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T HE ENVELOPE LOS ANGELES TIMES THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019
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version of “Cabaret.”
“Fosse/Verdon” devoted episodes to
these projects, relishing the pair’s show-
biz history, which included relationships
with Neil Simon, Paddy Chayefsky and
Liza Minnelli. The series also served as a
corrective, establishing Verdon’s crucial
contributions to the self-loathing Fosse’s
successes.
“I wasn’t fully aware of her legacy and
the extent of her invisible handprint on
his career until this,” Williams says, add-
ing she wouldn’t have done the series if it
had merely been a standard depiction of a
great, flawed man. After Williams was
cast, “Fosse/Verdon” became an equal
partnership and, in the process, evolved
into an empathetic, honest look at gender
inequities.
“Gwen shouldered the load profes-
sionally and in their life together too,”
Williams adds. “She had to sacrifice a lot
to get what she deserved.”
Williams and Rockwell are tucked in-
side an office at the motion picture acade-
my’s Beverly Hills headquarters. They’re
here for a “Fosse/Verdon” Emmy event
and outfitted accordingly, Williams wear-
ing a black cardigan and leopard print
skirt and Rockwell rocking a burgundy
print suit. Rockwell lets his costar do
most of the talking, affirming most of her
recollections with an emphatic “yeah”
that carries vestiges of the Texas accent
he employed playing George W. Bush in
“Vice.”
He repeatedly likens making “Fosse/
Verdon” to filming four independent
movies — two months of prep, six months
of filming, 16-hour days, weekends spent
learning lines, countless packs of ciga-
rettes and, for him, huge chunks of time
spent lugging around his beloved German
shepherd in order to strengthen his core
for the series’ dance numbers.
Verdon and Fosse each went through
emotional upheavals at a young age. As a
teenager, Verdon was forced to marry a
family friend who impregnated her; Fos-
se’s sexuality became forever compli-
cated when he was molested by fellowburlesque dancers early in his career.
“They had similar traumasbut dealt
with them in different ways — she wanted
to go out, he wanted to go in,” Williams
says. “That probably made it insufferable
to live togetherbut is also probably what
brought them together in the first place.”
“They were two broken people who
needed that buzz, that showbiz fix,” Rock-
well adds. “I relate to that.” He turns to
Williams and, again, they clasp hands. “I
think you relate to that too. You gotta
bleed a little bit. What’s the point if you
don’t leave a little blood on the stage?”
“When you’ve been to the moon, it’s
hard to return to Earth,” Williams replies
softly. “These two people were stage ani-
mals and they became addicted to the au-
dience giving them a love and approval
that they didn’t have when they were
children, a love and approval that made
them feel whole. And I think both of them
struggled to figure out how to get thatlove when they weren’t onstage.”
Williams and Rockwell agree that it’s
strange they’d never worked together be-
fore “Fosse/Verdon.” Rockwell, 50, lives
in the East Village with his longtime girl-
friend, Leslie Bibb, and has long been ac-
tive on the New York stage. “I’ve been to
all his plays,” says Williams, 38, a fellow
New Yorker, who has done a fair amount
of stage work herself, including nearly a
year playing Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.”
They both cop to being “theater nerds”
and gravitate toward indie film projects.
“We should have been so many other
people to each other at this point,”
Williams says. “I guess we made up for
lost time doing this.”
Rockwell has never spent more than
three or four months on a play, and when
Williams tells him about the year she
spent on “Cabaret,” he needs about a min-
ute to process that kind of commitment,
whispering, “wow,” “that’s a lot,” “a year
... I can’t believe it” while Williams talks
about the mental toll it took on her. For
“Fosse/Verdon,” she trained and dieted
(no carbs, lots of animal protein ... hence
the permanent aversion to chicken
breasts) and never had a day off. But she
could always ask for another take while
filming a movie or TV project. Onstage,she notes, there’s no such safety net.
“ ‘Fosse/Verdon’ was harder techni-
cally, emotionally, physically, logistically,”
Williams says, comparing the projects,
while Rockwell intones, “For a year? Je-
sus!” “But spiritually ... it’s hard to get up
in front of a thousand real people every
night. You’re so exposed. There’s nothing
to hide behind. And, for better and for
worse, you can feel the audience strongly
and it imprints on you. I just felt raw
doing it. It was crucifyingly difficult.”
“When you hear people in the audi-
ence coughing, that’s what gets me,”
Rockwell says. Williams covers her face.
“The coughing ... it’s excruciating.”
Would she do it again? Of course, she
replies.
“There’s that scene in the last episode
when Gwen does the benefit for Staten
Island Mental Health,” Williams says, ex-
plaining. “That’s where her stage is at
that point in her life. It’s a small stage, but
she still takes it. She’s a fish and she needs
to swim. She needs that water to live. So
if there’s a puddle, she’s going to jump
in.”
“What actor can’t relate to that?”
Rockwell asks.
“If they’re being honest, each and ev-
ery one,” Williams answers.Craig BlankenhornFXCOSTARSSam Rockwell, left, and Michelle Williams enjoy happier days in “Fosse/Verdon.”IT TAKES
TWO TO
TANGO
[‘ Fosse/Verdon,’from S11]‘I wasn’t
fully
aware
of her
legacy
and the
extent
of her
invisible
hand-
on his
career.’
—MICHELLE
WILLIAMS,
on Gwen VerdonSounds like quite a duo
“Fosse/Verdon’s” music director
Alex Lacamoire and music supervisor
Steve Gizicki, nominated in their
respective fields, provide the sound-
track that gets the dancing started. S14