Conversations with Billy Crudup (2019)

A Career Retrospective with Billy Crudup recorded on December 17th, 2019. Moderated by Mara Webster.

Equally memorable on the stage and screen, Billy Crudup has earned critical accolades for his performances. Currently he stars as Corey Ellison in Apple’s Golden-Globe nominated The Morning Show alongside Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carrell, which earned him both Critics’ Choice Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Recently, he starred in the film adaptation of Maria Semple’s novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, alongside Kristen Wiig and Cate Blanchett and in Bart Freundlich’s After the Wedding, alongside Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams.   Previously, Crudup starred in Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant along with Michael Fassbender and Katherine Waterston and made his television debut in Netflix’s psychological thriller Gypsy opposite Naomi Watts. He appeared in Jackie opposite Natalie Portman; Zack Snyder’s Justice League, alongside Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot and Jason Mamoa; 20th Century Women alongside Annette Bening, Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig; Spotlight, for which he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture; the film also won the 2016 Academy Award® for Best Picture; Youth in Oregon, which debuted at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival; and IFC Films’ The Stanford Prison Experiment, which is based on the landmark experiment conducted at Stanford University in the summer of 1971.   Crudup made his motion picture debut in Barry Levinson’s Sleepers, opposite Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and Jason Patric, followed by Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You, and Pat O’Connor’s Inventing the Abbotts.  Crudup played the leading role in critically acclaimed Without Limits, the story of legendary long distance runner Steven Prefontaine, for which he won the National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance of the Year.  He then starred in the critically acclaimed Jesus’ Son opposite Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter and Denis Leary, which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and he reunited with Jennifer Connelly in the acclaimed Waking the Dead.  Crudup also starred in Cameron Crowe’s Academy Award®-winning Almost Famous along with Frances McDormand and Kate Hudson.  Crudup’s other film credits include: 1 Mile to You, based on Jeremy Jackson’s novel Life at These Speed;. Noah Buschel’s Glass Chin; William H. Macy’s directorial debut Rudderless; Guillaume Canet’s Blood Ties opposite Clive Owen; the box office hit Eat Pray Love starring alongside Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, and James Franco;  Michael Mann’s Public Enemies alongside Johnny Depp and Christian Bale; Zack Synder’s Watchmen opposite Patrick Wilson; Charlotte Gray opposite Cate Blanchett; Tim Burton’s fantasy tale, Big Fish, also starring Ewan McGregor, Helena Bonham Carter, and Albert Finney;  Stage Beauty opposite Claire Danes; Trust the Man with Julianne Moore; J.J. Abrams’ Mission Impossible 3 opposite Tom Cruise; and Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd alongside Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. On stage, Crudup recently starred in the one-man play Harry Clarke at the Vineyard Theatre, for which he won an Outer Critics Circle Award, Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Obie Award and garnered nominations for Drama League Award and Drama Desk Awards.  Crudup starred in the repertory productions of No Man’s Land and Waiting for Godot on Broadway, opposite Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Shuler Hensley. In 2007, Crudup won a “Best Performance by a Featured Actor” Tony for his role in the Broadway production of The Coast of Utopia.   He also received Tony nominations for his roles in The Elephant Man, The Pillowman and Arcadia.