Appropriate’s Ella Beatty Feels the Impact of Family Legacy Both On and Off Stage

On March 25, Ella Beatty joined the Broadway cast of Appropriate—Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ dark comedy about a dead patriarch’s messy family legacy. Her character isn’t a member of the central Lafayette family per se. Rather, she plays River, the too-young fiancée to Franz Lafayette (played by Michael Esper) with an earnest belief in the power of sage and a bad habit of accidental cultural appropriation (River, as you may have guessed, is not her given name).

Beatty, a 2022 Julliard graduate, had only just come on the scene as the young and impressionable Kate Harrington in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans when she was announced to be taking over the role Elle Fanning originated on Broadway. Appropriate opened in December 2023 at the Hayes Theater, but its success, which has now turned into eight Tony nominations, extended its life with a second stint at the much larger Belasco. When Fanning wasn’t able to continue with the show for its second leg, Beatty threw her hat in the ring, landing her Broadway debut at just 23. Of course, if your father makes his Broadway debut at 22, you’re bound to adjust your own bar.

If the last name didn’t already give it away, Ella is the youngest daughter of Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-nominated actress Annette Bening and Oscar-winning actor and director Warren Beatty. Warren took on his one and only Broadway role in a 1959 production of William Inge’s A Loss of Roses, which played a total of 25 performances—so Ella might not have beaten him to the stage but she has him on the performance tally as she starts month two of a three-month engagement.

“I am who I am,” Ella told Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek in an interview for The Broadway Show. “There's definitely a privilege that comes from having really well-known actors as parents, and I totally acknowledge that. I don't think that detracts from what I hopefully have to offer.”

If anything, it gave her built-in creative inspiration. “My first memories are my mom and The Cherry Orchard in L.A.,” Ella said, referencing the 2006 production of the Chekhov classic Bening did at the Mark Taper Forum alongside Broadway’s current Uncle Vanya star Alfred Molina and her own Appropriate castmate, Sarah Paulson. Even as a five-year-old, she was in awe. “Incredible,” she said, describing what it’s like to watch her mother on stage. “I feel the same way everyone else does. I feel that she's the most incredible actress in the entire world. She's why I'm who I am.”

As for her father, “His life is so interesting and he has so many pockets of wisdom and gems to share.” His film canon is also its own master class. “I'm watching more now than I ever have,” said Ella. “I saw Reds for the first time a couple of years ago and it changed my life. What a cinematic masterpiece.” She lovingly added, “My dad is devastated every time I tell him I haven't seen a movie of his, so I definitely have more to go.”

As Jacobs-Jenkins’ murky, hilarious and sneakily devastating play teaches us, history can’t help but seep through the branches of a family—but each generation claims its contributions to the world (or lack thereof) all the same. Ella’s River is her own, and in all the character’s cringeworthy 20-something naivete, she’s being handled with care. “I love her,” Ella said of River with the utmost sincerity. “I just felt very instinctually like I understood her. I feel like she's a girl I know from Venice Beach. I think she's a really good person who wants to be a part of a positive change in this family.”

Yet, like the rest of the extended Lafayette clan, each individual can’t help but be part of the problem, a festering wound fed by generations of either apathy or misguided righteousness. It all adds to the soup of ethical riddles Jacobs-Jenkins’ play presents to his audiences—and, looking ahead to life after Appropriate, Ella just wants more of that. "I hope that my career can be filled with meaningful work, whether that's on stage, or screen or film,” she said. “Work that is challenging for me and also challenging for the audience. I hope I can continue to make other people feel things.”