Natalie Gold (‘Appropriate’) on growing comfortable enough to ‘eviscerate’ Sarah Paulson every night [Exclusive Video Interview]
“I think all great dramas are based in dysfunctional families,” confesses Natalie Gold. “Maybe there’s a part of us that are relieved that we get to watch it instead of that being our family.” The actress is something of an expert in familial discord after playing Rava Roy on Succession. Now she is translating those skills to the stage in the hit Broadway play “Appropriate.” Although she plays a flawed character on stage, Gold admits that “there’s great compassion there as well.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
Gold portrays Rachael in the play from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who travels with her husband Bo (Corey Stoll) to the decaying plantation home of her recently deceased father in-law. While Bo and his siblings Toni (Sarah Paulson) and Franz (Michael Esper) attempt to reconcile their parent’s estate, a gruesome discovery turns their entire family history upside down. RachNataael must fight (literally, at times) for herself and her family within a volatile situation that routinely casts her as an outsider.
WATCH Michael Esper video interview: ‘Appropriate’
Vicious insults are hurled back and forth like darts on stage, but thankfully the drama doesn’t exist backstage. “This whole cast just beautifully melded together as a family,” describes Gold. This dynamic meant that creating the longstanding intimacy of a marriage with Stoll was “incredibly easy” for the pair of actors. That’s lucky, considering Bo and Rachael serve as the most stable anchor of this chaotic extended family. “We spent a really long time working on the fact that these two people are in a functional marriage,” explains Gold. “We didn’t want anybody in the audience to leave the play worried about their marriage. We know they’re going to make it. We know they’re going through something, but they’re going to be okay.”
Rachael’s relationship with Toni, however, is far from “okay.” Gold describes Paulson as “one of my favorite actresses of all time,” which ironically helps dive into the on-stage rivalry. After sparring through the whole play, the two women find themselves in an epic screaming match. Each person searches for the most deeply cutting insult with which to attack their opponent. “She does eviscerate me, but then I really eviscerate her and I say incredibly cruel things to her,” says Gold. During one explosive moment, Gold and Paulson even come to blows. “The more comfortable we have gotten just as friends and people, it’s almost easier to play, the going toe-to-toe, because you just feel, ‘God, she’s going to give it every night,’ and I want to give it right back,” she exclaims, “And it’s actually quite fun and cathartic.”
WATCH 2024 Tony Awards predictions slugfest: How many nominations will hit play ‘Appropriate’ earn?
It’s all quite intense, and yet the script is presented in a way that provokes the audience to laugh and giggle with discomfort at the awful events on stage. “I think we could not have been prepared for the audience reaction until we had the audience reaction,” admits Gold. “This play is really a Rorschach test. And so there are some reactions that are consistent every night, and there’s some that are wild. Sometimes the audience fights with each other about the reactions that they’re having, and it’s kind of fantastic.” But the actress insists that the company isn’t playing any moment for laughs. “Just play the truth” is their dogma, according to Gold, “the laughter is part of the uncomfortability.”
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