Matilda Star Bertie Carvel Comes Down From a Mountain to Get News of His Tony Nod

Bertie Carvel

Nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Matilda

"I dragged myself out of bed 10 minutes before 8AM, which is an ungodly time to expect anybody to look gracious. I’m out of town—I’m in the mountains with no signal on my phone—so I drove down to the public library to get online. I stood on one leg at the end of the pier to get a phone signal to find out the happy news. It’s all really amazing, but we’re rewarded every night by the audience. These things are kind of like cherries on top of a huge chocolate cake. It’s amazing to be recognized like this, but the thing is to remain focused on getting the response from the audiences, because that’s what counts. The phone’s been ringing off the hook, and so I haven’t had a chance to call my mum and dad, who will be the first people I will call as soon as all of this business is out of the way. We’ve got to go and do a show, and make sure it’s better than any of the ones that came before. I probably sound like I’m downplaying it all, but it goes without saying how thrilling it is. To make your Broadway debut and get nominated for a Tony—amazing! You can’t rest on your laurels until the final performance, and then once you’ve signed off, you can kind of think, ‘Yeah, I did that well, and I did it well time and time again.’ I’m just going to try and keep focused on the job at hand, but I’m sure there will be a bit of celebrating here and there!"

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