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Age
:
“I am proudly celebrating the 10th anniversary of my 23rd
birthday.”
Currently :
Making his Broadway debut as
Javert in Les Misérables, Hensley is also filming a TNT
television movie about the rise of Monday Night Football, Monday
Night Mayhem, until March 6.
Hometown :
Marietta, Georgia. Hensley’s mother is
a ballet director and his father was an all-American football player,
so he grew up immersed in both arts and athletics. “I had scouted
and I went to college on a baseball scholarship but I also did theater
and sang,” Hensley explains. “It never struck me as strange until
I got to high school and it began to be apparent that it was not
normal for people to enjoy doing both. Then in college it was REALLY
apparent.” Hensley choose the performance arts over baseball and
after two years at the University of Georgia he transferred to the
Manhattan School of Music.
Out of my
Dreams :
Hensley had been slowly building his
theater resume (his roles included the lead in a German Phantom of
the Opera production) when he took time off to spend with his wife
and her family in England. “I was there when they were auditioning
from Oklahoma!,” he says. “I had learned that it is really
important for certain jobs to have an agent and I had always wanted to
do this role. So when I heard they were auditioning, I got an agent
immediately just so I could get an audition.” It worked, Hensley was
cast as Jud, the sinister farmhand.
Oh, What a
Beautiful Mornin' :
The role of Jud in the acclaimed revival
brought Hensley out of obscurity and into the spotlight. He earned an
unbelievable amount of praise and netted an Olivier Award for his
performance. “Personally the attention was something I wasn’t
really expecting,” he says humbly. “It was unbelievable.”
Bad is Good :
I like villains because there are many
layers that make them tragic. To me it’s more interesting if the
villain is not portrayed as a villain but as someone who is much more
like everyone else than we would care to believe - except there’s
one flaw and that flaw becomes their downfall. Every time I’m at the
theater people say, ‘You’ve got to do comedy.’ But physically
people see me as a menacing presence. It is basically my therapy. I
can go be mean onstage and come home and be sweet to my little baby
and wife.”
Trimming Les Miz :
Hensley joined the cast of
Broadway’s Les Misérables just before the creative team
began cutting the show. “It was like doing a new show of a 14 year
old show though it’s really just a line here and a line there.
Honestly people who’ve seen it don’t even know it’s cut. They
just look at the clock and say, ‘Wow, it’s over before 11.
That’s good,’” he jokes.
I'm So Pretty
:
“I am literally almost eight feet tall
in that hat [which he wears in the beginning of Les Miz]. It
takes a lot of getting used to. That huge overcoat I wear makes me
look the size of a semi. It feels like it is almost 40 or 50 pounds.
You know I am actually 175 pounds but with mirrors and makeup....”
Future Plans :
Despite a growing number of
comedic credits, Hensley knows he is still likely to be typecast.
"I play smart, intellectual villains. I am waiting for Hannibal
: The Musical to come, and then I can be him."
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