Ain't Too Proud's James Harkness on Becoming a Lord, His 'Stupid Talented' Cast & More

James Harkness is fresh off of performing at The 73rd Annual Tony Awards with his Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations cast on June 9, and it's a night he won't soon forget. "There was so much energy backstage," Harkness said to Paul Wontorek in a recent interview on Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive. "We were at the top of the show and trying to focus, so we got into a group as we always do and held hands did a quick prayer, that is what we do every night before the show. We just looked at each other and said, 'Let's do what we do.' It was exciting backstage."

Bringing Paul Williams' story to life eight times a week is no easy feat, and for Harkness it was all about finding the human behind the fame. "The thing that got me the most was finding out that he had sickle-cell anemia," Harkness said. "He did have a drinking problem [which] stemmed as the group got more and more popular. He started breaking down because success was not always the best thing. One of the ways that he escaped from it was through drinking, but the other reason that he was drinking was to numb the pain of sickle-cell anemia. There are many people out there who have that disease and it's debilitating, especially back then when doctors didn't know as much as they know now. One of the easiest ways to get away from pains is to use substances, and for him his choice was alcohol."

When the Texas native first began channeling his inner-Williams, he turned to videos to find what he could of The Temptations singer's iconic songs and moves. "I decided to look The Temptations on YouTube and up pops this video of Paul Williams singing 'For Once in My Life.'" he said. "Within the first 30 seconds I was like, 'I can't do this.' Not that I couldn't sing the song, but watching this man sing the song at a time in his life where he wasn't on top of the world, and hearing the pain in his voice and seeing it in his eyes and on his face and in his body. I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to do this song any justice, am I going to be able to live up to this?' It was a lot of work, but I'm grateful for it because every time I go into a project I always hope and pray that I come out of the project better than I was before. And with this show, I definitely have."

Harkness appears alongside 2019 Tony nominees Derrick Baskin, Ephraim Sykes and Jeremy Pope and Jawan M. Jackson in the bio-musical, and he attributes them for making the show such a success. "I can definitely say that working with everyone, and by everyone I mean every single person in this cast and on our creative team, they make me better," he said. "Our cast is stupid talented. Every single person is crazy talented and I've learned something from every single one of them."

On social media, Hakness goes by "Lord Harkness," so we couldn't resist asking how was given such a royal nickname. "It was actually given to me while I was doing Aida, my first Broadway show," he said. "It was given to me by Asmeret Ghebremichael, and Nina Lafarga also had a hand in. I wasn't really sure how I felt about being called Lord Harkness. I was like, 'What does that mean? What are you trying to say about me?' Then I realized it was all in love. Once I embraced it, it's become what people call me. I love it."

Be sure to catch Harkness in Ain't Too Proud, now playing at the Imperial Theatre.

Watch the full #LiveAtFive interview below!