Photography by Chad Griffith for Backstage
An adaptation of the beloved Off-Broadway musical, The Last Five Yearsis directed by Richard LaGravenese and stars Anna Kendrick (who's also starring in Into the Woods) and Jeremy Jordan singing their hearts out. Jordan has been on Broadway for years and earned a whole new slew of fans when he starred in the TV show Smash. But this role was a "tough one to get," he tells Backstage in its cover story. "I auditioned three or four times and each time was a completely different song," Jordan explains. "Each time I performed a number showing a different emotion and a different skill set."
Movie musicals are never easy, and Kendrick and Jordan sang most of the movie's songs completely live (including shooting 14 takes of "If I Didn't Believe in You" in one day), but Jordan says his challenges stemmed more from his experience as a stage actor and figuring out how to change his acting style for the camera.
"I have to reel it in a lot," he explains, saying he'd go up to LaGravenese and say, "Listen, I'm a stage actor; if I make an expression that's, like, outrageously large, just say, 'Yo! Don't do that with your face!' When I watch myself, every once in a while I'll cringe and go, 'Oh...that's really what I look like?' "
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We're hoping this is just the start of Jordan's film career. But he admits chasing jobs is the worst part about being an actor: "It's the shittiest thing about this business. It's just the worst. And the trying to prove to everybody that you're their guy," he says. "I don't have to prove anything to anybody if I just go out there and do my own thing."
The Last Five Years is in theaters now. Watch a trailer below:
