of years without her support. As actors, we are
always waiting for the next big gig and we sometimes turn down
other gigs because of our passion for something we think would
be great for us, which [in my case] was Legally Blonde.
After I did Wicked, there were two years where I did
episodic TV and other work here and there, and I produced and
funded my own album. I couldn't have done it without the support
of my mom and dad and my whole family.
You've played June in Gypsy, but your mom is not a
Mama Rose, right? The two of you moved back to Kentucky so you
could go to a regular high school.
My mom is not Mama Rose, but there is a stage mom in her. She's
very knowledgeable when it comes to the business; she gets
it. But she's not quite the extreme of Mama Rose. She'd be like
Mama Rose meets Dolly Parton!
Can you believe she has her own MySpace page?
There's no stopping her! [Laughs.] More power to herI
don't care.
Your Ruthless understudy Britney Spears has gone
off the rails in recent years. Were you ever tempted to rebel
after so much hard work at such a young age?
I'm not going to judge anybody for quote unquote "rebelling,"
because sometimes it's necessary to take the reins of your own
life. When everybody else is controlling youwhether that's your
parents or your agents or whoever is in the mix of your lifeyou
will do anything to be in control again. And if that means
rebelling in a sense of drugs and partying, that's what you're
going to do. I was always considered the good girlyou know,
"She doesn't drink, she doesn't do this or that." I don't
really drink, but if I want to go out and have a drink, I'm
going to have a drink! I'm not going to keep myself in a cage
because I'm concerned about what people think. It's my life to
live, and life is about learning from your experiences. I have
made mistakes. I've gone out to bars at 1 o'clock in the morning
by myself and struck up conversations with strangers, or spent
an entire day on a park bench writing poetry or reading obscure
things or going into porn shops. I want to experience my life.
On the opposite extreme, your other Ruthless
understudy, Natalie Portman, went to Harvard. You chose to come
back to New York and relaunch your career.
Everybody has their own path and journey, and the one constant
is that everything changes. I'll probably change, too. It's
funny to say this in an interview, but I've been misquoted
almost all the time in interviews; I have heard rumors about
myself that weren't true. I can't be concerned about that. I
just have to live my life. That's the only thing anybody can do.
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Laura & Lorna Bell Bundy
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Do you have a five-year plan for your career?
Oh my gosh, if I could stay and work from New York, that would
be the greatest. I would love to produce Broadway; that's
something I'm working on. I have a passion for the business of
theater. I'm coming up with my five-year plan now.
Do you still have a long-distance relationship going on?
I do! [Boyfriend Austin Peck] just left yesterday. He's a
molecular biologist at the University of Santa Barbara.
How did you happen to meet a molecular biologist?
I met him at the Bowery Bar. He challenged me to a dance-off [laughs].
He's a really creative person. He does an indie-rock radio show;
he's got an understanding of music that's way beyond my
understanding in a lot of ways. He has the utmost taste in music
and art. He's just a really smart guy and he's also fun and
cute. I'm crazy about him.
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How long have you been together?
Five years. I met him during tech rehearsal of Hairspray.
Good grief!
I know.
Nobody's rushing for an engagement, I assume.
No. I don't know if that's for me, honestly. We've done so well
with living in the moment that I would hate to make a decision
about the rest of my life. I'm more concerned about living in
the now. I don't want to be pessimistic about marriage in
general, but I do feel that a lot of people go into marriage
thinking they're going to feel the same way or be the same
person forever, and we're not. When I see him next, I want to be
able to ask him, "Who have you become in the last couple of
months?" Because I know I've changed in the past year. A lot of
stuff has happened to me.
I'll say. I don't know how you juggle it all.
One day at a time. Press Index Source:
http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=551592&pn=3 |
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