William Jackson Harper: the Making of a Very Modest Leading Man

When he heard that he had been nominated for a Tony Award for Lead Actor in a Play, William Jackson Harper didn’t believe it, and—shocked and confused—called his agent.

The Emmy-nominated star of The Good Place thought his character, the lovelorn, restless doctor Astrov in Lincoln Center’s revival of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (booking to June 16), would surely be defined as a featured role. The lead actor/lead character nomination, if awarded to anyone to anyone in the production, would surely go to Steve Carell, in his Broadway debut playing Vanya himself.

“I was hopeful, sure,” Harper, 44, told The Daily Beast of receiving the nomination, “but expecting it? Absolutely not at all. I guess the real surprise was the category I was in. I asked my agent, ‘How did this happen? What the fuck is going on?’ And he told me that there had once been a production of Vanya where the guys playing Astrov and Vanya were listed above the title, meaning both could be considered as lead actors. Because of that precedent, it was decided to consider me as a lead actor. For me, this is an ensemble show. Everyone has about the same amount of stage time. Honestly, we should all be in the ‘featured’ category together.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.