Gayle Rankin has been posting photos to Instagram of her emerald-green manicures in various states of decay. Following each day of performances of Broadway’s latest revival of, she returns to her dressing room to shed as much as she can of the Kit Kat Club’s tragedienne Sally Bowles before decamping to her West Village apartment. But the green is always there, as the-trained actress digs her claws into a character immortalized for evading understanding.
After years of flirting with the margins of mainstream success, Rankin is now faced with a part that will define both her career and her burgeoning celebrity, whether she’s ready to accept it or not. “I have always chosen roles, maybe in an unconscious way, to kind of contain and conceal my own identity, but I think that’s a little bit more out of my hands now,” she admits.
Throughout our meeting, Rankin toys with various pieces of cutlery to punctuate her points, and orders two scrambled eggs, dipping each bite in a dollop of sriracha and waving it around like a conductor’s baton. Her comedic timing is exact, often plopping her chin into the palm of her hand for dramatic effect, elsewhere leaning forward to offer an arched eyebrow, laying her sarcasm on thick and peppering her sentences with “babe.
Since she booked the role last year, Rankin has allowed the spirit of Sally to take up residence in her psyche, becoming a mannequin for the giggling chanteuse to drape herself upon. She’s willingly sloughed off, or at least obstructed, parts of herself — her love of plunging in bodies of water, of traveling to Mexico and upstate New York with friends, of identifying as a secret Suzy Homemaker, her dreams of someday having a backyard and a pool — in service of the artist’s life.
Back at the café, Rankin fidgets with the collar of her shirt absentmindedly, brushing her hair away from her face in repeated swipes. “The fact that I get to be Sally Bowles alongside Eddie Redmayne on Broadway … I’ll never understand it,” she shakes her head. “It’s probably taken years off of my life, but years I’m willing and so happy to give away. What a fucking joy and privilege.
Entertainment Entertainment Latest News, Entertainment Entertainment Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: ComicBook - 🏆 65. / 68 Read more »