Exclusive! Aaron Tveit on Two New Movie Roles and How Big Fish Buddy Norbert Leo Butz Made Him Cry

Les Miserables movie fave Aaron Tveit experienced a Broadway flashback when he picked up his tickets for opening night of the new musical Big Fish at the Neil Simon Theatre on October 6.

“It felt very nostalgic to be back at the Neil Simon,” Tveit told Broadway.com at the show’s opening night bash across 52nd Street at Roseland. The rising star previously appeared onstage at the theater when he made his Broadway debut as Link Larkin in Hairspray in 2006 and later headlined Catch Me If You Can in 2011 opposite the two-time Tony-winning star of Big Fish, Norbert Leo Butz.

“Norbert’s incredible,” he said. “He’s such a force of nature. Now when I watch him, I can see the little things he’s doing, and I know what it’s like to be up there with him. It’s just incredible.” Tveit admitted that he joined the legions of grown men who have cried at the sentimental show. “Oh yeah, I cried my eyes out,” he said. “It just smacks you in the face.”

As he waits for production to start up again on his recently renewed USA Network hit Graceland, Tveit is keeping busy starring in two indie movies. The recently wrapped Undrafted features Tveit in the leading role of a college baseball player who has to rethink his life after being passed over for the majors. “He thought he was getting drafted and basically doesn’t,” Tveit shared. “Now what does he do?”

Written and directed by actor Joseph Mazzello about the experiences of his own brother, Undrafted centers on a summer league baseball game in which Tveit joins other hot young actors like Chace Crawford (his Gossip Girl cohort) and Tyler Hoechlin (Teen Wolf), as the “crazy band of funny idiots” who come together on the baseball diamond. “It’s a combination of the two things I like to do,” laughed Tveit. “Play baseball and act.”

Currently filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tveit’s role in the horror indie Big Sky is more of a departure. Directed by Mexican filmmaker Jorge Michel Grau (whose We Are What We Are centered on a family of cannibals), the dark film features Tveit as an emotionally and physically scarred young man. “He dealt with some abuse when he was a kid,” Tveit revealed. “You come to find out he got hit in the head with a shovel by his mom and because of this, he has some issues. It’s definitely a part I’ve never played before. I get to really challenge myself with some physical impediments. I’m nervous about it, but in a really good way. Good nervous!”

Look for both films, along with the second season of Graceland on USA in 2014.

Relive the Butz/Tveit chemistry with these clips from the Catch Me If You Can CD signing below!